Organizational Development Essentials You Always Wanted To Know

1. Introduction to an Organization and Organizational Development

1.1 An Organization

1.2 The World Today

1.3 What is Organizational Development?

1.4 Characteristics of Organizational Development

1.5 Assumptions made in Organizational Development

1.6 Core Values of OD

1.7 What OD is not

Quiz

Chapter Summary

2. The Relevance of Organizational Development

2.1 Goals of Organizational Development

2.2 From Reacting to Change to Planned Change

Quiz

Chapter Summary

3. Evolution and Growth of Organizational Development

3.1 Pioneers of OD

3.2 Streams of Evolution

3.3 Models of planned Organizational Change

Quiz

Chapter Summary

4. Entry

4.1 Initiating the Process of Planned Change

4.2 OD Practitioners

4.3 Developing the OD Proposal

4.4 A Sample OD Proposal

Quiz

Chapter Summary

5. Diagnosis

5.1 The Process of Diagnosis

5.2 Diagnosis of Organizational Systems

5.3 Identifying Relevant Variables

5.4 Data Collection

5.5 Data Analysis – Quantitative Techniques

5.6 Data Analysis – Qualitative Techniques

Quiz

Chapter Summary

6. Implementation (Action Plan)

6.1 Overview of Interventions

6.2 Types of Interventions

6.3 Leading the Change

Quiz

Chapter Summary

7. Evaluation

7.1 What is Evaluation?

7.2 Types of Evaluation of OD interventions

7.3 Measurement

7.4 Other Things Remaining the Same

7.5 Characteristics of good measures

Quiz

Chapter Summary

8. Institutionalization

8.1 Institutionalization and the Need for It

8.2 Challenges with Institutionalization

8.3 Institutionalization-friendly Characteristics

8.4 Institutionalization Processes

8.5 Measuring the Level of Institutionalization

Quiz

Chapter Summary

9. The Making of an OD Practitioner

9.1 The OD Practitioner

9.2 Competencies

9.3 Core Skills and Knowledge

9.4 Expectations of an OD Practitioner

9.5 Ethical Issues that Confront Practitioners

Quiz

Chapter Summary

Ankur Mithal is a business professional with over 15 years of industry experience. He launched workreadyknowledge.com, an E-learning venture, and vdohire.com, a Digital hiring venture.

Vibrant Publishers is focused on presenting the best texts for learning about technology and business as well as books for test preparation. Categories include programming, operating systems and other texts focused on IT. In addition, a series of books helps professionals in their own disciplines learn the business skills needed in their professional growth.

Vibrant Publishers has a standardized test preparation series covering the GMAT, GRE and SAT, providing ample study and practice material in a simple and well organized format, helping students get closer to their dream universities.

The Self-Learning Management Series is designed to help students, new managers, career switchers, and entrepreneurs learn essential management lessons and covers every aspect of business, from HR to Finance to Marketing to Operations across any and every industry. Each book includes basic fundamentals, important concepts, and standard and well-known principles as well as practical ways of application of the subject matter.

As an MBA professor that teaches courses on Organizational Change Management, I found this book to be particularly interesting and resourceful. Not only was the content concise and clear, it was perfectly detailed and thorough enough to compliment any undergraduate or graduate course in organizational change management strategy or just general business management. It’s also the perfect resource for a professional newly appointed to management positions―regardless of the job level or corporate size. It provides specific action items on how to approach change, the very steps that I teach in my courses. Very impressed with this book and I will be recommending it to my graduate students.
-- Shelly Nice, Adjunct Professor, Southern New Hampshire University

This book uses a general model of planned change like the Quality management framework: Entry, Diagnosis, Implementation, Evaluation, and Institutionalization. The model allows the reader to understand each phase of the OD process. The language of the book is easy to understand and it includes summaries and quizzes at the end of each chapter. It also includes a useful OD proposal in section 4.4. This book is useful for undergraduate and graduate students and can be used in Organizational Development and Organizational Behavior courses.
-- Rodolfo Biasca, Professor of Economics Purdue University Global

The book is well structured and written in a style that is easy to read and comprehend. In the first three chapters, the book traces the beginning and evolution of OD, it’s relevance, challenges, and excitement experienced by an OD practitioner, how it differs from Change Management and other seemingly related fields. The next five chapters provide an overview of a typical OD intervention. The final chapter is from the practitioner's perspective, covering the essential knowledge, skills, and ethics that an OD practitioner must possess and practice. The book will benefit young aspirants wanting to build a career in OD. It provides useful perspectives to trainers and early stage consultants who wish to explore OD as a field of practice. It will also serve as an informative source for non OD professionals supporting OD interventions. The essential message of the book is that organizations should not react to change but embrace, engage and manage it.
-- Umesh Dhand, Faculty, SPJIMR

Organizational Development Essentials You Always Wanted to Know is a fantastic supplemental book for MBA students and a desk reference for mid-level managers. Author Ankur Mithal exquisitely lays the foundation of how Organizational Development (OD) is the essence of building capacity to change and is a strategic imperative for the leadership team of an organization. This book examines how Organizational Development is an executed plan change program intended to create fundamental changes in the organization by applying behavioral science principles, methods, and theories to create and cope with change.
-- Denean Robinson, Ed. D
Adjunct Professor of Business Management and Workforce Continuing Education Instructor at Prince George's Community College
Rockville, Maryland, United States

The book was easily understandable and is applicable to all levels of crowd. The quiz given at the end of each topic is much appreciated. It is indeed a good idea for better understanding and review for the learners. The book can be recommended to students, entrepreneurs and also to people who do distance-learning.
-- Dr. K. R. Kolammal, Assistant Professor, MOP Vaishnav College of women

This book is a comprehensive guide for all HR professionals and those aspiring to join the HR profession. The nine chapters of the book include organizational examples that illuminate the readers with corporate insights and have interesting quizzes at the end of each chapter. The book is also recommended for OD consultants who aim to guide the honchos.
-- Ms. Jyoti Kukreja
Assistant Professor,
Jagannath International Management School,
Kalkaji, New Delhi

Organizational Development Essentials is well written with ample illustrations. The scientific and structured approach and the simple and expressive language make this book a good read for beginners as well as experts.
-- Prof. Abhijit Khurape
Management Faculty
AISSMS Institute of Management, Pune

Organizational Development Essentials You Always Wanted To Know covers all the essential aspects that a learner must know about organizational development. The conceptualization is apt and relevant to the requirements of the current generation. The content provides a broader perspective of organizational development to the student community and intriguing insights to learners from the industry.
-- P.Reshma
Assistant Professor ((HR &OB)
Department of Management Studies
The American College

The book gives a very comprehensive and effective understanding of the concepts and
interventions of Organizational Development (OD). The author`s lucid writing style will keep the
readers interested. It can truly be called a book for practitioners as well as HR Professionals
entering in this area. In the VUCA world of today, where “Change is the only constant”
and the organizations need to adapt to the change, this book in its simplistic style is the
need of the hour.
-- Dr. Neera Singh
Associate Professor
Shanti Business School ,Ahmedabad

The book is both educational and interesting and the content is reader-friendly. The author manages to turn a rarely understood management task into a clear and exciting field. Current examples (i.e. the Ship Evergreen getting stuck in the Suez Canal and blocking traffic) further illustrate each chapter. Modern principles of management, such as the rewards of treating people with respect and creating autonomy and purpose are used throughout, making the text a useful tool for the new generation of employees.

“What OD is not” is didactic and puts the focus on what it really is. The Sample OD Proposal is a brilliant and clear example of applied tools for readers/students. The quizzes with answers help to reinforce the learnings.
-- Fernando Pargas

This book is part of the well-curated Self-Learning Management series where readers benefit from learning about crucial topics in business that are applicable today and in the future.
-- Michelle Bartonico

Organizational Development Essentials You Always Wanted To Know is a comprehensive book written in a crisp language and covers the essentials of the subject. This book is ideally suited as a reference text book for management students at the undergraduate level. The short cases as part of each chapter to elaborate on concepts makes learning easy and effective. The quiz provided at the end of each chapter is a good tool to check the understanding level of the readers. Overall, the book is good for beginners who wish to understand the basic concepts of Organizational Development.
-- Vidhya Thakkar
ASST.PROFESSOR
Somaiya Vidyavihar University

Herewith I'm sharing my comments about the book titled " Organizational Development Essentials "
"Organizational Development Essentials is a well-written book with plenty of illustrations. Regardless of one's knowledge level, everyone can understand it. It is very helpful to have a quiz at the end of each topic. The idea is indeed a good one for students to understand and review. Beginners and experts will enjoy this book because of its scientific and structured approach and simple and expressive language."
-- Dr. Vidhya K.,
LEAD College of Management,
Dhoni, Palakkad, Kerala, India – 678009.
Approved by AICTE, Affiliated to University of Calicut, NBA accredited

Online Resources

Instructor Resources