The Future of Organization Development: A Delphi Study Among Dutch Experts

Abstract

From this Delphi study among Dutch experts, the future of organization development (OD) emerges as a loosely coupled community of practice, linking very diverse members, professionals as well as scholars. One finds different priorities and values in this community, some of them even dilemmatic. The authors argue that diversity and complexity are strengths not weaknesses of a 'sustainable' OD. Referring to organizational concepts such as requisite variety and resilience, the authors stress that OD networks should, in the future more than in the past, make sure that a diverse set of ambitions can be discussed, promoted, fostered, accommodated and realized.

Review Article: The past, present and future of organization development: Taking the long view

“…Many commentators were asking if OD had lost its sense of direction or even still existed (Greiner and Cummings, 2004; Wirtenberg et al, 2004), and many managers considered it ‘an out-of-date fad’ (Porras and Bradford, 2004: 401). In looking back over the period, Korten et al (2010: 395) summarized the key issues and debates as:…”

Returning to Evolved Nestedness, Wellbeing, and Mature Human Nature, an Ecological Imperative

“…Another reason is that the dominant culture emphasizes economic growth over any other value. Most mainstream news sources and global agencies tell us that poverty is decreasing around the world while they cloak what this actually means—the eradication of Indigenous cultures who live outside of the monetary system, the privatization of public lands, and the extermination of biodiversity through deforestation and waterway damming—that is, decreased social and ecological wealth of the many (human and non-human) for the monetary wealth of a few (Korten, 2015; Norberg-Hodge, 2016; Perkins, 2017). Dominant news sources also fail to describe the poverty, especially among children, pervasive in the monetarily richest nation on Earth, the USA (Desmond, 2023).…”