An Overview of Organization Development in the Schools / John L. Hayman, Jr.

Schools face frightening challenges in the decades ahead, and a fundamental question of education is how they will cope. Organization Development (OD), a process designed to help organizations meet the challenges of pervasive change, appears capable of helping in this situation. There have been several OD applications in schools, but no definitive conclusions can be reached. Little hard data on the effects of these trials exist. Also, "experts" disagree as to whether the emphasis should be on process, the way an organization generally faces its problems, or on content, the way it operates to achieve particular outcomes. The author argues that certain conditions are necessary for OD to succeed in schools. Both process and content approaches should be applied within a general system theory orientation. More stress should be placed on obtaining adequate outside information. Special characteristics of the schools, such as goal ambiguity, low interdependence, and low technological investment, must be considered. There must be ways to use OD tools and techniques without total commitment to the method. The fad image must be removed from OD, and hard data on results must be produced. (Author)

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