Measuring the Effectiveness of Organizational Development in Connection to Cultural and Moral Values
The field of organizational development (OD) is versatile, covering the most current research on successful team building and cooperation techniques. Due to OD, companies can increase the efficiency of the employees and reach beneficial goals. OD enables advantageous changes in the businesses that intensify their performance. However, no OD would be completely successful without proper regard for cultural and ethical values.
Organizational culture pertains to an organization’s core values and beliefs that have existed as long as the company itself. Also, it incorporates the values of the employees and their predictions about the prospective development of a company (Tsai, 2011). The effectiveness of OD depends greatly on the moral and cultural traditions of an organization. If a company’s leader merely directs his/her leadership behavior to fulfill the goals of an organization, the effectiveness of OD will fall. It is necessary to accommodate the organizational culture not only to the company’s objectives but also to the employees’ expectations (Tsai, 2011). Otherwise, a leader will fail in arranging an advantageous OD within the team.
Organizational culture incorporates the common values of the employees working in one company. Since organizational culture is a manifestation of beliefs and norms of conduct of the company employees, it can impact the company’s success and the employees’ attitudes (Tsai, 2011). Therefore, no effective OD is possible without paying proper attention to core cultural and moral norms. Disregard of these standards may lead to conflicts within an organization. Organizational culture is closely connected with leadership behavior and job satisfaction.
OD is considered effective if all people within a company feel satisfied and secure. To achieve this aim, OD practitioners should take care of including the company’s values in their agenda. Moral values are significant as they direct the choices of an organization’s strategy, present a broader vision, identify OD among other approaches of development, and motivate negotiations and simplify the tasks. Most importantly, delineating the values helps to assess the company’s performance (Anderson, 2016). When a company has clearly defined moral and cultural values, and when these values are cherished by every member of the team, employees feel more dignified and encouraged to pay their best efforts.
The core moral and humanistic value is creating opportunities for employees within a company to feel like human beings and not like a part of a machine. Also, each member of an organization team needs to have the possibility to show his/her full potential. Another value is trying to intensify the efficiency of attaining the company’s goals. An OD practitioner should also try to provide a comfortable environment for the employees in which they would be able to demonstrate their best abilities (Anderson, 2016). These values may be difficult to realize, but the successful operation of an organization is impossible without them.
Democratic values include involvement, empowerment, and participation (Anderson, 2016). Participation allows employees to be engaged in decision-making procedures. However, it also presents some challenges as not all the employees are happy to be involved in complicated tasks. Empowerment and involvement make people feel meaningful and increase their dedication.
Organizational development is a complex structure that enables companies to achieve their goals. For the most efficient OD, its practitioners need to keep in mind the significance of moral and cultural values. Without these values, OD cannot be completely beneficial.
References
Anderson, D. L. (2016). Organization development: The process of leading organizational change (4th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
Tsai, Y. (2011). Relationship between organizational culture, leadership behavior and job satisfaction. BMC Health Services Research, 11(98), 1-11.