Who am I?: an introduction to self development in organisations’

This paper introduces four basic theories that may serve as building blocks for explaining processes of change in organizations: life cycle, teleology, dialectics, and evolution. These four theories represent different sequences of change events that are driven by different conceptual motors and operate at different organizational levels. This paper identifies the circumstances when each theory applies and proposes how interplays between the theories produce a wide variety of more complex theories of change and development in organizational life.

In the paper, the idea is explored of organisational learning as the opening and closure of organisational space for inquiry or reflective thinking, as a way to construct organisational learning as an object for research. This is done by asking the question of whether an organisational development project contributes to organisational learning. The point of departure is a municipality in Denmark working toward digitalising its administration. The conclusion is that the success of such a process very much depends on an organisation's ability to encompass several understandings of organisational development and digital administration and to sustain them in a productive form of tension instead of pursuing only one of them. Introduction Can a project aimed at organisational development contribute to organisational learning? This is the key question behind the author's research project on an organisational development project in the municipality of Middletown (a fictitious name f...

The approach to development management is likely to differ dramatically depending on the belief one has as to the nature of the practice of management. The perspective of management as an art assumes to some extent that a manager has a disposition or experiences that guide him or her in managerial decisions and activities. Thus, with this perspective, many managers may be successful without any formal education or training in management. The perspective of management as a science, however, would indicate that management skills can be taught through an understanding of theory and principles of management (Jones, 2006). Webster's College Dictionary defines an art as "skill in conducting any human activity" and science as "any skill or technique that reflects a precise application of facts or a principle." From these definitions, management as a science would indicate that in practice, managers use a specific body of information and facts to guide their behaviour, but that management as an art requires no specific body of knowledge, only skill. While formal management education may promote management as a science, many development efforts support the notion of management as an art than a science. As long ago as 1978 Miles and Snow typology suggested that the strategy of an organisation tended to reflect the dominant managerial ideology or culture. Their finding, that organisational strategy may be as much (or more) influenced by internal factors as the nature of the environment, has fed interest in organisational culture per se.

2015

If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the best of us walk about well-wadded with stupidity.

Organisation Development (OD) is a well-established soft methodology used extensively to engineer cultural change in organisations. However, there are arguments that it is not capable of dealing with complex situations. However, it can be transformed to enable it to do this by setting into a framework defined by Viable Systems Theory (VST), itself a conceptual development of the managerial cybernetic theory that underlies the Viable Systems Model (VSM). Indeed, the relationship between traditional OD and the new form of OD is that they each belong to distinct paradigms. Indeed, paradigms metamorphose when they develop a new frame of reference, and this will be illustrated. The outcome for the new development for OD is that it will include cybernetic aspects that can improve the way that organisations can be diagnosed in the complex change situations that must be managed.

349 John Donne stated that 'No man is an island' and this becomes abundantly clear when managers are placed in positions of public accountability and service delivery. A public organisation will only be as strong as its weakest manager and this assumption places additional pressure on the competency and performance of public managers. During times of change the public manager will be required to act as a competent, effective and efficient resource to the department and this is the reason why the South African government has placed such an emphasis on public human resource development. Human resource development is an important aspect contributing to a country's growth potential and in a world marked by globalisation, international competence is essential. In order to ensure the constant supply of qualified and experienced individuals with leadership and management skills, organisations design their own development interventions to suit their needs.

This article introduces four basic theories that may serve as building blocks for explaining processes of change in organizations: life cycle, teleology, dialectics, and evolution. These four theories represent different sequences of change events that are driven by different conceptual motors and operate at different organizational levels. This article identifies the circumstances when each theory applies and proposes how interplay among the theories produces a wide variety of more complex theories of change and development in organizational life. Explaining how and why organizations change has been a central and enduring quest of scholars in management and many other disciplines. The processes or sequences of events that unfold in these changes-such as transitions in individuals' jobs and careers, group formation and development, and organizational innovation, growth, reorganization , and decline-have been very difficult to explain, let alone manage. To understand how organizations change, management scholars have borrowed many concepts, metaphors, and theories from other disciplines , ranging from child development to evolutionary biology. These concepts include punctuated equilibrium, stages of growth, processes of decay and death, population ecology, functional models of change and development, and chaos theory. This variation has created a theoretical pluralism that has uncovered novel ways to explain some organizational change and developmental processes. However, the diversity of theories and concepts borrowed from different disciplines often encourages com-partmentalization of perspectives that do not enrich each other and produce isolated lines of research (Gioia & Pitre, 1990). As Poggie (1965: 284) said, "A way of seeing is a way of not seeing." It is the interplay between different perspectives that helps one gain

Development from Within, 2008

“Development from Within” is a process combining inner and outer transformation for sustainable and holistic development. The process was learnt and refined through more than three decades of direct engagement with disadvantaged people’s groups and training the representatives of multiple stakeholders like banks, government and non government institutions together with international scholars and students of development and social change. The process involves A. Reflection and Action for self and community awakening, for a new evolved consciousness among citizens, useful for purposive and joyful living, social justice, environmental sustainability and harmony in relationships; B. Understanding and practice of “The Art of Facilitation” for empowerment of disadvantaged or marginalized groups of people.