Organization Development
Central themes
- Emphasis on general manager, not HR specialist
- HR as source of strategic advantage
- “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts”
- People are an investment
- Incentives underpin managerial behaviour
The five factors
- External environment: social, political, legal, and economic
- Workforce: demographics, skill
- Organization’s culture
- Organization’s strategy
- Technology of production and organization of work
Legal environment
- Pay
- Hiring
- Employee voice
- Firing
- International differences: US vs. Europe vs. rest of world
Economic environment
- Globalization
- Increased competition
- Workers more educated
- Rising pay differences by skill
- Narrowing gender gap
- No apparent change in mobility
Workforce: more women
| Year | Participation rate | % of labour force |
| 1950 | 34 | 29 |
| 1960 | 36 | 33 |
| 1970 | 45 | 38 |
| 1980 | 65 | 42 |
| 1990 | 74 | 45 |
Top 10 Sources of Immigrants
1905 1991
- Austria-Hungary
- Italy
- Russia
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- Sweden
- Norway
- Japan
- France
- Portugal
- Mexico
- Philippines
- Former USSR
- Haiti
- El Salvador
- India
- Dominican Republic
- Jamaica
- China
- South Korea
Culture
- Creativity vs. conformity
- Flat vs. hierarchy
- Co-operation vs. competition
- Family vs. contract labour
Strategy
- Source of competitive advantage
- Quality and service
- Cost
- Innovation
- Ability to maintain advantage
- Size objective
Changes in jobs
- Greater use of computers
- More work in R&D settings
- More teams
- TQM
- Smart skills for what used to be manual jobs
Key technological factors
- Training
- Effort-results correlation
- Interdependence of workers
- Distribution of outcomes: Stars, Guardians and Foot-soldiers
Anatomy of an HR system
- Recruiting
- Selection
- Promotion
- Training
- Job design
- Performance evaluation
- Temporary help
- Job security
- Base pay: level and adjustments
- Incentive pay
- Benefits
- Grievances
- Info sharing
- Union