Question

Even among experienced HR professionals, organizational development is an ambiguous term. What is your interpretation of the term in relationship to HRM? Does it differ from that of your colleagues and/or fellow students? Please provide an explanation for your response. Support your response with APA cited reference(s)

Answer 1

Per se, organizational development is a process and a theory which helps organizations improve on a continuous basis through expanding its knowledge base and improving the effectiveness of its personnel in order to achieve its goals and objectives. Organizational development is closely related to HRM. In fact organizational development is often considered as a field of HRM. Organizational development is considered as a field of HRM due to the fact that it looks at change management within an organization from a humanistic approach. People are an integral part of organizational development process. The key approach to help improve organizations is to improve the effectiveness of its employees and increase collaboration among the employees. This is a part of HRM.

The interpretation of my colleagues is same as mine. They also believe in the above interpretation of organizational development and its relationship to HRM.

APA citation:  Foster C. Organization Development. Retrieved from http://organisationdevelopment.org/