There are a huge number of individuals and firms who are out there selling their organizational development services. Take a look at videos and/or webpages of OD consultants and find a company or individual that really stands out in a good or bad way. Share the link to the video or webpage, and explain what made this particular consultant or consulting firm stand out to you. Also, discuss whether or not the material presented in the video or webpage seems to be consistent with what you read about in the background readings. For example, does this consultant seem to practice a form of action research or do they do something entirely different?
One consultant whose videos or webpage you may want to check out is Dr. Jeremy Lurey, as he is the author of one of your readings for this module and the CEO of Plus Delta Consulting.
Background material
A good place to start is this introductory video on organizational development which will help introduce you not only to this module’s topic but also the entire course:
Weiher, A. (2014). Artifact: Organization Development. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9iLMsogoR0
For more detailed reading on many of the same concepts in the video, read the following introductory book chapter. Pay special attention to the section on action research as applied to organizational development which starts on page 20:
McLean, G. N. (2006). Chapter 1: What is organization development? Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. [EBSCO eBook Business Collection. Note: when looking up a book in the EBSCO book collections do not copy and paste the entire reference into the search engine. Only enter in the title of the book. If you do a search on “Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance” this book will come up]
Now read up in more detail on action research with the following two chapters:
Haneberg, L. (2005). Chapter 3: The action research approach to change. Organization Development Basics. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training & Development. [EBSCO eBook Business Collection]
Lurey, J. & Griffin, M. (2013). Section 2: Chapter 4: Action research: The anchor of OD practice. In Vogelsang, J. (ed). Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in Organization Development from the OD Network. Saranac Lake, NY, USA: AMACOM Books, pp. 46-52. [EBSCO eBook Business Collection]
