About Organisational Development
About OD:
Organisational Development is a relatively new discipline that contains elements of Staff Development, Strategic Human Resource Management and Change Management. At its core, it contributes to the sustained health and effectiveness of the organisation. The CIPD 2010 definition of Organisational Development contains these key elements:
A 2007 study by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education found that approximately 85% of Universities were involved in OD activities.
In essence, what Universities are doing with OD can boil down to three main categories:
- the focus their OD interventions is taking;
- how OD builds engagement across the Organisation,
- and the tools used to make these interventions:
Focus:
- Improving leadership and management across the University
- Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the University's administrative and management processes
- Changing the Institutional Culture
- Improving the University’s research performance
- Improving the student experience
- Improving provision of learning and teaching
- Increasing the competitiveness of the University
The breadth of this focus shows that OD cannot be implemented by a single individual or team; it requires a lot of collaborative working across many teams in Schools and Units.
How OD can build Engagement:
- Consultation and discussion with managers at regular meetings
- Student surveys
- Staff surveys
- Drop in consultation days
- Focus groups
- Formal reporting mechanisms to share outcomes of training
- Peer problem solving
- Personal development plans for senior managers
- Staff road shows presented by the Principal
- Systematic development programmes
- World café events
Tools an Organisational Developer may use:
- Action Learning
- 360 Feedback
- Q6
- Coaching
- Development frameworks
- e-learning
- Job evaluation
- Mentoring
- Shadowing
- Reward strategy
Here in St Andrews, OD initiatives are currently focused on staff engagement and wellbeing. A small working group comprising representatives from CAPOD, Human Resources, Occupational Health, Department of Sports and Exercise and the Trades Union are working on a range of projects and initiatives; everything from staff exercise classes to induction provision to stress reduction initiatives to mentoring to management development and more.
Some of the projects have a high visibility to staff and students, and others less so. Some of the groups’ work that you may have seen or taken part in includes:
- A free workout with workmates programme of staff exercise classes running over summer.
- Establishing a walking with workmates group that meets weekly.
- Mentoring schemes for all staff.
- Improved online induction resources for new staff, and revised induction events.
- Partnering with the Speakers for Schools programme.
- Helping to coordinate Mental Wealth week.
- Improved counselling provision for staff.
- A physiotherapy service for staff.
- Development programmes for groups of staff and students, including managers.
- Creation of policies for career breaks and staff study provision
- Establishing a community section on the University web site.
