Module 1 - SLPAction Research and Organizational Development

For the Session Long Project in this class, you will be applying the principles of organizational development to an organization you currently work for or have worked for in the past. For this first SLP, think carefully about the background readings and how they might apply to a specific organizational situation or problem that you have experienced firsthand. Then write a 2- to 3-page paper answering the following questions:

1. What do you think the biggest problem your current organization or one of the previous organizations you worked for faces? Why do you think management has had difficulty with this problem?
2. Do you think this problem could be mitigated by hiring an organizational development consultant based on what youve read in the background materials? Why or why not? Make sure to cite some of the readings in your answer.
3. Of the action research and organizational development steps listed in the required readings, which ones do you think would be the more challenging steps that an organizational development consultant would face coming into your organization? Explain your reasoning and cite at least one of the required background readings.

SLP Assignment Expectations

• Answer the assignment questions directly.
• Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; dont go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
• Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your references. Articles published in established newspapers or business journals/magazines are preferred. If you use articles from the Internet, make sure they are from credible sources.
• Reference your sources of information with both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and 14 on in-text citations. Another resource is the Writing Style Guide, which is found under My Resources in the TLC portal.

Module 1 - BackgroundAction Research and Organizational DevelopmentRequired Reading

The foundation of organizational development is a process/technique called action research. It is important to start off this class with some overview of basic concepts of action research:

Kondalkar, V. (2009). Chapter 5: Action research and organization development. Organization Development. Daryaganj, Delhi, IND: New Age International. [Ebrary. Note: When looking up books in Ebrary dont copy the entire reference into the search engine. Instead, only include the name of the author and the title of the book. For example, to find this book enter the following terms into the search engine: Kondalkar Organization Development]

Lurey, J., & Griffin, M. (2012). Section 2, Chapter 4: Action research: The anchor of OD practice. Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in Organization Development from the OD Network. Saranac Lake, NY, USA: AMACOM Books, pp.46-52. [Ebrary]

Now that you have some familiarity with action research, take a look at the practical reading on organizational development consulting, which follows many of main concepts of action research: Gallent, S., & Rios, D. (2014). Chapter 8: The organization development (OD) consulting process. In Jones, B. B., & Brazzel, M. (eds). NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change: Principles, Practices, and Perspectives (2nd Edition). Somerset, NJ, USA [Ebrary]

Optional Reading

Kiel, D. (2014) Action research in organization development. In Jones, B. B., & Brazzel, M. (eds). NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change: Principles, Practices, and Perspectives (2nd Edition). Somerset, NJ, USA [Ebrary]

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