Future Direction in Organization Development Essay

The field of OD is evolving, barely so too is the context within which OD is applied. As summarized in figure 25-2. Several interrelated social movements are affecting the context within which OD de berth be applied in the near prox. They annoying various aspects of the preservation, the workforce, engineering, and organizations. In some cases, the trends will directly affert OD practice. engineering trends, such as Internet portals, voice over the internet, and wireless network, will no doubt influence how OD practiti geniusrs communicate with organization members, promote teams, and man be on change.Other trends, such as the increasing concentration of wealth, map important contextual forces that will indirectly affect OD finished their interactions with other trends. The Economy Researchers and futurist have described a phase of economic scenarios, and there is subtantial agreement that the worlds economy is in the midst of a renewal from the industrial age that charac terized much of the ordinal century.Although these scenarios ditier in their particulars, they all fit under the rubric of globularization, and many of the said(prenominal) trends are identified as drivers, including engine room, workforce, and organization, which will be discussed separately. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the and of apartheid, the breakup of the former Soviet Union, the creation of the European Union, terrorist attacks in many antithetic countries, and the growth of the chinese and indian economies are key flushts in the transition to a global economy.Organizations from arround the world are increasingly able to transmutation their manufacturing from high-to low- labor- cost countries. Execute inter matter mergers and acquisitions, and build worldwide go business organizationes. The emergence of global economy is wellhead under way, but the promise and systematization of that process is far from complete. The initial steps toward globalization have fur nish real price decrease in many consumers products, provided employment for bulk in less-developed nations, and driven revenue growth in a cast of industries.However , the transition to a global economy is for the most part un managed, and there is increasing concern over its social and ecological consequences. This raises trouble-some questions to the highest degree three key issues cultural diversity, income distribution, and ecological sustainability. First, transitioning to a global economy is a complex and daunting process that involves organizations, technology, people, and governments. Yhe role and function of national governments and the importance of cultural diversity in the process is not well understood.There are few generally accepted guidelines. On the one hand, some economists argue that globalization is good for countries and cultures. The cite numerous usage of how music, art, political thought, technology, and other artifacts of culture have crossed boundaries and enriched peoples experiences. Other argue that governments must face the difficult choice of preserving or sacrificing their culture. Seconds, globalization of the economy is closely related to an increasing concentration of wealth in relatively few individuals, corporations, and nations.Third, there are increasingly lightsome warnings that the ecosystem can no longer be treated as a factor of production, and that success cannot be defined as the accumulations of wealth and substantive goods at the expense of the environment. The conclusions from the intergovernmental panel on climate change signal that industrialization is not a controversial but a probable cause of global warming. Seceral traditional organizations are reserving long held opinions about their office to environmental decay by setting agressive goals to reduce greenhouse gases.The hands The workforce is becoming more diverse, educated, and contingent. Chapter 18 documented the diversity trend and suggested that organizations, whatever they operate primarily in their home country or abroad, will need to develop policies and operating styles that embrace the changing cultural, ethnic, gender, and age diversity of the workforce. Technology By almost any measure, information technology is a significant and increasingly common fact of life. An estimated 150. 9 zillion worldwide internet users in 1998 grew to 605. 6 million in 2002.In 2007, according to an internet world stats estimate, more than 1,24 billion people were on the internet, and of those, 37% were in asia. The internet is the backbone of a global economy, and although the technology sector of suffered financial setbacks, few people doubt its future importance. At the core of information technology is E-commerce, an economy that knows no boundaries. E-commerce involves using machine-driven teller machines, buying games, on your cell phone, buying ang selling products and services over the internet, and selling advertising spa ce.This range of activities makes estimating the size of the E-commerce market difficult. devil type of E-commerce seem particularly relevant to ODs future business-to-consumer and business-to-business. Business to consumer market garners much attention and awareness because it is how the public participates in E-commerce. This attention and awareness because it is how the public participates in E-commerce. This market, which includes E-tailers such us Amazon. com, eBay. com. in these businesses, OD must help to create and implement novel business models.The organisational issues in the business to business market are even more complex. A good example of the implications and potential of this market is the global automobile industrys creation of an online store. In addition to providing the cornerstone for E-commerce, technology is similarly changing and enabling a variety of organizational processes. New technologies, such as SAP or PeopleSoft, drive changes in how information a nd work information and work processes are coordinated and managed they also require modification in the way productivity is measured.