Organisation Development & Industrial Relations:A Case Study

The application of behavioural science insights to the problems of work organisations is often given the generic title of Organisation Development (abbreviated to OD). However, most accounts of OD interventions in the UK seem to describe events in the management levels of organisations (with the possible exception of job redesign exercises) and details of OD interventions in the industrial relations sphere are, at least in Britain, almost non‐existent. American accounts tend to treat management‐union relations purely as inter‐group problems and to ignore other aspects of the field. In this article an account is given of work undertaken by an internal OD unit within the UK National Health Service—in the area of joint consultation within a health authority—and some thoughts are offered on the most fruitful relationship between OD practice and the field of IR.