ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN A SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Ever since the classic Hawthorne Experiments focused attention on the problem of organisational development, a great deal of theoretical and practical work has been done on the most effective way of obtaining a high level of commitment to and identification with the organisation in which a person works. Many solutions have been tried, ranging from the “human relations fad” through job rotation, job enlargement/enrichment, democratic/participative leadership, to work structuring and similar group concepts. Each has made a contribution to the understanding of organisational behaviour and a practical application of this understanding, probably none more so than those using the working group as the vehicle. Most attempts have been made at shop floor level and with some success. However, what began with unskilled workers in a Phillips factory, can be applied equally well elsewhere. This article sets out to show how the underlying concepts of work structuring have applied in building up an organisational system in a Polytechnic School of Management Studies. These underlying concepts come from many directions: from Likert's work on organisation group structures, from the work of various people associated with the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and the idea of socio‐technical systems and homogenous working groups, from the writings of people like Adair, Maslow, Hertzberg and many others. Although the example we use may seem an unlikely one, we hope to show that the synthesis taking place in organisation theory can be applied in various types of organisations and at any level.