Reasserting the Radical Potential of OD: Notes Towards the Establishment of a New Basis for OD Practice

This article examines the recent decline in Organisation Development (OD) in the UK. Its aim is to offer a modest contribution to the now urgent task of rehabilitating OD as a coherent and credible strategy for social change. My basic contention is that such a programme for the renewal of contemporary practice must rest on systematic and determined efforts to reassert the radical potential which I believe lies at the heart of the OD enterprise. By recovering and reaffirming a commitment to its original humanistic ideals, OD may avoid obsolescence and retain professional viability. In short, to survive, OD must rededicate itself as a radical agency for organisational renewal.