Summary
Although the length of this chapter may not deliver the “brief " history of its
title, the coverage provided is only the tip of the iceberg. A full chapter could
easily be devoted to each of the 10 forerunners that were summarized. For the
purpose of this book, the coverage provided should suffice. It is important to
remember the following 10 points:
1. Scientific management set the stage for a systematic approach to organization
change; prior to Taylor, such rigor had not existed.
2. The Hawthorne studies demonstrated the importance of the human dimension of organization change and contributed significantly to the future of
applied behavioral science.
3. Industrial psychology, with the fuller integration of the individual and the
organization, has provided, and continues to provide today, the research and
theory required for the growth and development of our understanding of
organization change.
4. Survey feedback may not be the most important tool for diagnosing and
implementing organization change, but it is certainly in the top tray of our
tool kit.
5. Even though controversial to this day and not used as prevalently as it was in
the 1960s, sensitivity training has provided an unsurpassed mode for learning
about group dynamics, interpersonal behavior, and oneself.
6. Sociotechnical systems furnished what seems today the obvious and yet overlooked critical nature of the interdependence of people and the organizational tools with which they work.
7. Organization development (OD) has given us a systematic approach to organization change with its emphasis on the total system, clear steps and phases
of organization change, and an underlying set of humanistic values to guide
the entire process.