Module 1 – SLP
Action Research and Organizational Development
For the Session Long Project in this class, you will be applying the principles of organizational development to an organization you currently work for or have worked for in the past. For this first SLP, think carefully about the background readings and how they might apply to a specific organizational situation or problem that you have experienced firsthand. Then write a 2- to 3-page paper answering the following questions:
1. What do you think the biggest problem your current organization or one of the previous organizations you worked for faces? Why do you think management has had difficulty with this problem?
2. Do you think this problem could be mitigated by hiring an organizational development consultant based on what you’ve read in the background materials? Why or why not? Make sure to cite some of the readings in your answer.
3. Of the action research and organizational development steps listed in the required readings, which ones do you think would be the more challenging steps that an organizational development consultant would face coming into your organization? Explain your reasoning and cite at least one of the required background readings.
SLP Assignment Expectations
· Answer the assignment questions directly.
· Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
· Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your references. Articles published in established newspapers or business journals/magazines are preferred. If you use articles from the Internet, make sure they are from credible sources.
· Citation and reference style instructions are available at Trident University’s Introduction to APA .
· Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under My Resources in the TLC portal.
Module 1 – Background
ACTION RESEARCH AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Required Reading
For a good overview of the foundational concepts of organizational development, read the following introductory book chapter. Pay special attention to the seven steps of action research, which will be a major emphasis for the Case Assignment:
Lurey, J. & Griffin, M. (2013). Section 2: Chapter 4: Action research: The anchor of OD practice. In Vogelsang, J. (ed). Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in Organization Development from the OD Network. Saranac Lake, NY, USA: AMACOM Books, pp. 46-52. [EBSCO eBook Business Collection. Note: when looking up a book in the EBSCO book collections do not copy and paste the entire reference into the search engine. Only enter in the title of the book. If you do a search on “Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in Organization Development from the OD Network.” this book will come up.
Now read up in more detail on action research with the following chapter. This chapter has more detail about the main steps of action research such as entry, contracting, etc. Note the names of the steps are a little different than the previous book chapter such as “action planning” instead of “planning change” or “research” instead of “data gathering and diagnosis”. But it is the same basic step-by-step approach:
Haneberg, L. (2005). Chapter 3: The action research approach to change. Organization Development Basics. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training & Development. [EBSCO eBook Business Collection]
Finally, review this more detailed chapter. Pay special attention to the section on action research as applied to organizational development which starts on page 20:
McLean, G. N. (2006). Chapter 1: What is organization development? Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. [EBSCO eBook Business Collection.’