Organization Development
Today I met with my professor, like I mentioned about a month ago. We talked a bit about my ideas on corporate culture and how I like to observe the behavior and interaction of people at work. And as it turns out, there's a rather large field called "organization development", or "OD" for short, that deals with just that. My professor said that OD is broken down into a few different facets.
First, there's the clinical side of OD, which deals with a lot of one-on-one coaching with different managers and directors on how to manage their employees. Its very much like having a "work shrink" or having someone whispering in your ear.
Second, there's a training side, which does a lot of leadership and team-building workshops and classes. Though rather than working with the directors and managers, it would work directly with the employees.
Third, there's an assessment side, which uses different statistical data gathering techniques to glean some information about a certain problem within a company.
My professor said that most OD consultants work for consulting firms or are independent, and nearly all have Master's degrees. Most are women, and from a non-technical background. This ends up being an advantage for me, being both male and having a technical background. I'm more likely to be able "prove" myself to high-tech companies, because I can "speak their language."USF has a MSOD program that my professor said was pretty good, and SJSU used to have one as well, but the doctor who was heading up the program retired.
And at the suggestion of my professor, I've found the ODNetwork, an online resource for everything OD. I'll be doing a lot more research into this field, but I'm feeling very good about it so far.
So it looks like I'll probably be going back to school, I just have to figure out where, and how.
2 Comments:
"Its very much like having a "work shrink" or having someone whispering in your ear."
Sounds kinda like Will Smith in the movie 'Hitch' or that Wormtongue guy from Lord Of The Rings:
But I'm sure it's not quite like either of those.
Well, Wormtongue is posing as a court advisor. I think the clinical aspect of OD is more behind the scenes. Wormtongue was always present in the king's court, and he literally would whisper into his ear. The OD clinical consultants have sessions that I would imagine are more backstage than onstage.
I've not seen Hitch, so I dunno.
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