Organizational Development Key Terms

Key terms you will find as you learn about organizational development

Organizational development is widely practiced discipline that is concerned with improving performance within organizations. It is usually undertaken so that business processes can be analyzed and productivity can be increased. Most often, collaborative meeting are facilitated by experienced professionals, who assist the organization in examining different aspects such as processes, practices and relationships with the intention of identifying where improvements can be made. Large organizations often have departments that are dedicated to this discipline. If you are a small to medium sized businesses there are consultants that you can contract with who can help you. As you review all your options, it might be helpful to understand some of the terms you will find as you do so.

 

Strategic planning

Strategic planning refers to a process that is used by an organization to define its goals as well as to make decisions on how its resources will be allocated as it follows the plan. In the planning process some key questions are asked such as "What are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?" This is also known as SWOT analysis. Strategic planning is considered one of the major tasks undertaken during organizational development.
Try: Competitive Intelligence provides a good overview.

Program management

Program management is one aspect of organizational development that is used to manage all the interdependent projects that have been identified by an organization and that will result in improved performance.
Try: Visitask defines this term for you.

Systems thinking

Systems thinking is an approach that is used by organizational development practitioners to solve problems. As part of this framework, problems are viewed as parts of an overall system rather than occurring in isolation. It usually includes an examination of the linkages and interactions within a system.
Try: Go to TechTarget for a succinct definition.

Facilitation

Facilitation is used by organizational development specialists to run a meeting. The facilitator of the meeting usually tries to build consensus decision making to determine a common purpose, solve a problem or exchange information.
Try: Farlex has a simple definition.

Gap analysis

Gap analysis is a technique that is employed by organizational development professionals to help a team to compare actual performance with desired performance. Two questions are usually explored: "Where do we want to be?" and "Where are we?"
Try: See BusinessDictionary.com for a brief explanation.

Knowledge management

Knowledge management (KM) consists of a variety of practices used in organizations to create, distribute and enable acceptance of experiences and insights. It is a course that is often taught in the fields of management, information systems and business administration. Organizational development is a type of knowledge management in that it is concerned with helping organizations focus on objectives so that innovation, improved performance and continuous improvement can occur.
Try: Go to CIO for more information on this topic.

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