TY  - JOUR
AB  - My previous article looked at what managers need to know and how they can best be developed: the purpose of this article is to look at how organisations as a whole can be trained and developed. The concept of organisation development has been getting wide attention recently; it has been defined as a planned change of the total system, managed from the top, to increase organisation effectiveness. Most of the literature to date has had an emphasis on the work of behavioural scientists, because they are particularly concerned with group workings, team building, and the definition and resolution of conflict. Our experience in Context Training had a different starting point, but led us to a very similar position. In seeking to develop an individual manager we frequently found it impossible to give him the chance to develop, unless we could change the circumstances in which he worked — this could mean changing his job definition, and possibly both his boss's attitude and the ground rules of the unit. Thus we soon discovered the need to start with the top management of any unit, and to work on the whole team. The concept of organisation development is not an easy one to explain, so this article will give four disguised case histories, and describe the difficulties encountered and successes achieved. The problems which emerge and the methods of tackling them vary widely, but there are these common factors: • An external catalyst was used • The whole unit was developed, although training was individually designed for each manager • The chief executive of the unit was personally involved • Contact was maintained over at least a year
VL  - 3
IS  - 1
SN  - 0019-7858
DO  - 10.1108/eb003115
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/eb003115
AU  - HAGUE HRP
PY  - 1971
Y1  - 1971/01/01
TI  - The external catalyst in management training
T2  - Industrial and Commercial Training
PB  - MCB UP Ltd
SP  - 9
EP  - 14
Y2  - 2024/05/08
ER  -