HO'OPONOPONO: A CROSS CULTURAL MODEL FOR ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE

Abstract

Is organization development (OD) culture‐bound to American and Western applied behavioral science or exportable? There is evidence that one concept and set of techniques (called ho'oponopono), which were developed in ancient Hawaii but are still practiced today, have close parallels to OD techniques in conflict management used by pace‐setting American corporations. Ho'oponopono is apparently culturally transferable. Thus OD has been uniquely addressed in a culture far removed from urban‐industrial America and is, with minor adaptations, applicable to contemporary corporations. Perhaps OD‐and certainly at least the ho'oponopono methodology for conflict management—can be made culturally fungible. The paper concludes with an explanation of how this transferability can be made in ho'oponopono.

Citation

Patten, T.H. (1994), "HO'OPONOPONO: A CROSS CULTURAL MODEL FOR ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE", The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 252-263. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb028811