The Evolution of OD:Laboratory Training, Likert Scale, Scoring and analysis,

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Lesson 04

The Evolution of OD

A brief history of OD will help to clarify the evolution of the term as well as some of the problems and

confusion that have surrounded it. As currently practiced, OD emerged from five major stems, as shown

below. The first was the growth of the National Training Laboratories (NTL) and the development of

training groups, otherwise known as sensitivity training or T-groups, The second stem of OD was the

classic work on action research conducted by social scientists interested in applying research to managing

change. An important feature of action research was a technique known as survey feedback. Kurt Lewin, a

prolific theorist, researcher, and practitioner in group dynamics and social change, was instrumental in the

development of T-groups, survey feedback, and action research. His work led to the creation of OD and

still serves as a major source of its concepts and methods. The third stem represents the application of

participative management to organization structure and design. The fourth stem is the approach focusing

on productivity and the quality of work life. The fifth stem of OD, and the most recent influence on

current practice, involves strategic change and organization transformation.

Figure: 03

1. Laboratory Training (The T-Group):

This stem of OD pioneered laboratory training, or the T-group a small, unstructured group in which

participants learn from their own interactions and evolving dynamics about such issues as interpersonal

relations, personal growth, leadership, and group dynamics. Essentially, laboratory training began in 1946,

when Kurt Lewin, (1898 1947, a prolific theorist, researcher, and practitioner in interpersonal, group,

intergroup, and community relationships) widely recognized as the founding father of OD, although he

died before the concept became current in the mid-1950s, and his staff at the Research Centre for Group

Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were asked by the Connecticut Interracial

Commission for help on research in training community leaders. A workshop was developed, and the

community leaders were brought together to learn about leadership and to discuss problems. At the end of

each day, the researchers discussed privately what behaviors and group dynamics they had observed. The

community leaders asked permission to sit in on these feedback sessions. Reluctant at first, the researchers

finally agreed. Thus, the first T-group was formed in which people reacted to data about their own

behavior. The researchers drew two conclusions about the first T-group experiment:

Feedback about group interaction was a rich learning experience, and

The process of "group building" had potential for learning that could be transferred to "back-home"

situations.

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As a result of this experience, the Office of Naval Research and the National Education Association

provided financial backing to form the National Training Laboratories (NTL), and Gould Academy in

Bethel, Maine, was selected as a site for further work (since the, Bethel has played an important part in

NTL). The first Basic Skill Training Groups (later called T-groups) were offered in 1947. The program was

so successful that out of Bethel experiences and NTL grew a significant number of laboratory training

centers sponsored by universities.

In the 1950s, three trends emerged:

The emergence of regional laboratories,

The expansion of year-round sessions of T-groups, and

The expansion of the T-group into business and industry, with NTL members becoming increasingly

involved with industry programs.

Over the next decade, as trainers began to work with social systems of more permanency and complexity

then T-groups, they began to experience considerable frustration in the transfer of laboratory behavioral

skills and insights of individuals into the solution of problems in organizations. Personal skills learned in

the T-group settings were very difficult to transfer to complex organizations. However, the training of

"teams" from the same organization had emerged early at Bethel and undoubtedly was a link to the total

organizational focus of Douglas McGregor, Herbert Shepard, and Robert Blake, and subsequently the

focus of Richard Beckhard, Chris Argyris, Jack Gibb, Warren Bennis, and others. All had been T-group

trainers in NTL programs.

Applying T-group techniques to organizations gradually became known as team building a process for

helping work groups become more effective in accomplishing tasks and satisfying member needs.

2. Action Research/Survey Feedback:

Kurt Lewin also was involved in the second movement that led to OD's emergence as a practical field of

social science. This second stem refers to the processes of action research and survey feedback. The action

research contribution began in the 1940s with studies conducted by social scientists John Collier, Kurt

Lewin, and William Whyte. They discovered that research needed to be closely linked to action if

organization members were to use it to manage change. A collaborative effort was initiated between

organization members and social scientists to collect research data about an organization's functioning, to

analyze it for causes of problems, and to devise and implement solutions. After implementation, further

data were collected to assess the results, and the cycle of data collection and action often continued. The

results of action research were twofold: members of organizations were able to use research on themselves

to guide action and change, and social scientists were able to study that process to derive new knowledge

that could be used elsewhere.

Among the pioneering action research studies was the work of Lewin at a Manufacturing Co. (Harwood

Manufacturing Company) and the classic research by Lester Coch and John French on overcoming

resistance to change. The latter study led to the development of participative management as a means of

getting employees involved in planning and managing change. Other notable action research contributions

included Whyte and Edith Hamilton's famous study of Chicago's Tremont Hotel and Collier's efforts to

apply action research techniques to improving race relations when he was commissioner of Indian affairs

from 1933 to 1945. These studies did much to establish action research as integral to organization change.

Today, it is the backbone of most OD applications.

A key component of most action research studies was the systematic collection of survey data that was fed

back to the client organization. Following Lewin's death in 1947, his Research Center for Group Dynamics

at MIT moved to Michigan and joined with the Survey Research Center as part of the Institute doe Social

Research. The Institute was headed by Renis Likert, a pioneer in developing scientific approaches to

attitude surveys. Likert's doctoral dissertation at Columbia University, "A Technique for the Measurement

of Attitudes," was the classic study in which he developed the widely used, five-point "Likert Scale."

In an early study by the institute, Likert and Floyd Mann administered a companywide survey of

management and employee attitudes at Detroit Edison. Over a two-year period beginning in 1948, three

sets of data were developed: (1) the viewpoints of eight thousand non-supervisory employees about their

supervisors, promotion opportunities, and work satisfaction with fellow employees; (2) similar reactions

from first- and second-line supervisors; and (3) information from higher levels of management.

The feedback process that evolved was an "interlocking chain of conferences." The major findings of the

survey were first reported to the top management and then transmitted throughout the organization. The

feedback sessions were conducted in task groups, with supervisors and their immediate subordinates

discussing the data together. Although there was little substantial research evidence, the researchers

intuitively felt that this was a powerful process for change.

In 1950, eight accounting departments asked for a repeat of the survey, thus generating a new cycle of

feedback meetings. In four departments, feedback approaches were used, but the method varied, with two

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of the remaining departments receiving feedback only at the departmental level. Because of changes in key

personnel, nothing was done in two departments.

A third follow-up study indicated that more significant and positive changes, such as job satisfaction, had

occurred in the departments receiving feedback than in the two departments that did not practice. From

those findings, Likert and Mann derived several conclusions about the effects of survey feedback on

organization change. This led to extensive applications of survey-feedback methods in a variety of settings.

The common pattern of data collection, data feedback, action planning, implementation, and follow-up

data collection in both action research and survey feedback can be seen in these examples.

Part of the emergence of survey research and feedback was based on the refinements made by SRC (Survey

Research Center of Michigan) staff members in survey methodology. Another part was the evolution of

feedback methodology.

Likert Scale:

Likert scale is often used in questionnaires, and is the most widely used scale in survey research. When

responding to a Likert questionnaire item, respondents specify their level of agreement to a statement.

A typical test item in a Likert scale is a statement. The respondent is asked to indicate his or her degree of

agreement with the statement or any kind of subjective or objective evaluation of the statement.

Traditionally a five-point scale is used, however many advocate using a seven or nine point scale.

Ice cream is good for breakfast:

Strongly disagree

Disagree

Neither agree nor disagree

Agree

Strongly agree

Scoring and analysis:

After the questionnaire is completed, each item may be analyzed separately or item responses may be

summed to create a score for a group of items.

Results of Action Research/Survey Feedback:

Likert, along with some of his colleagues, while doing a company-wide study of employee perceptions,

behavior, reactions and attitudes found that:

When the survey data were reported to a manager (or supervisor) and he or she failed to discus the results

with subordinates and failed to plan with them what the managers and others should do to bring

improvement, little change occurred.

On the other hand, when the manager discussed the results with subordinates and planned with them what

to do to bring improvement, substantial favorable changes occurred.

Another aspect of the study was the process of feeding back data from an attitude survey to the

participating departments had more positive change in business organizations than that coming from

traditional training courses.

The effectiveness of this method is that it deals with the system of human relationships as a whole

(supervisors and subordinates can change together) and it deals with each manager, supervisor, and

employee in the context of his job, his own position, and his own work relationship.

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