Real World Application of OD Principles
Carlos A. Horton
BUS 370-Orgainizational Development
Instructor: Armando Nunez
21 April 2014

Major businesses such as the automotive industry, bring customers to other businesses who are not so popular. When these businesses migrate to a new location, this means that customers no longer have a reason to visit certain cities and towns. This is when organization development (OD) comes into play. It focuses on people, relationship, policies, processes, norms, organizational structure, and improving very culture of organizations (Kondalkar, 2009). The goal of organization development is to make organizations healthier and more effective (Brown, 2011). By using OD principles, it will help the dry goods store adapt to the new environment that the automotive industry have left them in. This retail store will have to come up with a routine to maintain its stability.
Now that the dry goods store is aware of the automotive industry’s relocation, it would be best to utilize organization development practitioners who are subject matter experts in organizational change. An OD Practitioner is a person in an organization responsible for changing existing patterns to obtain more effective organizational performance (Brown, 2011). OD Practitioners are also known as change agents. Change agents lead change projects or business-wide initiatives by defining, researching, planning, and building coalitions and networks as part of a business or organizational change effort (“Change Agents,” 2011). Before the dry goods store can reach an effective change, other things must be taken into consideration as well. These can be discovered through a systematic approach known as the diagnosis. This allows OD practitioners to evaluate all the present issues a company is experiencing (Rothwell, 2010).
As a leader of the dry goods store, a headcount needs to be conducted on a day to day basis to see how many customers are still interested in the business. This headcount would probably take place for a few weeks before further decisions are made. If the company lost a substantive amount of customers, that means the company will have to downsize its employees; if the company has gained customers, then the next step would be hiring more professionals on the team. Regardless of the situation in which the company finds itself, the outcome will be a positive or negative effect because of the automotive industry’s relocation. Hopefully the OD Practitioner can prevent any negative outcomes from happening.
Change can put a toll on the employees of the company. Some employees have had their experiences during organizational change and others have not. From another viewpoint, if we look at the anatomy of our bodies, we learn that healthy organs are needed to operate a healthy body. The outside may look good but the insides are damaged. The same applies to companies—just in another way. In order to bring about a healthy company, the employees need to stay motivated and focused on accomplishing the company’s goals. Managers need to always monitor the organization’s culture in order to assure the happiness of the employees. The term “organization culture” refers to a system of shared meanings, including the language, dress, patterns of behavior, value system, feelings, attitudes, interactions, and group norms of the members (Brown, 2011). There are a lot of things to look for in organization culture. If the leaders know their job, they already know what to look for when experiencing change.
Every business has their own set of enemies rather change is happening or not. These are the companies who are trying to steal customers from other stores, to earn more profit. If the prices are not competitive in the dry goods store, customers will not waste their time visiting the business because of rumors or stereotypes that have developed because of high prices. Customers look for the best deals and will only go to the stores offering the best deals. This will help out with customer satisfaction and will draw in more customers. The only way a retail business can hold its course is by sustaining the amount of customers they have.
Organization development strives to make a healthier and more effective business. There are subject matter experts who can help companies adapt to change, but risk may be involved. Some businesses are beneficial for others because they bring more customers in the area. That is why it was important to know the automotive industry was relocating to Mexico. The dry goods store needed to prepare for the best and worst case scenario. If the OD principles are put to good use, any company can survive on their own.

References
Brown, D.R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN: 9780136106890
Change Agents and Change Agent Strategies. (2011).
Kondalkar, V. G. (2009). Organization development [electronic resource] / V.G. Kondalkar. New Delhi : New Age International (P) Ltd., Publishers, c2009.
Rothwell, W. J. (2010). Practicing organization development [electronic resource] : a guide for leading change / edited by William J. Rothwell ... [et al.]. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, c2010.