Abstract
A study was undertaken to determine the activities and interventions organization development (OD) practitioners engaged in during the 1980s. After interviews with practitioners and an examination of the OD literature, a survey was developed listing various activities and asking respondents to indicate the extent to which they had been involved in these activities. This survey was then administered to 142 participants of a professional development program for OD and human resource management practitioners, of whom 71 returned completed questionnaires. The responses were analyzed using factor analysis, which revealed five different activity factors. An examination of these factors suggests that OD practitioners engaged in management style enhancement, strategy development, culture change, technology integration, and employee development during the 1980s. The results are discussed in terms of the relationships among these activities, the business environment, and the organization development field at large.
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