OD in Cross-Cultural Settings: Latin America

Organization Development (OD) is a variety of processes and techniques used in a planned, organization-wide, long-range effort to improve organizational health and effectiveness through the intervention of a change agent, or catalyst, and the use of the theory and technology of applied behavioral science.

Jones Graham , The Role of Science and Technology in Developing Countries (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971); Meier Gerald M. , Problems of Cooperation for Development (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974); Prebisch Paul , “The Economic Development of Latin America and Its Principal Problems,” Economic Bulletin for Latin America (February 1962), p. 39–46; Quinn James Brian , “Technology Transfer by Multinational Companies,” in Sethi S.P. Seth J.N. (eds.), Multinational Business Operations: Environmental Aspects of Operating Abroad (Pacific: Palisades, CA: Goodyear Publishing, 1973); United Nations, Multinational Corporations in World Development (New York: Praeger, 1975).

Arensberg Conrad M. Niehoff Arthur H. , Introducing Social Change: A Manual for Community Development, 2nd ed. (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1971); Goulet Denis , “The Paradox of Technology Transfer,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (June 1975), pp. 39–46; McNamara Robert S. , Address to the Board of Governors (Washington, DC: World Bank Group/International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, September 1975); Prebisch , op. cit.

Arensberg Niehoff , op. cit.; Bass Bernard , “The American Advisor Abroad,” Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 7, No. 3 (1971), pp. 285–308; Berlew David LeClere W.E. , “Social Intervention in Curacao: A Case Study,” Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1974), pp. 29–52 (comments, pp. 53–61); Davis Stanley M. , “U.S. versus Latin America: Business and Culture,” Harvard Business Review (November-December 1969), pp. 88–98; McCann Eugene C. , “Anglo-American and Mexican Philosophies,” Business Topics, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Summer 1980).

This term is used by economists to denote the imitation and adoption of certain cultural modes and consumer habits from one group of a society or nation to large population sectors.

Toyne Brian , “Host Country Managers of Multinational Firms: An Evaluation of Variables Affecting Their Managerial Thinking Patterns,” Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring 1976), pp. 39–55.

Likert Rensis , The Human Organization: Its Management and Value (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967).

Simon Herbert , Administrative Behavior (New York: Free Press, 1957).

Blake R.R. Mouton J.S. , Building a Dynamic Corporation through Organization Development (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1969); French Wendell L. Bell Cecil H. Jr. , Organization Development (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973); Lawrence P.R. Lorsch J.W. , Organization and Environment (Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1969).

McClelland David C. Winter D.G. , Motivating Economic Achievement (New York: Free Press, 1969). McClelland cites the low level of need for achievement in preindustrial societies as an underlying “cause” of underdevelopment.

Toyne , op. cit.

Due to its brevity, this article runs the danger of creating similar results. We hope the reader will interpret the illustrations as representative examples rather than as exhaustive descriptions of a sizeable group of somewhat heterogeneous nations, each with its own diverse populations.

For a comprehensive treatment of introducing and sustaining cross-cultural change, see Arensberg Niehoff , op. cit.

Leavitt Harold J. , “Applied Organizational Change in Industry: Structural, Technological and Humanistic Approaches,” in March J.G. (ed.), Handbook of Organizations (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1965), pp. 1144–1170.