Organisation Development

Raymond Saner & Lichia Yiu; (2018); “System Change at National Government Level”, Published in Research in Organizational Change and Development, Published online: 30 Jul 2018; 341-388.

The authors present and discuss a large system transformation project which they designed and implemented in Slovenia at the start of its independence in the early 1990s. Post-mortem analysis generates insights that are useful for practitioners who embark on a similarly broad and cross-sectoral level of transformation process. ODC design issues are discussed giving special consideration on structuring the pre-contracting phase to guarantee good enough inclusive stakeholder representation and participation throughout the transformation process. Intervention design needs to allow for experimentation and multi-stakeholder alliance building. Application of Action Research and Action Learning in a politicized and risk averse environment typical of central governments helped to enforce a sense of ownership, control and collective accountability in the partner country.

Keywords: Republic of Slovenia, social system change, public administrative reform, organization development, transition country challenges, action research, action learning, institution development.

Raymond Saner & Lichia Yiu; (2018); “System Change at National Government Level”, Published in Research in Organizational Change and Development, Published online: 30 Jul 2018; 341-388.

The authors present and discuss a large system transformation project which they designed and implemented in Slovenia at the start of its independence in the early 1990s. Post-mortem analysis generates insights that are useful for practitioners who embark on a similarly broad and cross-sectoral level of transformation process. ODC design issues are discussed giving special consideration on structuring the pre-contracting phase to guarantee good enough inclusive stakeholder representation and participation throughout the transformation process. Intervention design needs to allow for experimentation and multi-stakeholder alliance building. Application of Action Research and Action Learning in a politicized and risk averse environment typical of central governments helped to enforce a sense of ownership, control and collective accountability in the partner country.

Keywords: Republic of Slovenia, social system change, public administrative reform, organization development, transition country challenges, action research, action learning, institution development.

Lichia Yiu and Raymond Saner, (2006-2007), “Witkin’s Cognitive Styles and Field Theory applied to the study of Global Managers and OD Practioners”, Book chapter 6, winter 2006-2007: Research in Organizational Change and Development, volume 16- edited by Willam a. Pasmore and Richard w. Woodman, JAI Publ. San Jose CA ; United States of America

This paper builds on current and past research of Witkin et al., and applies his concepts to the study of global managers and OD practitioners. The goal is to describe core aspects of culture related challenges which global mangers and OD practitioners have to overcome, and ends with proposing future research on possibilities of training global managers and OD practitioners in order to develop Integrated Perceptual-Cognitive Ability (IPCA). Such an IPCA competence would allow them to master both field-dependent and field-independent perceptual- cognitive skills.

CSEND made a presentation entitled "Designing OD Interventions based on the use of Blended Learning for MNCs" at the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities' (EADTU), 20th Anniversary Conference in November 2007 hosted by the Universidade Aberta, Lisbon, Portugal
Place: Universidade Aberta, Lisbon, Portugal

pdf EADTU Conference Programme