Having Relevance and Impact

Abstract

This introductory article argues building intentional design capabilities is a primary approach to bridging theory and practice. To address the complexity and challenges of today’s organizational environments, the organizational development (OD) profession’s focus on humanistic development should be complemented by equally strong attention to bringing expertise to help design solutions to thorny problems. This requires attention to management as design and development of a design science to provide content and methodological knowledge to guide the design process. Treatments of organizational design science, just as other design sciences such as architecture, must juxtapose development of the guiding knowledge of the field with the descriptions of designing processes that bring to bear the perspectives, aspirations, and experiences of varied participants. The combination of the perspectives of organizational development and organization design science is critical to provide a knowledge foundation to build organizations that are sustainable and meet the needs of their stakeholders.

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