Differences between Change & Development Updated

Differences between Change & Development

What’s Change?

Change Often Means a Turn-Around.

When you talk about changing your life, you might mean going back to college, moving to a new city (or country), or starting a family.

Change Can Be a One-Off Event

Some changes happen suddenly, like losing your job. The effects will change the days, weeks and months to come … but the change itself is relatively sudden and self-contained.

Change Can Be Externally Imposed

Not all changes are ones you choose. In fact, many might come from the outside. Some of these will be negative changes (eg. the death of a relative), some might seem like negative changes but later become positive ones (eg. becoming a father). Either way, knowing how to manage change is important for making the best of these times.

Development:

Development is an ongoing process of applying behavioral science knowledge to the planning and implementation of strategies that will make an organization more effective. These strategies should encompass the entire organization, not just HR related functions. The practice of OD leads to the need for change initiatives in an organization, and hence begins the process of managing and implementing that change.

As they grow and evolve, organizations undergo a series of changes throughout their life cycle. These changes create the need for a well planned development process. To understand the differences between organizational change and development, it is important to know the meaning of each term and to conceptualize the relationship between the two.

Organizational Change:

Factors such as improvements in technology, the need for business diversification and expansion are all examples of driving forces of change in organizations. These factors contribute to the onset of organizational development by pushing business leaders and managers to take certain actions which will lead to the desired outcome. There are several types of organizational change. Some changes are planned and driven by innovative thinking, while others are unplanned. Sometimes change in an organization can affect the whole entity, and at other times it can have a direct impact on only one segment of the business structure.

Organizational Development

Businessdevelopment is defined as "a planned organization-wide effort to increase an organization's effectiveness and viability," according to Noetic Outcomes Consulting. One of the most widely known means of implementing organization development is enterprise master planning. This process allows an organization to choose the best business solution out of a multitude of alternatives or options. Enterprise master planning involves a thorough analysis of existing business processes and a good understanding of opportunities available for improving those processes. Documentations and resources are used to determine the most appropriate business options, and to qualify and justify the master plan.

The methods used for organizational development will vary, and the steps taken to implement organizational change is contingent on the scale of the project and the sort of results being sought. The timeline for the plan development and integration will therefore depend on the complexity of the enterprise and its starting point in the development stage.