The Use of Od Intervention Methods in the Classroom

• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X9401400408
• Author: Craig Curtis
• Published date: 01 October 1994
• Date: 01 October 1994
• Subject Matter: Articles

65

Integrating

Theory

and

Practice

THE USE OF

OD INTERVENTION

METHODS IN THE

CLASSROOM

CRAIG

CURTIS

PRACITCE,

THEORY

AND

PEDAGOGY

hroughout

the

T short

history

of

public

administration

as

a

self-aware

discipline,

practitioners

and

acade-

micians

alike

have

la-

mented

the

lack of nexus

between

practice

and

theory

(Ostrom,

1974 :5-

13 ;

Denhardt,

1984 :11-

18).

Public

administra-

tion

theory

must

be

gen-

erally

applicable

to

a

wide

range

of

phenom-

ena,

but

must

also

pro-

vide

guidance

in

the

real

world

of

public

organizations.

Unfor-

tunately,

the

more

generally

applicable

a

theory

is,

the

more

likely

it

is

to

be

too

abstract

to

be

of

much

use

to

the

prac-

titioner

on

a

day-to-day

basis.

This

tension

between

academic

demands

for

universalistic

observations

and

methodological

rigor

and

practitioner

demands

for

usefulness

makes

theory

building

in

public

administration

ex-

ceedingly

difficult

(Ventriss,

1991).

One

way

to

im-

prove

this

state

of

af-

fairs

in

public

personnel

administration

is

to

in-

corporate

real

life

prob-

lems

commonly

faced

by

practitioners

in

the

general

personnel

man-

agement

course

in

pub-

lic

administration

and

business

administration

curricula.

Using

prob-

lems

encountered

by

practitioners

in

the

field

and

placing

students

in

the

roles

of

the

practitio-

ners

involved

will

likely

foster

empa-

thy

for

the

problems

which

are

com-

mon

stressors

for

practitioners.

Inter-

weaving

these

practical

lessons

with

reading

and

discussion

of

the

theoreti-

cal literature,

taking

care

to

draw

the

connections

between

theory

and

prac-

tice,

is

sound

pedagogy.

Applying

the

facilitation

methods

commonly

used

in

organization

development

(OD)

in-

66

terventions

in

the

classroom

would

seem

to

hold

great

promise

for

helping

students

learn

how

to

incorporate

theory

and

practice.

The

use

of

case

studies

is

well

established

in

public

administration,

and

several

of

the

commonly

used

in-

troductory

texts

include

cases

for

class-

room

discussion

(e.g.,

Lutrin

and

Settle,

1992;

Denhardt

and

Hammond,

1992;

Stillman, 1992).

The

tradition

of

the

use

of

the

case

study

method

in

the

class-

room

is

well

established

at

the

Kennedy

School

at

Harvard

and

at

many

other

universities.

The

case

study

as

a

re-

search

method

is

also

well

established

in

the

discipline,

although

scholars

dif-

fer

considerably

on

the

intellectual

and

methodological

rigor

of

case

study

re-

search

(see,

Ventriss,

1992:5-6;

contrast,

Bailey,

1992,

with

Cleary,

1992).

Rob-

ert

Cleary

(1992;

McCurdy

and

Cleary,

1984:50)

remains

convinced

that

case

study

research

is

not

sufficiently

rigor-

ous

as

a

research

method,

and

that

its

continued

widespread

use

threatens

the

reputation

of

the

discipline

as

so-

cial

science.

Denhardt

(1984),

on

the

other

hand,

has

argued

that

proper

theory

must

be

informed

by

practice

and

that

any

proper

theory

would

be

both

intellectually

rigorous

and

practi-

cally

useful

-

as

illustrated

in

case

studies

employed

to

exemplify

theory

put

into

action.

Regardless

of

one’s

views

on

the

relationship

between

theory

and

practice

and

of

the

value

of

case

study

research,

the

fact

remains

that

the

real

world

of

public

personnel

administration

is

characterized

by

the

widespread

application

of

the

meth-

ods

developed

by

OD

practitioners.

The

history

of

OD

practice

in

this

country

has

been

well

documented

(French, 1982;

Sikes,

Drexler

and

Gant,

1989).

Since

the

National

Training

Laboratory

in

Group

Development

(which

later

evolved

into

the

NTL

In-

stitute

for

Applied

Behavioral

Science)

was

founded

in

1947,

a

rich

history

of

organization

theory

and

experience

in

practical

interventions

has

been

devel-

oped.

The

focus

of

OD

practice

and

theory

has

been

on

planned

organiza-

tional

change,

usually

accomplished

in

a

self-conscious

way,

by

the

organiza-

tion.

The

facilitator

charged

with

as-

sisting

an

organization

in

bringing

about

desired

change

seeks

to

create

an

open,

trusting

organization

in

which

employees

can

take

ownership

of

work

projects

or

ideas

with

little

risk

of

ad-

verse

reaction

for

doing

so,

even

if

the

project

or

idea

ultimately

turns

out

not

to

be

beneficial

to

the

organization

(Golembiewski,

1989).

Frequently,

the

trust

needed

to

work

together

creatively

to

solve

real

organizational

problems

can

be

built

through

the

process

of

the

workshop

method.

This

method

involves

work-

ing

with

groups

of

employees

in

a

con-

trolled

setting.

The

participants

are

usually

presented

with

small

&dquo;lecturettes&dquo;

on

organization

theory

and

put

through

a

series

of

simulations

to

illustrate

the

principles

contained

in

those

lecturettes.

The

themes

which

are

usually

stressed

are

the

need

for

open

communication,

the

benefits

of

positive

risk

taking,

the

dynamics

of

the

small

group

process,

the

synergy

inherent

in

work

groups,

employee

empowerment,

leadership

and

the

need

to

adapt

the

organizational

culture

so

that

the

latent

self-motivation

present

among

all

employees

can

be

mobilized

in

ways

that

allow

employees

to

achieve

both

organization

and

personal

goals

within

the

work

environment.

At

a

very

basic

level,

the

assumptions

about

the

ways

that

organizations

function