Years of research and practice have proven that organization development is a constant process of change. The 1980s and 1990s were likened to the Greek salad of change and the whitewater rapids, respectively. In the 2000s, the emphasis was placed on diminishing supply, which gradually changed to the effective management of boomers in the past decade (Church and Brooke, 2017). The consistency in these changes over the decades is a manifestation of the fact that what is considered a priority in an organization today may not be held with similar esteem in the future. The present paper aims to discuss some future trends in organizational development and professional implications.
A Shift from Mechanistic to Digital Operations
One of the most anticipated changes in today’s organization is a shift from mechanistic to a digital approach in running organizations. It is agreeable that technology is increasingly becoming integral in individuals’ daily lives. Whereas most organizations presently have a formal structure that incorporates digital communications experts, digital marketers, IT departments, there is still a lag in the total transformation of a business that is reflective of a fully digital working environment.
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An entirely digitally integrated environment would typically consist of the use of technology in all sectors of an organization, from the structure to people and workplace culture. Apart from that, considerations should be made to focus on building infrastructure as an enabler of the same. As a result, the office space will shrink as most works will have an option for working virtually (Instructure, 2016). Regrettably, this process of change requires a lot of resources, which most traditional organizations are not willing to commit to making the transition. This is consistent with the findings from a study conducted by Deloitte, as documented by Kiron et al. (2016), which indicated that approximately 40% of organizations are ready to make the technological transformation.
A Shift from Employee Experience to Talent
The second shift has perhaps sparked a lot of controversies since it contradicts the central mandate of organizational development. Organizational development collectively promotes the growth of all individuals in an organization (King, 2016). However, talent management disproportionately focuses on a few individuals, those with potential in a particular field.
Previously, it would be convenient to find top management consisting of individuals with vast experience gained over years of working in a field. In such a structure, an individual new to an area would typically start as an intern, then gradually rise through the ranks.
However, most organizations are increasingly valuing talent and the ability to execute tasks. Through this process, a development culture that focuses on talent differentiation is gaining prominence. Consequently, employees are categorized as high-potential and non-high potential before making considerations for training. In this regard, it is expected that more organizations in the future will have different demography in the top management or key decision-makers, consisting of young CEOs and presidents.
A Shift from Data to Insight in Management
The shift to insight is closely tied to the aforementioned changes; the digitization and change of the demography of organizations. While the use of data in managing and running a business is not new, there is an anticipated change in the way data will be utilized in the future. Traditionally, the collection of data and analysis was sufficient in most organizations. However, a recent observation on the significance of the data sets and its implication in any industry is becoming increasingly significant (Guzzo et al., 2015). These then constitute critical information required for strategic operations to drive particular business actions.
In view of the preceding, it is becoming evident that most organizations are seeking to hire experienced data scientists and digital officers to source for data, analyze and establish correlations which were never thought to be possible to drive an organization’s strategy and steps to take to drive change (Queiroz et al., 2016). In the process, the current data analytics, which has proven to have no value in strategic management, will be phased out. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that this shift is slightly behind as compared to the first two since such expertise in data analysis and strategic consulting is still limited.
Implications of The Future Trends
Through introspection, I believe that one of the ways that I will adapt to these anticipated changes is through continuous professional development. In this regard, I intend to pursue professional courses in these areas to help me in integrating technology into my practice. Apart from that, I intend to identify particular areas in psychotherapy, which I feel that I am passionate about and perfect on these aspects since it has already been established that talent and performance will override mere work experience. Lastly, considering that most organizations are ill-equipped to handle big data and advanced analytics, I intend to identify relevant programs that I can pursue to become more knowledgeable and set the proper groundwork for analytics, particularly in the field of psychotherapy and organization development consulting.
These future trends will result in a paradigm shift, especially in the field of psychotherapy, especially considering that in this practice, a lot of people tend to value the experience of the practitioners over their experience and knowledge, resulting in the age distribution of the workforce being skewed towards the older generation. Lin et al. (n.d.) contend that the mean age of the workforce was 50.6. Additionally, the percentage of younger psychologists was higher than those within the ages of 56-65 years. With this demographic change, the new workforce, which will predominantly consist of the younger generation, will make the professionals more receptive to the use of technology in executing their professional duties.
In general terms, positive social change arises from the betterment of society. With these changes, it is expected that there will be a significant advancement in psychotherapy and organization development in general. With these changes, there will likely be better service delivery since the workforce will be based on their talents and ability to perform. Moreover, the use of technology will improve the quality of service at a reduced cost.
References
Church, A. H., & Burke, W. W. (2017). Four trends shaping the future of organizations and organization development. OD Practitioner , 49 (3), 14-22.
Guzzo, R. A., Fink, A. A., King, E., Tonidandel, S., & Landis, R. S. (2015). Big data recommendations for industrial-organizational psychology. Industrial and Organizational Psychology , 8 (4), 491-508.
Instructure.com.(2016). 7 Trends For Workforce 2020 . [online] Available at: <https://www.instructure.com/bridge/pdf/2016_5_Workforce_Evolution_eBook_Collateral_Bridge_12.pdf> [Accessed 25 July 2020].
King, K. A. (2016). The talent deal and journey: understanding the employee response to talent identification over time. Employee Relations , 38 (1), 94-111.
Kiron, D., Kane, G. C., Palmer, D., Phillips, A. N., & Buckley, N. (2016). Aligning the organization for its digital future. MIT Sloan Management Review , 58 (1).
Lin, L., Stamm, K. and Christidis, P., n.d. The U.S. Psychology Workforce Is Getting Younger . [online] https://www.apa.org. Available at: <https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/07-08/datapoint> [Accessed 24 July 2020].
Queiroz, J., Leitão, P., & Oliveira, E. (2016). Industrial cyber physical systems supported by distributed advanced data analytics. In International Workshop on Service Orientation in Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing (pp. 47-59). Springer, Cham.
