OD for research and development organisation

Organisation development effort has a track record of mixed nature. It has not been successful in about 50% of the cases as per the literature. The success stories claim that OD has resulted in change in 'work culture', improvement in interpersonal and intra-personal competencies, improvement in inter-group communications and heightening of morale. On the negative side, we come across cases of 'wasted effort' resulting in more confusion arising out of diffusion of authority, loosing sight of productivity goals in pursuit of improving the organisational process. In the paper, a totally new type of organisation has been considered where the OD effort has its own story to tell. The case is for OD effort in a research and development organisation. To attempt an OD effort in R&D means dealing with highly technical, highly innovative groups having their own technological empire building aspirations as well as egos resulting in situations of considerable conflict. The plane of OD intervention is at a much higher level than that in conventional business organisations. The author gives a case study for a research and development organisation, where a perceptive leadership has been instrumental in bringing the organisational renewal. The role of leadership as an OD strategy and the values created by the leadership have been examined. Some of the work culture has been adopted by the organisation which has become a 'core work culture' inspite of change in leadership.