Editing Organization development (section)

===Change agent===
A change agent in the sense used here is not a technical expert skilled in such functional areas as accounting, production, or finance. The change agent is a behavioral scientist who knows how to get people in an organization involved in solving their own problems. A change agent's main strength is a comprehensive knowledge of human behavior, supported by a number of intervention techniques (to be discussed later). The change agent can be either external or internal to the organization. An internal change agent is usually a staff person who has expertise in the behavioral sciences and in the intervention technology of OD. Beckhard reports several cases in which line people have been trained in OD and have returned to their organizations to engage in successful change-assignments.<ref>{{cite book|author= Richard Beckhard|title= Organization development: strategies and models|publisher= Addison-Wesley|location= Reading, Mass.|year= 1969|page= [https://archive.org/details/managementsystem00john/page/114 114]|isbn= 0-87620-540-6|oclc= 39328|url= https://archive.org/details/managementsystem00john/page/114}}</ref>

Researchers at the [[University of Oxford]] found that [[leader]]s can be effective change-agents within their own organizations if they are strongly committed to "knowledge leadership" targeted towards organizational development. In their three-year study of UK healthcare organizations, the researchers identified three different mechanisms through which knowledge leaders actively "transposed", "appropriated" or "contended" change concepts, effectively translating and embedding these in organizational practice.<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/17556851/Knowledge_leadership_Mobilising_management_research_by_becoming_the_knowledge_object.html Fischer M.D. Dopson, S. Fitzgerald, L. Bennett, C. Ferlie, E. Ledger, J. & McGivern, G. (2015) "Knowledge leadership: Mobilizing management research by becoming the knowledge object" Human Relations, doi:10.1177/0018726715619686]</ref>

The change agent may be a staff or line member of the organization who is schooled in OD theory and technique. In such a case, the "contractual relationship" is an in-house agreement that should probably be explicit with respect to all of the conditions involved except the fee.