Editing Organization development (section)

===Applied behavioral science===

One of the outstanding characteristics of OD that distinguishes it from most other improvement programs is that it is based on a "helping relationship". Some believe that the change agent is a physician to the organization's ills; that s/he does not examine the "patient", make a [[organizational diagnostics|diagnosis]], and write a prescription. Nor does s/he try to teach organizational members a new inventory of knowledge which they then transfer to the job situation. Using theory and methods drawn from such [[behavioral sciences]] as [[industrial and organizational psychology|industrial/organizational psychology]], [[industrial sociology]], [[communication]], [[cultural anthropology]], [[Administration of business|administrative]] theory, [[organizational behavior]], [[economics]], and [[political science]], the change agent's main function is to help the organization define and solve its own problems. The basic method used is known as action research. This approach, which is described in detail later, consists of a preliminary diagnosis, collecting data, feedback of the data to the client, data exploration by the client group, action planning based on the data, and taking action.<ref>
{{cite book 
|author= Wendell L French; Cecil Bell
|title= Organization development: behavioral science interventions for organization improvement
|year= 1978
|url= https://archive.org/details/organizationdev00fren
|url-access= registration
|publisher= Prentice-Hall|location= Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
}}{{pn|date=January 2019}}</ref>