A doctoral degree with the concentration in Organization Development (OD) prepares students to become scholar practitioners, thought leaders, and change agents in a variety of organizations—profit, non-profit, and public sectors. Graduates in this concentration will have the competencies to analyze organizations from a variety of perspectives, design appropriate interventions, and create positive and sustainable change.  Students in the OD concentration will develop competencies in and learn:

• Various theories of organization change
• Multiple ways of collecting data from organizations, such as interviews, ethnography, and surveys
• The latest quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques, including big data analytics
• Current approaches regarding talent management (hiring and retention), positive performance evaluation, leadership training, and conflict resolution.
• Organizational intervention approaches, such as large group interventions, appreciative inquiry, balance score card, open space, dialogic inquiry, 7-S strategic analysis, and action research
• How to create organizations that foster social justice, diversity, corporate social responsibility, and ecological sustainability, and
• How to work with senior leadership in organizations in coaching them to become effective leaders, using principles of appreciative and emotional intelligence.

Why Organization Development?

Fielding has always had a strong reputation in Organization Development. Our faculty are leaders in many areas of OD. They are active scholar-practitioners, influential authors, and thought leaders of Organization Development. Our faculty are actively engaged in several international academic associations with a focus on Organization Development, including the Academy of Management, the OD Network, and the International Leadership Association.

Our distinguished faculty have pioneered unique approaches to Organization Development, leading scholarship in the following areas: improvisation and organizational innovation; organizational strategy and learning; social networks analysis; team development; managing change, whole systems change; mindfulness and stress reduction; knowledge management; collaborative learning; technology strategy; global labor markets; corporate social responsibility; transformational leadership methods; systems dynamics; organizational design; social justice, diversity, and inclusion; appreciative intelligence; appreciative inquiry; dialogic inquiry; and action research.