The Significance and History of Organization Development – in Hungary and International Relations

Because of the standardization of world economy, the speeding up of technical development and the sharpening market competition there is more and more responsibility on managers, whose primary duties are to make sure the efficient and successful work of the organizations. More and more of them realize that the quality (structure, culture, attitude etc.) of the organization can be counted as one of those features that determine success and advantage in contest most. Organization development, which applies structural and behavioral changes to improve both the output of the organization and its members’ general feeling (personal development and well-being), intends to assist them in this respect. By this time the concept of organization development has become more or less known among Hungarian theoretical and practical experts as well. The foundations of organization development were put down in America in the fifties and sixties while carrying out group dynamic surveys at several organizations and summing up the observations. Therefore Americans are called the pioneers of organization development, but most of kind researches are still made.