Recession offers opportunity, says Royal Mail OD chief

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The recession has given opportunities to organisational development (OD) professionals to make changes that would not otherwise have been possible, according to David Stephenson, group head of OD at Royal Mail.

Stephenson told the CIPD’s OD conference that pressures on costs were offering good opportunities for OD specialists to make changes and to learn lessons about their organisations.

But he also warned that executive demands for short-term results were putting pressure on HR and OD professionals “to collude and command”. “[The functions] are having a real mission in keeping true to their values,” he said at the OD conference, held last week in London.

Stephenson outlined the changing role OD had played at Royal Mail for the seven years he has been at the organisation, which is currently facing a national strike by postal workers who are opposed to the ways in which management is introducing changes to working practices.

OD has “ebbed and flowed” within the organisation, he said, moving from a team sitting within the HR function to a “people and OD” function in its own right, and finally back to sitting within HR with one OD head. “We work at an individual, organisational or team level, depending on what we are trying to change. But a key element of making OD work is having board-level sponsorship,” he added.

Stephenson said there were many different views of what OD was within Royal Mail, but his definition was “helping to improve the health and effectiveness of the organisation”.

He expects OD to play a greater role at Royal Mail in the future, “because the pain has got so much that people become more receptive”.

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I won't pretend I understood that, but this doesn't sound good.
"He expects OD to play a greater role at Royal Mail in the future, “because the pain has got so much that people become more receptive”."