The article is aimed at studying approaches to the definition of “Organizational Development” (OD). A study of definitions and characteristics of the OD concept has shown that most authors use keywords to explain the essence of the concept, others focus on the constituent elements as objects of influence. Many of researchers add a goal or desired outcome, and others consider organizational development more likely in terms of the approaches used. A number of definitions provided by various authors from 1970 to the present are considered. Using of morphological analysis, the definition was decomposed by the formula “what, of what, for what and with what” into the following constituent elements: keyword, object of influence, goal, approach or means. The most repetitive keyword is “process”, the most common goal is “effectiveness and efficiency of the organization”. Objects as operands are organizational strategies, structure and culture. And for the most part, the authors note the behavioral approach as the main one used in organizational development. A generalized definition is made of the most recurring elements. Each of the elements was subjected to further analysis in chronological order. In particular, it was defined a change in the formulation of OD goal to ”meet the needs of stakeholders” and in approaches to organizational development, namely from a purely behavioral to systemic. Given these considerations, Organizational Development is defined as an ongoing process of transforming organizational strategies, structures and culture to meet external and internal stakeholders through a system of approaches, most notably behavioral. This definition allows you to form an idea of OD as a process, and consider it in the dynamics and identify the objects of influence or focus of attention and management efforts; declares the main goal of development, on which depends the formulation of the desired current results. Based on these three components, approaches or methods of influence should be identified, because, as noted, only the behavioral approach is not exhaustive in OD.
Impact of problem context on students’ concept definition of an expectation value
