Only half of organisational development works - but which half?

Just as it has been claimed that only 50% of advertising works, but we don’t know which 50%, it is difficult to get proper evidence to support specific interventions to enhance quality of working life. There is good evidence to support the idea that employee well-being can be improved by changes in organisational practices, but the research can be difficult to interpret in practice.

Finnish researchers have shown that work ability, organisational commitment and the mental well-being of employees show improvement if opportunities for development and influence, and promotion of well-being are increased (Tuomi et al., 2004).They also found that organisational commitment and the mental well-being of employees show improvement if supervisory support is improved.

Thus, targeted interventions would seem to be worth considering, but it appears that if the interventions are too unfocused or the assessments too general, the risk is that nothing will happen, or you won’t be able to recognise change if it does happen.

Tuomi, K., Vanhala, S., Nykyri, E. and Janhonen, M. (2004), Organizational practices, work demands and the well-being of employees: a follow-up study in the metal industry and retail trade. Occupational Medicine, 54, 115–121.