Participation, 'process' and management: lessons for development in the history of organization development

Participatory and process-driven social interventions have a history that dates back to before 1945. Hitherto this history has been presented within management theory as that of Organization Development (OD). An alternative history of OD is presented in this paper, focusing on the contributions of John Collier, Kurt Lewin, Ronald Lippitt and colleagues, and Edgar Schein. This reveals how OD has been constructed from methodologies invented for economic and social development, and summarizes the extensive and critical knowledge of intervention practice that OD provides. This history, and the exclusion of development from orthodox histories of OD is seen to have lessons for the contemporary uses of OD and of participatory interventions in development, and for the creation of a new model of development management. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.