ABSTRACT
The Organizational Development (OD) practitioner plays a role in the disconfirming process but has to be empathetic with the feelings of the person(s) who have to make the changes. The leadership model with the greatest currency these days is the transformational type. It is written about by numbers of authors, but the heart of the model is that leadership is about encouraging change, sharing common vision, communicating effectively, modeling behavior, encouraging teamwork, being credible, trustworthy, and, especially, empowering, or enabling others to act. Change involves feelings of mourning and loss, privation, and separation. The OD change agent is a "helper", not a "fixer". Change is not imposed on the client and the client is not told what to do. The core problem in successful OD is getting people to take the step into the uncertain world of change where there are no guarantees of success.
