ABSTRACT
In the mid 1960s, United States schools picked up Organization Development (OD) from work done in industry a decade. Like many approaches to school management, the initial theories and methods of organization development were transposed directly from business to schools, not always successfully. In business and industry, OD has been transformed by current emphases into human resource management. It deals with how to enhance overall human productivity yet preserve the quality of working life; how best to use scarce human resources under conditions of slow growth; how to integrate OD, personnel, labor relations, manpower planning, and information systems into a integrated human resource management system. Basic management training for principals and superintendents, restructuring school organizations, improved management information systems, and long-range planning could serve as a starting place for such interventions. By the late 1970s, schools had contributed relatively little to management thought and practice in the United States of America compared to business, health care, and the military.
