An interest in organisational development

I am interested in organisational development from both an academic and practitioner stand point. My time as a college lecturer was heavily skewed towards gaining the experience to utilise my knowledge and skills to move to the next position, it took a year post MBA but now I’m moving forward again.

After thirteen years, there wasn't much more I needed to learn in my position; I was going backwards in terms of experience, industry knowledge and motivation. I was picking up a salary but I wasn't engaged; in such a scenario, it is better to get out than continue. That is exactly what I did.

When you invest in your education, if the company that employs you doesn't want to promote you then the decision is simple. Invest your time and effort into an organisation that both acknowledges and rewards your output. I always believe that if your current employer doesn't reward your qualifications and experience, then it is time to seek enhanced employment opportunities elsewhere.

I am told so many times that a company doesn't owe you a living. Ok, I am fine with that as long as staff members don't try to tell me that I owe the company any loyalty. This is because loyalty is earned, this a reciprocal deal. The company must demonstrate exactly the same loyalty as they demand - an equal partnership exists.

This is rarely the case, as soon as a business downturn occurs workers get laid off en mass. You are merely a commodity to be traded, you are selling labour to the company and they are pretty quick to eliminate a labour cost once demand for your knowledge and expertise wanes.

So now I am back in the private sector as a organisational development practitioner, this entails a fair degree of on-the-job training to minimise time lost from work, training structured to specific workplace requirements, embedding learning, greater retention with the hands on approach creating value within the organisation.