Accreditation of OD training in South Africa. Part 3: magic, prayer or ignorance?

Abstract

The first part of this article discussed the challenges of organizational development being transmitted into management education and training; setting up and operation of the Programme for Organizational Development in South Africa (PODSA), for non‐governmental organizations. Explains some of the difficulties ensuing from departures from traditional academic procedures. This third and final part reviews the difficulties of accommodating PODSA with conventional academic assessment.

From process consultation to a clinical model of development practice

“…Third, there is the need to set up the new approaches to training that will allow supervised and re¯ective practice to be incorporated into formal award programmes without loss of rigour. Mann (1995Mann ( , 1996aMann ( , 1996b provides an example of how this has been achieved in a graduate OD programme with South African NGOs, but argues that universities have problems in adapting away from traditional methods of teaching and assessment. At the same time, however, many universities, including those where development studies departments are located, have long-standing programmes that have addressed the creation of re¯exive practitioners while maintaining academic rigour, in medicine, social work, clinical psychology, education and of course in change management and OD.…”

From process consultation to a clinical model of development practice

“…Third, there is need to set up the new approaches to training that will allow supervised and reflective practice to be incorporated into formal award programmes without loss of rigour. Mann (1995Mann ( , 1996aMann ( , 1996b Edwards talks about as a new paradigm of reflective practice is not new; in fact it is at least as old as development itself (see Cooke 1996). From 1945 onwards clients in the north have increasingly had the clinical benefits of these institutions, this training, this…”