Abstract

This chapter draws on critical discourse analysis to analyze the field of Organization Development (OD) as a discourse. We argue that the OD discourse is characterized by the following: overwhelmingly psychological focus, construction of individuals as rational and bounded, and avoidance of sociological questions. We argue that the failure of OD to humanize organizations highlighted by a number of OD writers does not result from the failings of particular OD practitioners, but rather, that it is rooted in the very discourse of OD, which renders the field incapable of navigating the socio-economic context in which organizations operate and are constituted. We pick up on Marshak’s (2005) speculation about the emergence of a “new” OD to argue that the “old” OD has reached a dead end and that the discourse that is constitutive of OD should be revolutionized, if OD practitioners are serious about making organizations more humane.