Essay Sample on Organizational Development Professional Associations

Introduction

There are different professional organizations that have been established, and their role is to oversee and maintain the legitimate practice of a certain occupation. Globally, most of the professional organizations exist in the United States since the nation has always led several occupations transformation to professions through a process called professionalization. The professional associations aim at safeguarding the interest of the public by maintaining their powerful position and privilege since they act as controlling bodies.

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The professional organizations that will be discussed include Society for Applied Anthropology, International Society for Organizational Development and Change, Organizational Development Network, and International Organizational Development Association. All these organizations meet on an annual basis, and IODA is different in that the members meet in different continents annually. Furthermore, all these organizations aim at providing their members with the best services through learning. The above professional organizations have publications for their members except for IODA. SfAA has several publications, and it is regarded as the leading institution that publishes applied for sciences peer-reviewed scholarship, and they include research practices discussions, original research, and analyzing methods. For ISODC, it has several publications through Organizational Development Journal. The other professional organizations are OD Network, which has several publications, and it is the leading OD practitioners and scholars' publications, while IODA does not have any publications. Also, for the academic disciplines the professional organizations in their underlying professions, they play the role of learned societies.

In 1941, the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) was founded with the aim of promoting human behavior investigation principles and the best ways of applying the principles in current problems and issues ("SfAA Call for Nominations," n.d.). The mission of this organization is promoting interdisciplinary investigation (scientific) entailing the principles that control humans' relations and encourages the high application of the principles to contemporary problems. On the other hand, International Society for Organizational Development and Change (ISODC) is a leading collaborative and international movement which promotes and effects positive change and growth at team, societal, individual, and organization level ("ISODC: Organizational Development and Change Management," n.d.). ISODC mission is continuing, updating, and expanding on the work which Organization Development Institute started earlier on, and its mission was building O.D field to the highly valued profession.

Organizational Development Network was founded in 1968 in the organizational development field ("History of Organization Development," n.d). It is considered as the largest organizational development practitioners international association. The mission of the organization is to make meaningful connections meaning that the members of the organization not only care about exchanging business cards and networking but also the members support each other in meaningful ways. Consequently, the International Organizational Development Association (IODA) refers to an international professional association which serves the OD professionals. This professional association was founded in 1986 by OD professionals hailing from 13 countries as they saw the importance of network being global in values, outlook, and nature ("History," n.d.). The mission of the organization is to co-create OD professional's global community to inspire change and learning globally.

For one to join SfAA, he or she should possess an advanced degree or rather an evidence of experience that one applies behavioral/social sciences to practical problems, and the members include applied and practicing anthropologists while the members of ISODC includes OD students, consultants, corporations, NGOs, professors, non-profits, and any person who has an interest establishing robust OD network globally ("ISODC: Organizational Development and Change Management," n.d; "SfAA Call for Nominations," n.d.). Furthermore, the people belonging to OD Network include academic students and professionals, business professionals who lead transformational change, leaders who work at consulting firms, entrepreneurs who are consulting for their OD, and the corporate consultants. In the case of IODA, its members include OD professionals, social scientists, academics, consultants, students, and practitioners.

The professional service offered by SfAA is promoting anthropological integration perspectives that help in solving the human problems as ISODC provides services such as Advisory and Consulting Services, education, innovative research, and education to its members. Moreover, OD Network provides different services, including facilitating the processes in which human systems and beings work and live together for their well-being and benefit. Its practice regarding the discovery process and shared learning is mainly dedicated to the vision of individuals who live good and productive lives that serve their organizations, world, societies, and themselves. Lastly, IODA provides the OD practitioners with unlimited ingress to vibrant network, access to the members only support, job opportunities, and Groupsite, sharing of knowledge, and offering OD training programs for its network universities.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the common thing about the professional associations is that they aim at improving the well being of their members. Also, they meet annually and have publications except for one (IODA). However, these professional associations are different in terms of their mission and the services which they provide to their esteemed members. For instance, the SfAA mission is promoting interdisciplinary investigation (scientific) entailing the principles that control humans' relations while ISODC mission is building O.D filed to the highly valued profession. The mission of OD Network is to make meaningful connections as IODA mission is co-establishing OD professional's global community to inspire change and learning globally. These organizations are essential as they safeguard the interest of the public.

References

History. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.iodanet.org/?page_id=28

History of Organization Development. (n.d). Retrieved from https://www.odnetwork.org/page/HistoryofOrgDev

ISODC: Organizational Development and Change Management (n.d.). Retrieved from https://isodc.org/

SfAA Call for Nominations. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sfaa.net/