A Brief History of the Organization Development Journal
By Dr. Donald W. Cole, RODC
Last Updated October 2003

    When a conference organized by ICF (Gordon Lippett), SIDO (Peter Shephard) and The O.D. Institute (Don Cole) was cancelled because of the air traffic controllers strike, I contacted Herb Shephard who was on the O.D. Institute’s Advisory Board and CCI’s Board to ask if he and CCI would like to help plan a more inclusive conference. He thought that was a great idea. He contacted Ron Lippett and between the three of us we collected the names of 13 national O.D. organizations that would like to participate.

     The first meeting of the group was funded and sponsored by Lynda McDermott who was President of ASTD’s O.D. Division.  It was a great meeting. Everyone had an opportunity to talk about their organization and the things they were doing. By the third meeting, it became apparent that the group was split between those who wanted to meet for fun and games and those who wanted to work issues of substance. A small group from CCI took over the planning and began to make decisions for the group with little or no input from others.

     I sent a survey to all 13 organizations asking what they would most like from one another. The thing they said they most wanted from one another was to share information. So, we started The Organization Development Journal. I thought we could circulated everyone’s newsletter to everyone else at no greater cost than what it was now costing each organization to circulate their own newsletter to their own little group. The first issue of The Organization Development Journal was published in the Fall of 1983. It was sponsored by The O.D. Institute,  the Midwest Division of CCI, ASTD’s O.D. Division, SIDO, OMICRON and eit. It included articles by Jack Gibb, Ken Benne, Herb Shepard, Bob Golembiewski, Gordon Lippitt, Andrew Kakabadse and Shel Davis on “What O.D. Means to Me – Challenges for the Future”. At that time there was on “Statement on the Knowledge and Skill Necessary for Competence in O.D.”. There was no criteria for the accreditation of OD/OB academic programs. There was no written O.D. knowledge test for those wanting to become Registered O.D. Consultants. But, there was a Gresham’s Law of O.D. in which “bad” O.D. would eventually drive out “good” O.D. At that time there was little recognition of “good” O.D. and no means at all for dealing with “bad” O.D. (For additional background on this subject, please see “An Historical Perspective” on the O.D. Institute homepage at: www.odinstitute.org).

     Thanks mostly to the hard work of Bill Gellermann, we now have an “International O.D. Code of Ethics” that has been translated into five languages (Russian, Polish, German, Spanish and Hungarian). “The International O.D. Code of Ethics” is to an increasing degree being adopted and used by organizations and individuals worldwide. Thanks mostly to the work of Roland Sullivan, RODP we now have “A Statement on the Knowledge and Skill Necessary for Competence in O.D.”. Thanks to the hard work of Terry Armstrong, RODC we now have some beginning criteria for “The Accreditation of OD/OB Academic Programs”. Thanks to W. Warner Burke and Don VanEynde, RODC we new have a written knowledge test  for those wanted to qualify for permission to use the initials RODC (Registered O.D. Consultant) after their name. Many people are helping to build the field of O.D. into a profession and we want to express our appreciation to them for all that help.

     The first Editor of The Organization Development Journal was Dr. Joe Cangemi, RODP, followed by: Dr. Terry Armstrong, RODC, Dr. Joanne Preston, Dr. Joel Finlay, RODC, Dr. Allan Church, RODC and Dr. Steven Cady, RODP. The new Editor is Jim “Gus” Gustafson, RODP. He can be reached at: Tel 515/440-0472 (office) or 515/577-0178 (cell phone) or E-mail: jimgustafsoncom@uscellular.com He will be taking over as Editor of The Organization Development Journal on November 2, 2003. Starting with the first issue of 56 pages, the journal has now grown to more than 100 pages per issue. A recent study found that The Organization Development Journal is now the most frequently cited O.D. publication in the world. We greatly appreciate the help from all those who are contributing to its success.


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