Organisational development aims at strengthening an organisation’s capacity so it can achieve its goals and fulfil its mission.
Organisational development incorporates more than increasing the capacities of staff; it also aims at the following organisational elements:
- Strategy and policy development (long-term planning, translating the mission into concrete goals and methods).
- Organisational learning capacity (the ability to learn from experience and use the feedback in formulating and carrying out policy).
- Organisational structure (formal and informal division and coordination of roles, positions and responsibilities).
- Systems (internal processes that regulate the daily procedures of an organisation - administration, planning, budgeting, accounting, reporting, monitoring & evaluating, learning).
- Culture (the values, principles and styles characteristic of the organisation).
- Staff (all activities and regulations intended to motivate staff, calling on and developing the capacities of staff members).
- Management style (roles of managers and other leaders and regulations applying to them, including behavioural patterns of managers, quality, consistency, availability, responses of people in a position of leadership).
- Financial management (fund-raising / fund diversification, expanding income, financial planning and accounting).
- Networking (the ability to maintain relationships and to coordinate with other relevant actors).
- Technical competency (the ability and the means to perform specific technical duties, depending on sector and field of work).
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