Organizational development reaction paper to Japan earthquake

Japan was hit by the largest earthquake ever recorded on this country that is used to earthquakes on March 2011. The earthquake left hundreds of people killed, missing, injured and a lot of destruction to property. The reaction by the humanitarian, relief and rescue organizations were timely though the incorporation Organizational Development (OD) principles in their rescue operations could have improved the quality of the rescue efforts. Organizational development refer to the use theories, values, strategies and technologies all aimed at facilitating change in the process to enhance the performance of an operation (Rothwell and Sullivan 2005.

 OD is a process that starts with identification of the need for a change or a problem that needs a solution for improvement of operations. The problem in this case of Japan earthquake is the need to bring relief in terms of rescuing the affected people, creating awareness on the after-effects of the disaster and providing recuperating necessities to the affected people. This problem should be clearly understood and all efforts of finding solutions should be directed towards it. The assessment of the magnitude of the destruction caused by the earthquake is the next step that should follow to determine the level of intervention that the teams involved in the relief-creating process should adopt. More than one intervention strategies may be adopted and used in different areas because the earthquake struck different areas of Japan.

 Planning for interventions strategies adopted is very crucial for disasters like earthquakes because quick evaluations are required to determine the satisfactory progress made and if there is need for adoption of alternative intervention methods. In this particular Japan disaster, the OD process is cyclical because it should only end when everybody affected by the disaster is accounted for. Implementing the interventional strategies and evaluation of such strategies is the most important steps in the OD process. These two steps help in determining the success of the rescue operation as well as proposing points of improvement or alternative strategies for the same and future disasters.

 References

Rothwell, W. J. and Sullivan, R. (2005). Practicing Organization Development: A Guide for Consultants. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons.