Does OD respect human differences? Well, it depends

Natalie believes that transparency is foolishness; it betrays human weakness and weak people get screwed. So she always keeps her cards close to her chest. She is seen as non cooperative and “needs some training in communication skills”.

Nir believes that all systems are corrupt and or inefficient, and the only way to be effective is to bypass the system. Nir is labelled a cowboy who needs to be coached on being a game player.

Ngai is certain that emotions need to be hidden at work, especially if there is a conflict. The best way to deal with a conflict is to wait until it goes away, or ignore it so that it does’t get worse. Ngai keeps all her emotions to herself and she has been given feedback on her introversion in team meetings. She was told to “better advocate” her departments agenda.

Anil  believes that his boss should be consulted on any deviation however minor from procedures  otherwise he is showing disrespect. Thus, he often says to his peers that “I need to consult my boss”. Anil is seen as a shirker.

My claim is that OD does not accept or respect any of these deeply cultural-related behaviours since OD efforts will always focus on changing these behaviours. We all agree that conversion therapies for homosexuality are both evil and nonsensical. But there is no agreement that OD’s non acceptance of cultural differences is any better. So yes, OD is the very first not to show respect to more than half of the world population.

 

 

 

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13 thoughts on “Does OD respect human differences? Well, it depends

  1. RE: “My claim is that OD does not accept or respect any of these deeply cultural-related behaviours since OD efforts will always focus on changing these behaviours.” “So yes, OD is the very first not to show respect to more than half of the world population.’

    That is bulls**t.
    HROD may not but traditional OD does. Maybe the people that you refer to do not do OD, but are doing something else like pseudo OD, or current HROD… or some other form or something… everyone says they know and do OD, but few people actually do OD.

  2. Allon, I would say that OD is not about challenging or changing these cultural attributes but rather about facilitating ways to reconcile them & enable them to work together constructively. That would seem to encompass understanding the differences more than homogenizing them.

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