Navigating through the first wave of change: a synthesis of the action research dissertations of the PhD OD cohorts 1-5 Graduate School of Business, Assumption University, Thailand

Abstract

The study focuses on forty three (43) dissertations done by the graduates of the Doctor of Philosophy in Organization Development (PhDOD) from the Graduate School of Business, Assumption University of Thailand, Hua Mak Campus. It is the objective of this article to present a perspective of what has been accomplished by the first five cohorts of graduates in their OD action research so that their work will serve as a reference for other MMOD/PhDOD related studies and MMOD/ PhDOD of students in the program as well as LEMS (leaders/executives/managers/ supervisors) taking initiatives in various organizations where strategic positive change is a goal. It is an orderly summary of the various studies so that “knowledge maybe extracted from the myriad and individual research “(Glass, 2002). The focus of the Content of all the applied research dissertations (ARD) are various types of “organizations” as the “organization of choice” by the students, regarded as the Context of human social systems: composed of people interacting with one another for a common purpose, vision, mission, goal and even values which somehow along the way … encounter, experience, shortfalls, disparities, dysfunctions and at the same time identified potentials. The Process utilized in all the action research work are various OD interventions , initiated by Pre-ODI work and evaluated through a Post ODI testing. Each action research is independent and so there is a wide range of heterogeneity among them. Therefore, rather than a statistical analysis of the action researches done by the graduates, this synthesis aims to present “Stories of Navigations”: journeys that have direction and which have generated a magnitude of transformation at the personal and organizational spheres. Each researcher embarked on the AR-OD journey. Now, every journey has a story to tell.