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Assumptions and values characteristic of organization development (OD) are identified and discussed, after defining the mainstream of OD. Some implications of OD philosophy and practice are criticized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an interview with Rex J. Bates, an investor. Bates informs that he left the University of Chicago in the summer of 1949. He had completed a master's degree in statistics and was planning on an academic career when he was invited to work as an investment analyst for Stein Roe & Farnham Inc. His thought was the experience would serve him well later as an academician. Bates, in answer to a question, informs that to him the field of investment analysis is essentially the study of business. The business of common-stock selection boils down to management assessment, management appraisal. He would tell the staff that their job was to learn to tell a good company from one that wasn't so good, and then to learn how to be sure that it was staying a good company. Doing this, that is, studying the players in economic system, an investment analyst ends up observing the broader investment scene quite closely as it evolves over the years.

Research into the relationship between personal values and organizational phenomena has enjoyed a lengthy history. As a result, there is fair agreement among management scholars about two things: what values are and with what they vary. There are also substantial gaps in understanding, including how (if) values cause behavior and what happens to them when the individual joins an organization or enters an occupation. The authors identify some possible reasons for these gaps, having to do with the level(s) at which the values construct is conceptualized, methodological irregularities in values research, and neglect by management scholars, and discuss attendant corrective actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]