Richard Beckhard

From the Founding EditorLast December, the field of organization development and learning lost oneof its founders and great leaders with the death of Richard Beckhard at age 81. Dick was one of my mentors and a close colleague throughout my career. He served on the board of the original MIT...

Foreword: Observations on the State of Organization Development SOME HISTORICAL NOTES Organization development as a practice evolved in the 1950s out of the work of the National Training Labs (NTL) on group dynamics and leadership. At the same time, a number of social psychology departments and...