RICHARD BECKHARD: BIOGRAPHY AND CONTRIBUTIONS - JOB - 2025

Richard Beckhard was an American organizational theorist and adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a pioneer of organizational development. Beckhard is the author of Organizational Development: Strategies and Models, a classic work of the corporate organizational field.

He is recognized for implementing his knowledge in behavioral sciences to the business world to improve the effectiveness of organizational methods. Together with David Gleicher, he designed the “formula for change”, which indicates the steps to generate positive change in an organization, considering the costs involved for management.

For Beckhard, the strength of an organization is in its human capital and teamwork

He defined organizational development emphasizing that it is an effort that requires a prior plan and the participation of an entire organization.

Today Beckhard is recognized as one of the pioneers of organizational development who came to revolutionize the industry in the mid-20th century.

Biography

Richard Beckhard was born in New York City in 1918. Despite his competence in the organizational arena, he began his working life in the theater. At first he worked as an actor but would soon become a director of Broadway shows.

During World War II Beckhard was in charge of directing and conducting productions as entertainment for the troops in the Pacific. This experience led him to work in 1950 for the National Training Laboratories (NTL), an institute for the application of behavioral sciences.

Organizational development pioneer

Beckhard was in charge of optimizing the setting so that the experiments were carried out effectively. It was during this period that he developed what would become the first flashes of organizational development, as he had to deal with diverse groups of people, all with different needs and functions.

In the late 1950s he began working with Professor Douglas McGregor, founder of the Department of Organizational Studies at MIT. In 1967, with support from NTL, he launched the Organizational Development Network, a program to train specialists in the field.

From then on, he launched various training programs for organizations and universities; He and his wife also founded an association to support family-run businesses.

He wrote 8 books on organizational development and problem solving. Richard Beckhard died at age 81, on December 28, 1999 in New York City.

Contributions

Beckhard is recognized for his penchant for problem solving in organizations. Whether making use of the behavioral sciences or his empirical knowledge of the needs of an organization, his contributions to the field of organizational development are today considered the classic bases of practice.

Organizational development

Beckhard was an important component for organizational development. This practice is focused on improving interpersonal relationships between the members of an organization.

This is achieved by forming an atmosphere of integration for the members, since it is necessary that they feel part of the team.

The emphasis of organizational development is to empower human capital; Since the mid-twentieth century, authors such as Beckhard were ahead of their time, because while the industry prioritized technical efficiency, organizational development requires creative people, with ideas and initiatives.

At present, organizational development recognizes the importance of education and training of human resources, since this will be the most important agent of change for the fulfillment of goals and the achievement of medium and long-term objectives.

Formula for change

Beckhard developed a simplified formula for change in 1987 with David Gleicher. This small and simple tool is useful to visualize the importance and possibilities of development that come from the hand of change in an organization.

The formula represents a change of mind for the new school, where the commitment and active participation of the employee are a crucial element for the success of the organization; This is totally opposite to Taylorism, the way of working that permeated organizations at the beginning of the last century.

The formula is "I x V x P> R", where "I" is dissatisfaction, "V" represents vision, "P" represents first steps and "R" is resistance to change.

It states that to overcome resistance to change and succeed in meeting objectives, every organization must first identify the source of dissatisfaction, form a plan, and take action through small changes.

GRPI model

In 1972 Beckhard designed an organizational development model called GRPI for its acronym in English (Goals, Roles, Process, Interpersonal relationships).

Goals, roles, process and interpersonal relationships are, according to Beckhard, the four core elements of effective teamwork.

Goals

These are the bases of all good teamwork, as they help to identify the objectives that you have in common. Not having goals would severely limit the ability of a work team. To be realistic, goals must be specific, measurable, and relevant.

Roles

The responsibilities of each team member and their level of authority should be defined. In addition, they must be aligned to obtaining or achieving a goal.

A work team should not begin activities until all its members understand and agree to their roles.

Process

In organizations, having fixed and standardized processes is an effective way to combat difficulties in making decisions and coordinating tasks.

An effective process must be clear, open to communication, and have constructive ways of dealing with the usual conflicts in the organization.

Relationships

It is the most important aspect of teamwork. For the union of efforts between two or more people, it is necessary to have a work environment where trust, communication, feedback and the necessary incentives for the development of creative ideas predominate.

Facilitating these four aspects in the organization is betting on the success of teamwork. According to Beckhard, GRPI is a guarantee of productivity in any project to which it is correctly applied.

References

1. Academic (sf) Richard Beckhard: Symbolic Formula for Change. Recovered from esacademic.com
2. Iglesias, T. (2015) GRPI Model. Project Management Techniques. Recovered from projectmanagement.com
3. McCollom, M. (1997) A Biography of Richard Beckhard. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. Recovered from journals. sagepub.com
4. MIT News (2000) Sloan Adjunct Professor Richard Beckhard dies at age 81. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Recovered from news.mit.edu
5. Value Based Management (sf) Summary of the Change Formula by Richard Beckhard. Recovered from valuebasedmanagement.net