Keele Research Repository

The National Health Service is increasingly aware that the development of organisations and management is crucial to the pursuit of “excellence”. In light of this, the experience of one internal grouping, the Trent Regional Health Authority Organisation Development Unit, is reviewed as a guide to senior managers considering the creation of similar cadres for management development purposes. The article examines the history of the unit from the point of view of the author and traces the roots of the Organisation Development approach from its origins in the 1960s.