There are several reasons why understanding the applicability of OD and practicing OD are especially challenging in a global environment: Culture-bound theory and practice. Many of our practices, approaches, and ideal management types in the field of organization development may reflect cultural assumptions that may not be applicable in other environments. Evaluation is difficult. Evaluating whether OD interventions are effective in multiple cultural environments presents the same challenges as any other evaluation of OD effectiveness.

“Global OD” may have multiple meanings, from OD practiced in more than one country, to an OD intervention exported from one country to another, to an OD intervention that involves a collaboration between members from multiple countries. Hidden assumptions about monolithic practices and values. There is not one monolithic organization development theory or practice. Nor is there one set of OD values that is universal.

Cultural generalizations and the prediction of behavior. Broad conclusions about culture may be accurate at a general level, but such generalizations cannot accurately predict individual behavior. Just as there might be in an organization, national cultures have subcultures. What works in California might not work in New York. Cultures change, so any conclusion about whether OD works in a given country may be only temporary. Cultural variation and change complicate our ability to predict whether OD interventions will succeed.