Mumbai, June 11 (IANS): Tata Institute of Social Sciences will offer the country's first organisation development programme for 33 mid-career managers, an official said here on Thursday.

The 'Executive Post Graduate Diploma Programme in Organisation Development and Change' will be spread over 18 months.

"This programme will be far superior to most postgraduate-level programmes in human resource management as it embeds a distinctive edge by bringing practitioners' perspective and executive coaching as an integral component," TISS Head of Centre for Social and Organisational Leadership, Vijay Kumar, said.

The programme will focus on 'organisation development and change management', most often focused upon by European or American management schools. No such programme on office development is on offer in India at present, Kumar said.

Organisation Development Alternatives (ODA) managing director Santhosh Babu and his team of experts will conduct the programme.

"The pioneering initiative by TISS will help Indian organisations to drive change more effectively and also help create a cadre of organisation development practitioners in India, and take up OD positions in companies," Babu told IANS.

"This programme will prepare participants through classroom teaching, training, field practice and coaching to develop a holistic view of the organisation for facilitating, conceptualising, designing and implementing organisation development and change processes," Babu added.

TISS, renowned for excellence in higher education, has responded to the changing social realities and the new programme was a step in this direction, Kumar said.

The ODA has conducted leadership development programmes for companies like Vodafone, Engineers India Ltd, MSD and Jindal Steel.