Organizational development is concerned with the planning and implementation of programmes designed to enhance the effectiveness with which an organization functions and responds to change.
Organizational development is concerned with process, not systems or structure. Process refers to the ways in which people act, react and interact.
ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS DEFINED
An effective organization is one that achieves its purpose by meeting the needs and wants of its stakeholders, matching its resources to opportunities, adapting flexibly to change and creating a culture that promotes commitment, creativity, shared values and mutual trust.
TRADITIONAL OD PROGRAMMES
Traditional OD (organizational development) programmes were based on behavioural science theories and included activities such as:
Action research the systematic collection of information from people about
process issues, which is fed back to identify problems and areas for action
Survey feedback a variety of action research that uses attitude surveys and workshops.
Interventions – an OD term that describes the process of action research /survey feedback and involves the OD consultant in ‘intervening’ to help clients make choices on actions.
Process consulting helping clients to generate and analyse information
about organizational processes so that they are placed in a position in which they can solve their own problems.
Inter-group conflict interventions getting groups together so that they can agree on the conflict issues that affect them and on the actions required to address them.
Team building interventions analysing and improving team working
process such as problem-solving and interpersonal relationships.
Personal interventions programmes designed to improve interactive skills such as T-Groups and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming).
NEW APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The traditional approaches based on behavioural science have been largely replaced by more focused interventions concerned with team building, change management and organizational transformation as described in the following slides. These interventions, especially organizational transformation, owe something to the traditional OD approaches but they are less nebulous.
Other approaches for improving organizational effectiveness, which exist in their own right and are seldom if ever referred to as OD interventions include total quality management, customer care programmes, business process engineering, and performance management.
TEAM BUILDING
Team building activities aim to improve the effectiveness of a group of people who work permanently or temporarily together. Their aims are to:
increase awareness of the social processes that exist in teams
develop the interactive or interpersonal skills that enable individuals to function effectively as team members
Increase the overall effectiveness with which teams operate.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT DEFINED
Change management is the process of identifying the need for change, deciding on what change is required, evaluating the implications of change, developing and implementing change programmes, overcoming resistance to change, seeing that change takes place smoothly and ensuring that the change is embedded and effective.
APPROACHES TO CHANGE MANAGEMENT (1)
Directive – the imposition of change in crisis situations.
Bargained – recognition that change requires negotiation, compromise, and agreement before being implemented.
‘Hearts and minds’ – a drive to change the attitudes, values and beliefs of the whole workforce.
Analytical – a systematic process starting with analysis and diagnosis, through the setting of objectives, the design of the change process, the evaluation of results and the determination of objectives for the next stage of the change process.
Action-based – the ‘ready, aim, fire’ approach to change management starts with a broad but often ill-defined recognition of a problem, a trial and error search for solutions leading to a clarification of the problem and a framework for identifying solutions, which are then acted upon.
APPROACHES TO CHANGE MANAGEMENT (2)
Mobilize commitment change through the joint analysis of problems.
Develop a shared vision of how to organize and manage to achieve goals such as competitiveness.
Foster consensus for the new vision, competence to enact it, and cohesion to move it along.
Spread revitalization to all departments without pushing it from the top – don’t force the issue, let each department find its own way.
Institutionalize revitalization through formal policies, systems and structures.
Monitor and adjust strategies in response to problems in the revitalization process.
APPROACHES TO CHANGE MANAGEMENT (3)
Ensure that:
employees see the reason for change
employees understand why change is important and see how it will help them and the business in the long and short term
the people who need to be committed to the change to make it happen are recognized
a coalition of support is built for the change
the support of key individuals in the organization is enlisted
the link between the change and other HR systems such as staffing, training, appraisal, rewards, structure and communication is understood.
the systems implications of the change are recognized
a means of measuring the success of the change is identified
plans are made to monitor progress in the implementation of change
the first steps in getting change started are recognized
plans are made to keep attention focused on the change
the likely need to adapt the change over time is recognized and plans can readily be made and implemented for such adaptations.
ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION DEFINED
The process of ensuring that an organization can plan and implement major change programmes which will ensure that it responds strategically to new demands and continues to function effectively in the dynamic environment in which it operates.
THE TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM
Establish a sense of urgency.
Form a powerful guiding coalition.
Create a vision.
Communicate the vision.
Empower others to act on the vision.
Plan for and create short-term wins.
Consolidate improvements and produce still more change.
