Organisation Development:

Change & Intervention

Strategies - Introduction
Brief Introduction
Exercise
Make a list of challenges that organisations are facing today…

• Organisation level

• Individual level
• OD is the applied behavioral science discipline dedicated to
improving organization and the people in them through the use of
the theory and practice of planned change.

• Organisations face multiple challenges and threats today – threats

to effectiveness, efficiency, and profitability; challenges from
turbulent environments, increased competition and changing
customer demands; and the constant challenge to maintain
congruence among organizational dimensions such as technology,
strategy, culture and processes.
• Keeping organisations healthy and viable in today’s world is a
daunting task.
• Individuals in organisations likewise face multiple challenges – finding
satisfaction in and through work, fighting obsolescence of one’s
knowledge and skills, maintaining dignity and purpose in pursuit of
organizational goals, and achieving human connectedness and
community in the workplace.
• Simple survival – continuing to have an adequate job – is a major
challenge today in light of constant layoffs and cutbacks.
• Although new jobs are being created at record rates, old jobs are
being destroyed at an accelerating pace.
• “Knowledge” work is replacing “muscle” work.
• In summary, organizations and the individuals in them face an
enormously demanding present and future.

Are there any strategies available to help people and organisations

cope, adapt, survive, and even prosper in these vexing times?
• Fortunately, the answer is “yes.”
• A variety of solutions exist, and organization development (OD) is one
of them.
• Basically, organization development is a process for teaching people
how to solve problems, take advantage of opportunities, and learn
how to do that better and better over time.
• OD focuses on issues related to the “human side” of organisations by
finding ways to increase the effectiveness of individuals, teams and
the organizations’s human and social processes.
• As the term suggests, OD is about developing (improving)
organisations.

• But, it is also about developing individuals.

• This dual focus is a unique strength of OD.

• Organizational development is a planned, systematic change in
the values or operations of employees to create overall growth in
a company or organization.

• It differs from everyday operations and workflow improvements

in that it follows a specific protocol that management
communicates clearly to all employees.
Exercise

Is it possible for the people within an organization, to collaboratively

manage the culture of the organization in such a way that not only
the goals and purposes of the organization are attained. But, the
human values of individuals, within the organization, are furthered
too?

HOW?
OD programs energize the talent of the organization members in the

pursuit of their own self-interests in making the organization more

successful and making their quality of working life more satisfying.

Exercise

How can quality of working life be made more satisfying for

employees?
Role of OD

• OD channelizes the intelligence, experience and creativity of

organization members in systematic, participative programs in which
the members themselves find solutions to their most pressing
challenges – a powerful formula for change.

• Ingredients for the formula comes from behavioral science theory

and practice and are applied in a manner, until a coherent
improvement strategy called organization development evolves.
• OD is a relatively recent invention.

• It started in the late 1950s, when behavioral scientists attempted to

apply that knowledge of group dynamics to improve team

functioning and intergroup relations in organisations.

• Early returns were encouraging, and attention was soon directed
towards the other human and social processes in organisations such
as the design of work tasks, organization structure, conflict
resolution, strategy formulation and implementation, and the like.

• The field of OD grew rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s with thousands
of organisations in the private and public sectors using the theory and
methods of OD with great success.
Today organization development represents one of the best

strategies for coping with the rampant changes occurring in the

marketplace and society.

Detailed concept

• OD is an organizational improvement strategy.

• In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it emerged out of insights from
group dynamics and from the theory and practice of planned change.

• Today, the field offers an integrated framework capable of solving

most of the important problems confronting the human side of
organisations.
It is the application of social science techniques to plan

change in organizational settings for the purpose of

enhancing organizational effectiveness and the development

of individuals.
Levels of Diagnosis
 Organizational Level Diagnosis

Inputs Transformation Outputs

General Strategy Performance

Environment
Design Factors Productivity
Industry
Structure Culture Satisfaction
 Group Level Diagnosis

Inputs Transformation Outputs

Organization
Design Group Team
Factors Design Effectiveness
Factors
Culture Productivity,
Satisfaction
Strategy
 Individual Level Diagnosis

Inputs Transformation Outputs

Group
Design Job Individual
Factors Design Effectiveness
Factors
Personal Productivity,
Characterist- Satisfaction
ics
 Revision
➢Organisation development is a systematic process for
applying behavioral science principles and practices in
organisations to increase individual and organizational
effectiveness.
➢Organisation development is a systematic approach to
organizational improvement that applies science, theory
and research in order to increase individual and
organizational well-being and effectiveness (French and Bell,
1990).
This definition implies certain characteristics:
1) First, OD is a systematic approach to planned change. It is a
structured cycle of diagnosing organizational problems and
opportunities and then applying expertise to them.
2) Second, OD is grounded in solid research and theory. It involves
the application of our knowledge of behavioral science to the
challenges that organisations face.
3) OD recognizes the reciprocal relationship between individuals
and organisations. It acknowledges that for organisations to
change, individuals must change.

4) Finally, OD is goal oriented. It is a process that seeks to

improve both individual and organizational well-being and
effectiveness.
 History of OD

• OD has a rich history. Some of the early works in OD was conducted

by Kurt Lewin and his associates during the 1940s.
• This work was continued by Renesis Likert, who pioneered the use
of the use of the attitude surveys in OD.
• During the 1950s, Eric Trist and his colleagues focused on the
technical and social aspects of the organisations and how they
affect the quality of work life.
• These programs on quality of work life migrated to the U.S. during
the 1960s.
• Ever since, the field has grown across the world.

• As OD becomes more and more widespread, it is important to

increase our knowledge of how culture affects the success of

different OD approaches.
 The OD Cycle

Diagnosis &
needs analysis Interventions

Follow-up
• Before any intervention is planned, a thorough organizational
diagnosis should be conducted.
• Diagnosis is an essential first step for any organization
development intervention.
• Diagnosis should pinpoint specific problems and areas in need of
improvement.
• Six areas to examine carefully are the organization’s purpose,
structure, reward system, support systems, relationships and
leadership.
• Harry Levinson’s diagnostic approach asserts that the process
should begin by identifying where the pain (the problem) in the
organization is, what it is like, how long it has been happening and
what has already been done about it.

• Then a four-part, comprehensive diagnosis can begin.

• The first part of the diagnosis involves achieving an
understanding of the organization’s history.

• In the second part, the organization as a whole is analyzed to

obtain data about it structure and process.

• In the third part, interpretive data about attitudes, relationships,

and current organizational functioning are gathered.
• In the fourth part of the diagnosis, the data are analyzed
and conclusions are reached.

• In each stage of the diagnosis, the data can be gathered

using a variety of methods, including observation,
interviews, questionnaires and archival records.
• A need analysis is another crucial step in managing change.
• This is an analysis of the skills and competencies that employees
must have to achieve the goals of the change.
• A needs analysis is essential because interventions such as training
programs must target these skills and competencies.
• Hundreds of alternative OD intervention methods exist.
• One way of classifying these methods is by the target of change.
The target of change may be the organization, groups withing the
organisations, or individuals.
• The history of organization development is rich with the
contributions of behavioral scientists and practitioners.
• Systematic OD activities have a recent history and, to use the
analogy of a mangrove tree, have at least four important trunk
systems.
1) One trunk stem consists of innovations in applying laboratory
training insights to complex organisations.
2) A second major stem is survey research and feedback
methodology.
3) Both the stems are intertwined with a third, the emergence of
action research.
4) Paralleling these stems, and to some extent linked, is a fourth stem
– the emergence of the Tavistock sociotechnical and socioclinial
approaches.
The socio-clinical approach focuses on the individual and group

dynamics, while the socio-technical approach focuses on the

technical and organizational systems and structures that influence

behavior and performance.

• The sociotechnical approach, developed by psychologists at the
Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in the 1950s, proposes that
the design of work should seek to optimize both the social and the
technical systems within organizations, offering a counter to ideas
of technological determinism.
• Socio-technical theory originated in the 1950s at the Tavistock
Institute in London (Ropohl, 1999), led by Trist and Bamforth (1951)
and Emery (1993)
According to Pasmore et al. (1982:p1182), the socio-technical approach is
a “method of viewing organisations which emphasizes the
interrelatedness of the functioning of the social and technological
subsystems of the organisation and the relation of the organisation as a
whole to the environment in which it operates. Put simply, the
sociotechnical system perspective contends that organisations are made
up of people that produce products or services using some technology,
and that each affects the operation and appropriateness of the
technology as well as the actions of the people who operate it.”
https://open.ncl.ac.uk/theories/9/socio-technical-theory/
• It further suggests that organizations should be viewed as open
systems, subject to sometimes unpredictable external and internal
influences leading to a need for adaptability.
• The work group is viewed as the most relevant unit of analysis
resulting in advocacy of autonomous work groups offering group
members high levels of control over their work.
• Workers should participate in the design of their work and receive
training and support to enable their involvement.
• This influential concept stimulated a large body of research in many
countries.
• Despite some notable positive examples, outcomes were often
mixed, reflecting the challenges of managing and sustaining
significant change.

• The concept of joint optimization has also proved problematic, with

psychologists tending to focus on the social system, while engineers
give greater emphasis to the technical system.
• The advent of digital technologies is providing a new impetus to the

need to design work to optimize both the social and technical

systems, provoking renewed interest in the approach.

The key actors in these stems interact with each other and are

influenced by experiences and concepts from many fields.

• OD, thus, represents a unique strategy for system change, a strategy
largely based on the theory and research of behavioral sciences and
a strategy having a substantial perspective character.
• In summary, OD is a process of planned system change that
attempts to make organizations better able to attain their short –
and long – term objectives.
• This is achieved by teaching the members of the organization how
to manage their organisation’s processes and culture more
effectively.
Another definition….
“Organisation development is a long-term effort, led and supported
by top management, to improve an organization’s visioning,
empowerment, learning, and problem-solving processes, through
an ongoing, collaborative management of organization culture –
with special emphasis on the culture of intact work teams and other
team configurations – using consultant-facilitator role and the
theory and technology of applied behavioral science, including
action research.”
• By long-term effort it is meant that organizational change and
development takes time – several years. There is no “quick fix”
when it comes to lasting organizational improvement. In fact, it is
more accurate to describe “improvement” as a never-ending of
continuous change.
• The phrase led and supported by top management states an
imperative: Top management must lead and actively encourage the
change effort. Top management must initiate the improvement
“journey” and be committed to seeing it through.
• By visioning processes it is means those processes through
which organizational ……
……..members develop a viable,
coherent and shared picture of the nature of the product
and services the organization offers, the ways those goods
will be produced and delivered to customers and what the
organization and its members can expect from each other.
• By empowerment it means those leadership behaviors and human
resource practices that enable organization members to develop
and use their talents as fully as possible toward individual growth
and organizational success.
• It refers to involving large numbers of people in building the vision
of tomorrow, developing the strategy for getting there, and making
it happen.
• By learning processes it means those interacting, listening and
self-examining processes that facilitate individual, team and
organizational learning.
-- Peter Senge describes learning organisations as
“….organizations where people continually expand their capacity
to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive
patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is
set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn
together.
• Problem-solving processes refer to the ways organization
members diagnose situations, solve problems, make decisions
and take actions on problems, opportunities, and challenges in
the organization’s environment and its internal functioning.

• Michael Beer’s definition called for “developing new and creative

organizational solutions.”
• By ongoing collaborative management of the organization’s
culture, it means, first, that one of the most important things
to manage in organisations is the culture: the prevailing
patterns of values, attitudes, beliefs, assumptions,
expectations, activities, interactions, norms sentiments, and
artifacts.
◼ And second, managing the culture should be a collaborative
business.
◼ Collaborative management of the culture means that everyone,
not just a small group, has a stake in making the organization
work. Culture is the bedrock of behavior in organisations.
• Organisational processes are how things get done, and the
importance of visioning, empowerment, learning, and
problem-solving processes are highlighted.
◼ Processes are relatively easy to change, so they are the place
OD programs often begin – getting people to stop doing things
one way and start doing them a different way.
◼ But change becomes permanent when the culture changes and
people accept the new ways as the “right” ways.
• By intact work teams and other configurations, it is recognized
that teams are central to accomplishing work in organisations.
Teams are the basic building blocks of organisations.
--When teams function well, individuals and the total
organization function well.
--Further, team culture can be collaboratively managed to ensure
effectiveness.
• The phrase using the consultant-facilitator role conveys our
belief that leaders can benefit from seeking professional
assistance in planning and implementing OD initiatives.

--The third-party role is powerful: that person is typically seen as

bringing objectivity, neutrality and expertise to the situation.
• By the theory and technology of applied behavioral science, it
means insights from the sciences dedicated to understanding
people in organisations, how they function, and how they can
function better. OD applies knowledge and theory.
• Finally, by action research it means the participative model of
collaborative and iterative diagnosis and taking action in which
the leader, organizational members, and OD practitioner work
together to define and resolve problems and opportunities. OD
could be organization improvement through participant action
research.
To summarize the primary distinguishing characteristics of OD:
1) OD focuses on culture and process.
2) Specifically, OD encourages collaboration between
organizational leaders and members in managing culture and
processes.
3) Teams of all kinds are particularly important for accomplishing
tasks and are targets for OD activities.
4) OD focuses on the human and social side of the
organization and in so doing also intervenes in the
technological and structural sides.
5) Participation and involvement in problem solving and
decision making by all levels of the organization are hallmarks
of OD.
6) OD focuses on total system change and views
organisations as complex social system.
7) OD practitioners are facilitators, collaborators, and co-learners
with the client system.
8) An overarching goal is to make the client system able to solve its
problems on its own by teaching the skills and knowledge of
continuous learning through self-analytical methods.
9) OD relies on an action research model with extensive
participation by client system members.
10) OD takes a developmental view that seeks the betterment of
both individuals and the organization. Attempting to create “win-
win” solutions is standard practice in OD programs.
 Team Building

• Improved group processes

• Communication

• Goal clarification

• Role clarification

• Task orientation
 Survey Feedback

• Small meetings to feedback

survey results

• Meetings used to formulate

change

• Managers conduct meetings to

indicate commitment
 Employee Involvement

• Quality of work life

• Quality circles

• Total quality management

 Re-Engineering

• Job redesign

• Teamwork

• Work performed by most

appropriate person(best fit)

• Advanced information
technologies used
 ???
• Why are we doing it? Does it add value, quality, service or
productivity?

• What if it didn’t exist?

• Is it already being done by someone else?

• How and when did we start doing this?

• Can it be done better by another person, department or company?

Client and Consultant

Planning Evaluating
Enterni
& &
ng & Diagno
Impleme Institution
Contrac sing
nting alizing
ting
Change Change