IT Change Management

INF 2203
Organizational Development

Lecture 4
 Introduction
• Organization Development engages people to
accomplish better organizational performance
• Key importance in Organization development
is employee engagement.
• Engaged employees are those employees who
are involved in, enthusiastic about and
committed to their work and workplace.
 Definition
• Organizational development (O.D) is the act,
process, or result of furthering, advancing, or
promoting the growth of an organization
• Organizational development approach to
change treats an organization as a system
• A system is an orderly group of logically related parts,
principles, and beliefs.
• It is a grouping or arrangement that relate or interact with
each other in such away as to form a whole
 Introduction
• There are two primary themes in the
definition of organizational development
– Employee engagement
– Organizational performance
 Organizational development objectives

• Organizational strategy
• Employee engagement
• Trust
• Effective organizational culture
• Organizational performance
 What are characteristics of OD?
• Potential: Positive beliefs about potential
• Systems: All work together
• Learning: Experiences related to their work
• Problem solving: Act and measure
• Adaptability: Perspectives and behavior
• Change: Stimulates, facilitates and coordinates
 What are characteristics of OD?
• OD focuses on culture and processes
• OD encourages collaboration between organization leaders and members
• Particularly important for accomplishing tasks and are targets for OD activities
• OD focuses on the human and social side of the organization in so doing also
intervenes in the technological and structural sides.
• Participation and involvement in problem solving and decision making by all levels of
the organization are hallmarks of OD.
• OD focuses on total system change and views organizations as complex social
systems.
• OD practitioners are facilitators, collaborators and co-learners with the client system.
• OD relies on an action research model with extensive participation by client system
members.
• OD takes a developmental view that seeks the betterment of both individuals and
the organization.
 Skills and competence of OD Practitioner
• Intrapersonal Skills or “Self-Management”
Competence.
─ Organization development is a human craft. As the
primary instrument of diagnosis and change,
practitioners often must process complex, ambiguous
information and make informed judgments about its
relevance to organizational issues.
─ Practitioners must have the personal centering to know
their own values, feelings, and purposes as well as the
integrity to behave responsibly in a helping relationship
with others
 Skills and competence of OD Practitioner

• Interpersonal Skills
– Practitioners must create and maintain effective
relationships with individuals and groups within the
organization and help them gain the competence
necessary to solve their own problems .
– To help members learn new skills and behaviors,
practitioners must serve as role models of what is
expected.
 Skills and competence of OD Practitioner

• General Consultation Skills

–Identifies the ability to manage the consulting process and the ability to design
interventions as core competencies that all OD
practitioners should possess.
–OD starts with diagnosing an organization or department
to understand its current functioning and to discover areas for further
development.
–OD practitioners need to know how to carry out an effective diagnosis, at least
at a rudimentary level.
–They should know how to engage organization members in diagnosis, how to
help them ask the right questions, and how to collect and analyse information.
–A manager, for example, should be able to work with subordinates to
determine jointly the organization’s or department’s strengths or problems.
 The OD Process
• The O.D. is a complex and long process.
• Sometimes it takes a year or more than a year to design,
executes and gets end fruits.
• In some cases it can continue indefinitely.
• The OD Process is based on the action research
model.
• The process is cyclical and ends when the desired
developmental result is obtained.
The OD Process
 The OD Process
Step 1: situational analysis to fully understand it.
• This assessment can be conducted in many ways
including documentation review, organizational
sensing, focus groups, interviewing, or surveying.
• The assessment could be conducted by outside
experts or by members of the organization.
 The OD Process
Step 2&3: plan and implementation.
• The type of change desired would determine the
nature of the intervention.
• Interventions could include:
• Training and development
• Team interventions such as team building for
management or employees or the establishment of
change teams
• Structural interventions, or individual interventions.
 The OD Process
Step 4&5: Data gathering and Analysis
• During and after the implementation of the intervention,
relevant data is gathered and analyzed.
• The data gathered would be determined by the change
goals.
• For example, if the intervention were training and
development for individual employees or for work groups,
data to be gathered would measure changes in knowledge
and competencies.
• This data is used to determine the effectiveness of the
intervention.
 The OD Process
Step 6: Feedback
• The results of the analysis is reported to the
organization’s decision-makers.
• The decision-makers determine if the intervention met
its goals.
• If the intervention met its goals, the process can end,
which is depicted by the raising of the development bar.
• If it did not, the decision is made whether to continue
the cycle and to plan and carry out another intervention
or to end it.
The Change Agent
 Definition
• A Change Agent is a person who acts as catalyst and
assumes the responsibility for managing change
activities in the organization.
• Change agents can be managers or non-managers,
employees of the organization or outside
consultants.
• He is the one who works for the accomplishment of
the goals or objectives of the organization, conflict
resolution, increased understanding, and more
leadership.
 Types of Change Agents
• Change Agents can be classified as:
– External Change Agents
– Internal Change Agents
– External-Internal Change Agents
 Internal Change Agents
• These are individuals working for the
organization who know something about its
problems and has experience of improving
situation in the same organization.
• Internal Change Agents, when assigned a
responsibility of intervening in a system come
from entirely different department or division
of their organization.
 External Change Agents
• External Change Agents are outside
consultants who are temporarily employed in
the  organization to remain engaged only for
the duration of the change process.
• He is the consultant who with his knowledge,
previous experience, and efficiency in bringing
and identifying change, helps the organization
to bring in change.
 External-Internal Change Agents
• These are the individuals or small group within
the organization designated to serve with the
external change agent so that intervention
could be implemented effectively with their
help.
 Why External Change Agents?
• They usually have a wider experience to draw from. If the
outside consultant has worked for other organizations, he
would be aware of their problems and how they were
overcome or could not be overcome due to specific reasons.
• Persons within the company may not be able to devote
themselves wholly to the new problem while an outsider
would be able to do so.
• The external change agent may have a fresh point of view.
This does not necessarily mean that he is more imaginative,
but being an outsider he would not have the same biases as
those in the company.
 Differences between External and Internal
Change Agents

External Change Agents Internal Change Agents

He is the outside consultant hired by any He is the inside consultant who is an
organization. employee of the organization.
He is always a professional. He is not always a professional.
He works for a limited period of time for His working period is not limited.
any organization.
Hiring external change agent is Working with an internal change agent is
expensive. economical for an organization.
External change agent only outlines the An internal change agent works for the
change process. implementation of the change process as
well.
 Effective Change Agents
• In order to be effective change agent:
– Start the change process with yourself rather than
with others
– Do not force change; facilitate it
– Create your own enthusiasm
– Develop a plan for change
– Seek out and accept criticism of your ideas
– Be able to get others to “buy into” your ideas for
change
Different Roles in Change Management
• Organizational change is a collaborative effort and to
implement it smoothly, several roles come into play. These
include both external and internal roles.
• Six main roles, relevant for organizational change include:
– Corporate management
– Consultant(s)
– Internal resource persons
– Implementation team
– Chief Implementer
– Task forces
Different Roles in Change Management

• Corporate Management
– This include the chief executive and several top
executives who are involved in policy
– Their the main functions include legitimizing,
energizing and gate keeping
Different Roles in Change Management
• Corporate Management
• Legitimizing: Corporate management legitimizes the change being
planned, recommended, and implemented. The more actively the
corporate management promotes the change, the more legitimate it
becomes and the quicker it is likely to be accepted.
• Energizing: Organizational change is a difficult process. It may slow
down at several points the corporate management needs to boost the
process.
• Gate Keeping: The change agent needs to meet different people and
access to different resources, the corporate management must give
all the help needed.
Different Roles in Change Management

• The Consultants
– The consultant's role is that of an expert, who has
both knowledge and experience in the field in
which change is proposed.
Different Roles in Change Management
• Internal Resource Persons
• Even if the expert is from outside the organization, some
people from the organization work with him. These people
either have the same expertise as the consultant has or, at
least, they propose to develop that expertise. In many
organizations, these persons are called Internal Resource
Persons (IRP), or facilitators.
• This role may already exist in an organization, or it may
have to created.
Different Roles in Change Management
• Implementation Team
• This team consists of a group of people from various
departments or areas of the organization who are given
the responsibility for monitoring, deliberating, and making
necessary recommendations from time to time.
• Such a team ensures proper motivation of people
throughout the organization and takes necessary steps for
effective implementation.
• Their functions include: collaboration building, gate
keeping, policy formulating, and reviewing.
Different Roles in Change Management
• Chief Implementer
• Any organizational change has to be implemented and those who are
working in a particular area need not do this. In fact, it is better to
make implementation independent of the functional responsibility in
an organization.
• The chief implementer is usually the chairman of the implementation
team. But his responsibility is not confined to discussing problems and
making recommendations. He takes the responsibility of monitoring
the change and ensuring proper implementation.
• The main difference between the role of the chief implementer and
the implementation team is that a group can never take on executive
responsibility.
Different Roles in Change Management

• Task Forces
• These bodies are set up for specific purposes in
order to prepare material, collect information,
generate ideas, and take specific responsibility
which is time bound and which is completed very
fast.
Any Question?