Organizational development (OD) interventions: Managing systematic change in organizations

Abstract To effectively adapt and thrive in todays business world, organizations need to implement effective OD interventions aimed at improving performance at organizational, group and individual levels. OD interventions involve respect for people, a climate of trust and support, shared power, open confrontation of issues, and the active participation of stakeholders. OD interventions are broader in scope, usually affecting the whole organization (socio-technical systems). OD interventions are sponsored by the CEO and supported and owned by staff at the different levels of the organization. OD professionals must have a solid understanding of the different OD interventions to choose the most appropriate, or mix and match them -based on the expected results and a solid analysis of the organization and its environment. This blog presents a brief analysis of OD interventions using a classification proposed byM. Kormanik. Major OD Interventions OD interventions aim at improving organizational performance and employees well being. According to Robbins (1994), OD integrates a collection of planned change interventions that relies on humanistic and democratic values, aimed at improving organizational effectiveness, and employees well being. OD interventions rely on the following values: respect for people, trust and support, power equalization, confrontation and participation.Kormanik (2005) proposes a classification of OD interventions in 6 groups: large scale, strategic, technostructural, management and leadership development, team development and group processes, and individual and interpersonal processes. Large-scale interventions Large scale interventions typically involve a full-size group of stakeholders, working toward the definition of a future state. These interventions start from top levels of the organization, to analyze, plan, and define the interventions outcomes, then, people are involved in the solution, creating with this a shared commitment, and a contagious of effect effort, which will support the implementation of defined actions in the long term. Some examples include the following: appreciative inquiry summit, future search, open space and real time strategic change. Large scale interventions are highly structured; each activity is carefully planned beforehand this is particularly important since the whole system participates simultaneously, in the same room, at the same time. Cummings andWorley (2001) describe the three step process involved in any large scale intervention: 1) the preparation of the large group meeting, 2) Conducting the meeting, and 3) Following on meeting outcomes. Large-scale interventions are quicker, build organizational confidence, give immediate and broad based information, promote a total organization mindset, inspire action, and sustained commitment. Strategic interventions Strategic interventions contribute to align the organization with its environment. Cummings and Worley (2001) state that these interventions link the internal functioning of the organization to the larger environment; transforming the organization to keep pace with changing conditions (p. 105). Strategic intervention help organizations to gain a better understanding of their current state, and their environment, that allow them to better target strategies for competing or collaborating with other organizations. Kormanik (2005) includes under the umbrella of strategic interventions, the following: mission / vision / purpose, strategic planning and goal setting, visioning / scenario planning, benchmarking, SWOT, communication audit / strategy, values clarification and commitment, climate survey, and culture change. Technostructural interventions Technostructural interventions focus on improving the organizational effectiveness and human development by focusing on technology and structure. These interventions are rooted in the fields of engineering, sociology, and psychology, combined with socio-technical systems and job analysis and design. These types of interventions rely on a deficit based approach; the idea is to find problems to solve. According to Cummings andWorley (2001) technostructural approaches focus on improving an organizations technology (for example, task methods and job design) and structure (for example division of labor and hierarchy) (p. 104). Kormanik (2005) includes as technostructuralinterventions the following: organizational structure, organization systems, business process redesign, space and physical settings, socio-technical systems, change management, job design / enrichment, competency-based management, knowledge management and organizational learning. Management and Leadership Development Interventions These types of OD interventions aim to improve organizational performance by increasing effectiveness of formal and informal leaders. Their use is wide spread, and almost all organizations have programs in place to identify, measure, and improve the quality of their leaders. Kormanik (2005) includes the following examples: executive and professional development, mentoring, coaching, action learning, action science, MBO, succession planning, 360 degree feedback, participative management, technical / skills training. A research study conducted by the Corporate Leadership Council (2001) revealed that organizations are focusing on the following five actions to increase their leadership bench strenght: 1) redefining the leadership profiles to better respond to current business needs, 2) targeting future leadership needs, 3) ensuring top management accountability for leadership development, 4) creating a continuous development culture, and 5) customizing the development opportunities to the leaders needs (pgs. x-xi)

Team Development and Group Processes Interventions Team development and group processes interventions aim at improving different aspects of a group performance, such as goal setting, development of interpersonal relations among team members, role clarification and analysis, decision making, problem solving, and communities of practice, among other. One of the most important objective of team building interventions relies on improving interdependency of team members. The underlying premise is that the aggregated value of the team is much greater than any individual. According to Robbins (1994), Team building is applicable where group activities are interdependent. The objective is to improve the coordination efforts of members, which will result in increasing the teams performance (p. 275) Individual / Interpersonal Process Individual / interpersonal process interventions aim at improving organizational performance by developing specific skills of individuals. Given its nature, these OD interventions are the most personalized of all, and probably the most widely used by organizations. The most common examples of this type of interventions are learning strategies, life transitions, mentoring, and interpersonal communications, among other. Measuring their impact on organizational effectiveness and employees well being OD interventions encompass other change initiatives, that is why it is difficult to identify their impact and effectiveness in isolation, nevertheless, the 2008 ASTD State of the Industry Report revealed that organizations achieved important benefits for their investment in learning activities Almost all BEST organizations reported improvements in employee and customer satisfaction, quality of products and services, cycle time, productivity, retention, revenue, and overall profitability. BEST organizations had clearly defined processes to link learning strategies and initiatives to increases in both individual and organizational performance". OD interventions require visionary and participative leadership OD interventions are initiated at the top and require employee participation and commitment, therefore, visionary leaders that work as change agents, developing a vision, and providing continuous and sustained support is paramount. Kanter, Stein & Jick (1992) consider that OD interventions require a strong leader role. An organization should not undertake something as challenging as large-scale change without a leader to guide, drive and inspire it. These change advocates, play a critical role in creating a company vision, motivating company employees to embrace that vision, and crafting an organizational structure that consistently rewards those who strive toward the realization of the vision (p. 384)

Organization Development Interventions

Organization Development (OD) interventions techniques are the methods created by OD professionals and others. Single organization or consultant cannot use all the interventions. They use these interventions depending upon the need or requirement. The most important interventions are, 1. Survey feedback 2. Process Consultation 3. sensitivity Training 4. The Managerial grid 5. Goal setting and Planning 6. Team Building and management by objectives 7. Job enrichment, changes in organizational structure and participative management and Quality circles, ISO, TQM Survey feedback: The intervention provides data and information to the managers. Information on Attitudes of employees about wage level, and structure, hours of work, working conditions and relations are collected and the results are supplied to the top executive teams. They analyse the data, find out the problem, evaluate the results and develop the means to correct the problems identified. The team are formed with the

employees at all levels in the organization hierarchy i.e, from the rank and file to the top level. Process Consultation : The process consultant meets the members of the department and work teams observes thie interaction, problem identification skills, solving procedures et. He feeds back the team eith the information collected through observations, coaches and counsels individuals & groups in moulding their behavior. Goal setting and planning : Each division in an organization sets the goals or formulates the plans for profitability. These goals are sent to the top management which in turn sends them back to the divisions after modification . A set of organization goals thus emerge there after. Managerial grid: This identifies a range of management behavior based on the different ways that how production/service oriented and employee oriented states interact with each other. Managerial grid is also called as instrumental laboratory training as it is a structured version of laboratory training. It consists of individual and group exercises with a view to developing awareness of individual managerial style interpersonal competence and group effeciveness. Thus grid training is related to the leadership styles. The managerial grid focuses on the observations of behaviour in exercises specifically related to work. Participants in this training are encouraged and helped to appraise their own managerial style. There are 6 phases in grid OD: First phase is concerned with studying the grid as a theoretical knowledge to understand the human behavior in the Organization. Second phase is concerned with team work development. A seminar helps the members in developing each members perception and the insight into the problems faced by various members on the job. Third phase is inter group development. This phase aims at developing the relationships between different departments Fourth phase is concerned with the creation of a strategic model for the organization where Chief Executives and their immediate subordinates participate in this activity. Fifth phase is concerned with implementation of strategic model.. Planning teams are formed for each department to know the available resources, required resources, procuring them if required and implementing the model Sixth Phase is concerned with the critical evaluation of the model and making necessary adjustment for successful implementation. Management by Objectives (MBO) is a successful philosophy of management. It replaces the traditional philosophy of Management by Domination. MBO led to a systematic Goal setting and Planning. Peter Drucker the eminent management Guru in 1959 has first propagated the philosophy since then it has become a movement. MBO is a process by which managers at different levels and their subordinates work together in identifying goals and establishing objectives consistent with Organizational goals and attaining them. Team building is an application of various techniques of Sensitivity training to the actual

work groups in various departments. These work groups consist of peers and a supervisor. Sensitivity training is called a laboratory as it is conducted by creating an experimental laboratory situation in which employees are brought together. The Team building technique and training is designed to improve the ability of the employees to work together as teams. Job enrichment is currently practiced all over the world. It is based on the assumption in order to motivate workers, job itself must provide opportunities for achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement and growth. The basic idea is to restore to jobs the elements of interest that were taken away. In a job enrichment program the worker decides how the job is performed, planned and controlled and makes more decisions concerning the entire process.