OrganizationDevelopmentandManagerialFunctions (3) PAUL.pdf
- 1. 1 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES THE NEED TO UNDERSTAND ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT YOU NEED THE RIGHT KNOWLEDGE Prof. Paul Allieu Kamara Introduction Organization development (OD) is any process or activity, based upon the behavioral sciences that either in the short term period or the long term period have the potential to develop in an organizational setting. Enhanced knowledge, expertise, productivity, satisfaction, income, interpersonal relationships, team spirit, and other desired outcomes such as goodwill are the factors that are meant to prove to be advantageous to the individual, group, team, society, region, nation or the whole humanity. Organization development’s primary emphasis has been laid upon the relationships between individuals and groups, so that there is cooperation and mutuality between them so that they can work together in harmony towards the progress of the organization. The meaning and the definition of organizational development is very comprehensive, hence from the definitions of organizational development desired outcomes have been identified which are as follows: (McLean, 2005). 1. Advanced organizational renewal 2. Engage organization culture change 3. Enhance profitability and competitiveness 4. Ensure health and well being of organizations and the employees 5. Facilitate learning and development 6. Improve problem solving 7. Increase effectiveness
- 2. 2 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES 8. Initiate and/or manage change 9. Strengthen system and process development 10.Support adaptation to change. All these above stated factors add involvedness and intricacies to the field of organizational development, making the jobs of the organizers and the practitioners more convoluted and creative. The environmental conditions, internal and external to the organization always demand for progress, innovation, novelty and productivity. Organization development is a planned effort, which is organization wide, it is managed from the top most level in the hierarchy with the main aim to increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organization’s processes using behavioral sciences knowledge, set of values that are largely humanistic, and open systems theory. Overall organization effectiveness is aimed at improvement by way of improving the organizational dimensions such as the external environment, mission, strategy, leadership, culture, structure, information and reward systems, and work policies and procedures (OD, n.d.). Characteristics of Organization Development 1. OD is an approach that has been drawn from various areas such as organization behavior, management, business, psychology, sociology, anthropology, management, economics, and education, counseling and public administration. Its main aim is to improve organizational effectiveness. 2. OD recognizes the significance of top management’s commitment, support and contribution. The target is to enhance the whole organization,
- 3. 3 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES individuals, departments, work groups and it may get extended to region, nation and the whole of humanity. 3. OD is a planned and long term strategy to bring about change and development not only within the organizational structure, but also its interdependent parts. 4. OD is an education based program designed to develop values, attitudes, norms and management practices that lead to a healthy organizational climate and healthy behavioral traits on the part of the personnel. 5. OD is a data based approach to understanding and diagnosing organizations. It is guided by a change agent, change team, or line management whose primary role is that of a facilitator, coach and a teacher. The task involves planned interventions and improvements in an organization’s processes and structures and requires expertise and skills in working with individuals as well as the groups (McLean, 2005).
- 4. 4 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES Organization as System and Living Organism An organization is a kind of complex configuration, comprising of many interrelated components and elements. In the organizational structure there are several departments such as production, finance, accounts, secretarial, clerical and so forth, all the departments are directly or indirectly correlated with each other, hence it can be stated that organizational structure is a system which means to combine, to set up and to place together (Gazaryan, 2006). There have been some concepts and principles which are important to be aware of for understanding the organizational development. These have been stated as follows: (Gazaryan, 2006). Chaos - Chaos theory describes the performance of certain nonlinear dynamical systems that under assured conditions exhibit a phenomenon known as chaos, which is characterized by sensitivity to initial conditions. As a result of this feeling, the actions of systems that exhibit chaos appear to be random, even though the model of the system is well defined and contains no random parameters. Chaotic behavior is considered to be more stable, structured and deterministic; chaos in an organization is what management and the members influences everyday but find no means to control. Coherence – Coherence is always a mode of coordinated behavior, oriented in a single direction, harmonized, or associated in any other sense of elements. Coherence comes directly from both freedom and interdependence. Where no elemental freedom exists – there is no opportunity for correlated behavior. Where interdependence does not exist – there is similarly no possibility for connection. Each element does not see and does not need to see or feel others, and does
- 5. 5 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES whatever it wants on its own. Elements interact in this case also, but casually, and such an interaction causes a causal effect. In such systems, elements may be kept together only by some third external force. Structure - It is also reasonable to state the structure of processes, or the dynamic structure of an organization. In contrast to the static structure that usually defines formal subordination in work relations, the dynamic structure defines how elements interact in a widespread process and generate a common result. The correlation of behaviors and attitudes of interrelated components means that their independence is limited and bounded by acceptable models of coordinated actions. These models depend on results that are expected to be achieved. In this way, the providence of an organization determines the structure of the organization. Emergent features - Some features of a system may directly shoot from the separate features of the system’s components; in this respect the system may be no more than the calculation of its parts. But some other features are specific to the entity itself and do not exist within the separate components; then the system is more than the calculation of its parts. A radio set can receive a broadcast, but no individual resistor or capacitor can do so alone. Any part of machinery may not have the ability to be self-moving, but some set of parts, properly assembled, may have this quality. Such emerging properties were called emergent features. Substructures - Substructures are often seen as informal relations between members of an organization and/or with outsiders. The formal relations and means of communication are not always particularly strong or defined within the organizational structure. When some formal relations are weak and apparent only in particular circumstances, they should be considered as a part of substructure. On the other hand, some informal relations may be obviously crucial for organizational survival and may determine the basic qualities of an organization.
- 6. 6 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES Therefore – substructures should be viewed not in terms of formal versus informal, but in terms of essential versus non-essential. Synergy - Synergy or synergism most often refers to the phenomenon of two or more discrete influences or agents acting in common to create an effect which is greater than the sum of the effects which each are able to create independently. Thus, synergy is the evolving superiority of a system. In Greek, synergy means collective action, working together and team work. Synergy also means that the actions and performance of the whole organization structure may not necessarily be predicted by the actions of their parts taken independently. Synergetics as a discipline that addresses self-organizing processes within the organizational structure and society has been in existence for 35 years and has become extremely accepted. Self-emerging Order - The basic preconditions for a particular self-emerging order to appear in a group are: 1) interdependence, and 2) unpredictable interaction. The unpredictability supposes a certain freedom of interaction. At the same time, if elements are not interdependent – meaning each one depends on another – there is no clue to build a system. The group will remain a set of odd, isolated pieces without any communication between them; hence for the effective functioning of the organization, interdependence is essential (Gazaryan, 2006). Diagnosing Organizations Diagnosis is the process of understanding a system’s current functioning. It involves collecting significant information about current operations, analyzing the data, and drawing conclusions for potential change and improvement. Effective diagnosis provides the systematic knowledge of the organization needed to design appropriate interventions. Thus, OD interventions derive from diagnosis and include specific actions intended to improve organizational functioning (Worley, 2008).
- 7. 7 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES Diagnosis is the process of understanding how the organization is currently functioning, and it provides the information indispensable to design change interventions. It generally follows from successful opening and contracting, which set the stage for successful diagnosis. Those processes help OD practitioners and client members jointly determine organizational issues to focus on, how to collect and analyze data to understand them, and how to work together to develop action plans from the diagnosis. In another sense, diagnosis is occurring all the time. Managers, organization members, and OD practitioners are always trying to understand the drivers of organization effectiveness, and how and why change is proceeding in a particular direction (Worley, 2008). In organization development, diagnosis is used more broadly than a medical definition would suggest. It is a collaborative process between organization members and the OD consultant to collect relevant information, analyze it, and draw conclusions for action planning and intervention. Diagnosis may be aimed at revealing the causes of specific problems, focused on understanding effective processes, or directed at assessing the overall functioning of the organization or department to determine the areas for future development. Diagnosis provides a systematic understanding of organizations so that appropriate interventions may be developed for solving problems and enhancing effectiveness (Worley, 2008). Organization Change Organization change is defined as the state of transition between the current state and the future one, towards which the organization is directed. Changes come about within the processes, policies and functioning of the organization; changes come about in the techniques, practices, resourcefulness and productivity of the organization. The final objective of organization change is accomplishment which
- 8. 8 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES is to bring about effectiveness and efficiency in all the operations that the organization is carrying out (Tripon, n.d.). Types of Organization Changes Organization changes may be categorized in various ways; change has been described in three main dimensions which are origin, result and process. The origin of change means the way that change appears in an organization, the internal as well as the external environmental conditions, the way the organization has been established, the ways in which its policies, norms, rules, procedures and operations have been framed and the ways in which tasks are carried out. Changes do get influenced by outside controls and external forces which are taking place in the environment, external to the organization. There have been different types of changes that have been described as follows: (Tripon, n.d.). 1. Tectonic Change – It is described as the major difference between the existing organizations and the ideal ones. It depicts the need for a change but does not show any pressure as compared to other types of changes; this type of change is interesting and useful. 2. Planned Change – It is a formal type of change which is imposed within an organization; it is a proactive change initiated by the members of the organization, they are engaged in the implementation process with the view to anticipating the environmental changes or responding to new opportunities with the purpose of making an improvement. 3. Random or Emerging Change – This change occurs from the activities that are carried out continuously from the organization members, as they gradually address the problems and the opportunities; this change is
- 9. 9 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES implemented from the external forces, leaders create the vision of change, and the employees apply the execution which is done progressively. Organization Development Functions The following steps are the components of making a successful change and transition from training and development to organization development: (CC, 2010). Step 1: Clearly identify the work of the OD unit - First step in building a team is to determine what will be the job assignments for the new unit. Thinking about the levels within an organization that can benefit from OD interventions. Will the OD practitioners focus on individual, team, or whole system solutions? Will the OD practitioners lead change projects, or develop tools and methodologies to educate others in leading change? Will the OD practitioners coach or shadow consult on important organization-wide projects? In essence, how will the organization view this team: as leaders, doers, coaches, teachers, or consultants? Will the range of services change over time? Any of these are appropriate roles and work assignments for an OD team. However, it can be overwhelming to commit to everything at once. Spending time in planning for what the OD team will engage in and then determining how the group’s services and roles might evolve over 1 to 5 years. This upfront planning will help in determining what skill sets are needed on the team, and what development plans to put in place for team members selected for these roles. Step 2: Determine what the jobs will be in the new OD unit - Once the work of the unit is clear, it should be much easier to determine how to break up the work and what type and number of jobs will be required. Creating job profiles that specify the knowledge, experience, competencies, and attributes needed for
- 10. 10 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES success; these will prove useful for any subsequent staffing or selection processes and decision making. What kind of personnel should be employed? For example, is it mandatory that staff members with a training and development or HR generalist background will be figured into OD roles? Is it assumed that all the necessary competencies for OD work can be trained? Will there be different types of roles on the OD team, such as analysts, project managers, and senior consultants? If so, what are the differences in roles and responsibilities between these jobs functions? Step 3: Determine the Team Mechanics - The type of work that OD practitioners perform can be immeasurable and multifaceted. Even after narrowing down the work of the unit, it is important to determine the basic viewpoint of the team. For example, some OD departments purposefully develop staff members to be specialists in delivering different types of interventions. There may be a few team members focused on coaching, leadership development, guidance and mentoring programs, all of which are aimed at the individual, while others are more practiced at facilitating large scale change processes across the enterprise. When a customer need arises under this model, the team members assemble a consulting team with the right blend of specialties to assist in that particular condition. Step 4: Start Re-branding and Marketing the Services of the OD Function – The OD functions in this area are building an assistant and advocate network, create an advisory council, influence all the available data, access your ignorance by communicating and demonstrating curiosity, facilitate key organizational initiatives, identifying the weaknesses, communicating effectively, and checking the progress and improvement that has taken place (CC, 2010).
- 11. 11 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES Discussion Organization development is a very wide-ranging term, that covers number of elements and components; the changes that take place within the organizational setting with respect to norms, policies, procedures, methods, rules and regulations can be positive which may be seen as developmental changes, whereas some of the changes are also viewed as undesirable changes by the managements and the members which are termed as deterioration. In order to bring about organization development in a positive manner, the management needs to effectively look at the characteristics of the organization, the diagnostic procedures, all the concepts and principles those are necessary for organizational change, types of changes and the functions of organization development. The management needs to control the factors that are complicated and tedious and ensure that the organizational process goes in the direction that best controls the effective and efficient fulfillment of the goals and objectives. In the competitive market, it becomes difficult for the organization to exist if it is not implementing its tasks and operations in a useful manner. In order to survive, the organization must carry out the right procedures in a right way at the right time; in order to accomplish the tasks in a right approach; the personnel and the OD practitioners are required to organize all the tasks and functions in a right way in order to achieve the desired objectives. Organization development is termed as the process of development applied to an organization; it refers to any effort made by the management, supervisors, personnel and OD practitioners to improve the organization. The individuals involved need to develop the actual knowledge and skills that are required to meet the challenges that occur within the organization development process. Changes
- 12. 12 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES that occur within the development process may be technological, cultural, psychological, social, environmental etc, and the individuals should be aware about how to carry out these changes in order to meet the developmental goals more efficiently. Bibliography Building an OD function from Training and Development Roots. The Change Collaborative. (2010). Retrieved August 11, 2014 from http://www.thechangecollaborative.com/Case_Study_- _T_D_into_OD.pdf Cummings, T.G. & Worley, C.G. (2008). Organization Development & Change. Retrieved August 09, 2014 from http://www.horist.com/images/RU/New%20folder/Organization%20a nd%20stuff/Cummings,%20Thomas%20G_/Organization%20Develo pment%20and%20Change,%209th%20ed_/Organization%20Develop ment%20and%20Change,%209th%20ed.%20- %20Thomas%20G.%20Cummings.pdf Gazaryan, A. (2006). Organizational Development. A Manual for Managers and
- 13. 13 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES Trainers. Retrieved August 10, 2014 from http://www.fpdl.ro/public/training_manuals/OD%20EN/EN%20Orga nizational%20Development.pdf McLean, G.N. (2005). Organization Development Principles, Processes, Performance. Retrieved August 09, 2014 from http://www.bkconnection.com/static/mcleanexcerpt.pdf Tripon, C & Dodu, M. (n.d.). Change Management And Organization Development. Retrieved August 11, 2014 from http://www.apubb.ro/wp- content/uploads/2011/02/OD_Suport_de_curs_masterat.pdf What is Organization Development? Chapter 1. Sage Publications. (n.d.). Retrieved August 10, 2014 from http://www.sagepub.com/upm- data/41238_1.pdf