OD INTERVENTIONS

WHAT IS ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT?Organization Development (OD) is the process of improving organizations. The process is carefully planned and implemented to benefit the organization, its employees and its stakeholders. The client organization may be an entire company, public agency, non-profit organization, volunteer group - or a smaller part of a larger organization.

The change process supports improvement of the organization or group as a whole. The client and consultant work together to gather data, define issues and determine a suitable course of action. The organization is assessed to create an understanding of the current situation and to identify opportunities for change that will meet business objectives.OD differs from traditional consulting because client involvement is encouraged throughout the entire process. The ways in which people communicate and work together are addressed concurrently with technical or procedural issues that need resolution.

WHY IS ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT IMPORTANT?Profitability, productivity, morale and quality of work life are of concern to most organizations because they impact achievement of organization goals. There is an increasing trend to maximize an organization's investment in its employees. Jobs that previously required physical dexterity now require more mental effort. Organizations need to "work smarter" and apply creative ideas.The work force has also changed. Employees expect more from a day's work than simply a day's pay. They want challenge, recognition, and a sense of accomplishment, worthwhile tasks and meaningful relationships with their managers and co-workers. When these needs are not met, performance declines.Today's customers demand continually improving quality, rapid product or service delivery; fast turn-around time on changes, competitive pricing and other features that are best achieved in complex environments by innovative organizational practices.The effective organization must be able to meet today's and tomorrow's challenges. Adaptability and responsiveness are essential to survive and thrive.

WHAT DO ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS DO?Examples of activities which are facilitated by OD consultants are:

Teambuilding

Goal Setting

Group Facilitation

Creative Problem solving

Strategic Planning

Leadership Development

Management Development

Career Management

Conflict Resolution

Developmental Education

Interpersonal Communication

Human Resources Management

Managing Workforce Diversity

Organization Restructuring

High Involvement Work Teams

Sociotechnical Systems Design

Technical Training

Total Quality Management

Often described as "change agents," OD consultants come from varied backgrounds with experience and training in organization development, organization behavior, psychology, education, management and/or human resources. Many have advanced degrees and most have experience in a variety of organizational settings.

There are both internal and external OD consultants. An internal OD consultant is a full-time employee with a given organization. External consultants may be self-employed or on the staff of a consulting firm. "Externals" work with one or more clients contracting for specific projects.

WHOM DO ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS SERVE?

OD consultants work with all levels of employees. Examples include:The Board of Directors, CEO or Vice Presidents -- during changes in corporate strategy, mission, leadership development, technology or organization structure.

Middle Managers -- within specific areas or across functions to identify sources of conflict and barriers to performance, or help build a broader vision and more effective leadership.

First-line supervisors -- improve operations and employee involvement, establish high involvement work teams, improve organizational communication, install statistical process control (SPC) develop supervisory training or new reward systems.

Line workers -- to facilitate job redesign improved performance, teambuilding or improvement in the work environment.

OD SERVICESOrganization Development (OD) consultants provide services to improve organization effectiveness and/or individual employee effectiveness. The purposes are to increase productivity, work satisfaction and profit for the client company.

Organization EffectivenessConsultants apply organization effectiveness strategies such as those shown below when there are needs for assessment, planning, growth, quality improvement, teamwork and other organizational changes.

Action Research An assessment and problem solving process aimed at improved effectiveness for the entire organization or specific work units. The consultant helps the client organization identify the strengths and weaknesses of organization and management issues and works with the client in addressing problem opportunities. (Some form of action research is generally applied as a foundation for other consulting strategies.)

Conflict Management  Bringing conflicts to the surface to discover their roots, developing a common ground from which to resolve or better manage conflict. Consultants serve as facilitator in a conflict situation or train employees to better understand and manage conflict.Executive Development

One-on-one or group developmental consultation with CEO's or VP's to improve their effectiveness.

Goal Setting Defining and applying concrete goals as a road map to help an organization get where it wants to go. (Can also be applied to employee development.)

Group Facilitation Helping people learn to interact more effectively at meetings and to apply group guidelines that foster open communication, participation and accomplishment.

Managing Resistance to Change Helping clients identify, understand, and begin to manage their resistance to planned organizational change.

Organizational Restructuring  Changing departmental and/or individual reporting structures, identifying roles and responsibilities, redesigning job functions to assure that the way work gets done in the organization produces excellence in production and service.

Project Management  The general management of specific work, blending diverse functions and skills, usually for a fixed time and aimed at reaching defined outcomes.

Self-Directed Work Teams Developing work groups to be fully responsible for creating a well defined segment of finished work.

Sociotechnical Systems Design  Designing and managing organizations to emphasize the relationship between people's performance, the workplace environment and the technology used to produce goods and services in order to effect high level productivity.

Strategic Planning  A dynamic process which defines the organization's mission and vision, sets goals and develops action steps to help an organization focus its present and future resources toward fulfilling its vision.

Teambuilding Improving how well organization members help one another in activities where they must interact.

Total Quality Management 

Through work process analysis, teambuilding, defining quality and setting measurable standards, the consultant assists the organization in becoming more cost effective, approach zero-defects and be more market-driven.

Employee EffectivenessConsultants use employee effectiveness strategies such as those below when there are needs for employee improvement in skill, commitment and leadership.

Career Counseling Focused attention on goal setting, career selection and job seeking help individuals make career decisions.

Coordination & Management of Multi-Disciplinary Consultants  One or several different technical specialists team up with an OD consultant to design and install new equipment, work processes, work methods, or work procedures.

Creative Problem Solving  Organization members use practical problem solving models to address existing problems in a systematic, creative manner.

Customer Service Training Creating interpersonal excellence in public contact positions where the individual and the organization are expected to meet or exceed customer expectations.

Developmental Education Training in basic math, reading, writing and grammar.

Interpersonal Communication Skills  Increased skill in exchanging needed information within the organization and providing feedback in a non-threatening, non-judgmental way.

Human Resource Management  Managing the function of hiring, compensation, benefits and employee relations toward systematic goals of the organization's morale and productivity.

Labor Relations Facilitation of conflict, planning and problem-solving among management and workforce union representation.

Leadership Development Training in select areas which change managers to leaders. Includes visioning, change management and creative problem solving.

Management Development Training in various management skill areas with particular focus on performance management, communications and problem solving.

Outplacement  Providing individual and group job search skills and services to employees who have been affected by corporate downsizing. Typically paid for by the employer.

Sales Training Training in the art of selling a product or service.

Stress Management An individual growth workshop designed to arm and activate healthy responses to stress. It enables participants to maximize positive stressors and minimize the negative, both for themselves and others.

Technical Training  Training in a specific technical area, such as computers.

Time Management An opportunity for individuals and organizations to effect higher levels of productivity with the time they are allotted.

Training Evaluation Systematic controlled inquiry grounded in sound statistical practice, assessing on-line training effectiveness and/or business impact. Assessment focuses on course relevance, transfer and cost value.

Workforce Diversity Facilitating understanding between groups toward the goal where differences among people in an organization become the strengths for competitive advantage, productivity and work satisfaction

TYPES OF OD INTERVENTION

Information-based Intervention

Interventions that define : Activities that specify or clarify the vision, mission, purpose, process, products, services, market position, roles, relationships, responsibilities, outcomes, expectations, and so on. Examples: holding

sessions to create vision statements; confirming market direction and market niche; mutually setting performance goals. This intervention is delivered when people are unclear, disagree, or have different expectations; there are conflicting objectives; or people do not have a shared understanding.

Interventions that inform: Activities that communicate goals, objectives, expectations, results, discrepancies, and so on. Examples: producing internal newsletters; holding debriefing sessions; giving feedback. This intervention is delivered when information has changed, the people have changed, or the people are uninformed, and the consequence is poor performance; or people don't get the information they need.

Interventions that document: Activities that codify information (to preserve it and make it accessible. Examples: setting up libraries; creating manuals, expert systems, job aids, and decision guides. This intervention is delivered when information is not accessible over time or is too complex; job aids, manuals, help screens, and so forth are lacking or inadequate, inaccurate, or hard to access.

Consequences-based Intervention

Interventions that reward: Activities and programs that induce and maintain desired behaviors, eliminate undesirable behaviors, and reward desired outcomes. Examples: holding public ceremonies and annual recognition events; paying for performance. This intervention is delivered when current incentives either reinforce the wrong behaviors or ignore the desired behaviors; or there are few incentives for people to-do beater, more, or differently.

Intervention that measure: Activities and systems that provide metrics and benchmarks so people can monitor performance and have a basis to evaluate it. Examples: developing a scorecard; tracking means and variance in performance over time. This intervention is delivered when people don’t know what criteria are being used to judge productivity, performance, value, and so on, and they could better control their own performance if they knew what the criteria were; measures of good performance are lacking; or measures are inappropriate.

Interventions that enforce: Activities that actualize consequences and achieve compliance. Example: policing; reviewing; double-checking; suspending; removing; withholding pay. This intervention is delivered when consequences for poor performance or unacceptable behavior are hidden or not enforced.

THE MAJOR FAMILIES OF OD INTERVENTION

1. Diagnostic Activities: Fact-finding activities designed to ascertain the state of the system, the status of a problem, the "way things are." Available methods range from projective devices such as build a collage that represents for you your place in this organization to the more traditional data collection methods of interviews, questionnaires, surveys, and meetings.

2. Team-Building Activities: Activities designed to enhance the effective operation of system teams. They may relate to task issues, such as the way things are done, the needed skills to accomplish tasks, the resource allocations necessary for task accomplishments; or they may relate to the nature and quality of the relationships between the team members or between members and the leader. Again, a wide range of activities is possible. In addition, consideration is given to the different kinds of teams that may exist in the organization, such as formal work teams, temporary task force teams, newly constituted teams, and cross-functional teams.

3. Intergroup Activities: Activities designed to improve effectiveness of interdependent groups. They focus on joint activities and the output of the groups considered as a single system rather than as two subsystems. When two groups are involved, the activities are generally designated intergroup or interface activities; when more than two groups are involved, the activities are often called organizational mirroring.

4. Survey Feedback Activities: Related to and similar to the diagnostic activities mentioned in that they are a large component of those activities. However, they are important enough in their own right to be considered separately. These activities center on actively working the data produced by a survey and designing action plans based on the survey data.

5. Education and Training Activities: Activities designed to

improve skills, abilities, and knowledge of individuals. There are several activities available and several approaches possible. For example, the individual can be educated in isolation from his or her own work group (say, in a T-group comprised of strangers), or one can be educated in relation to the work group (say, when a work team learns how better to manage interpersonal conflict). The activities may be directed toward technical skills required for effective task performance or may be directed toward improving interpersonal competence. The activities may be directed toward leadership issues, responsibilities and functions of group members, decision making, problem solving, goal setting and planning, and so forth.

6. Structural Activities: Activities designed to improve the effectiveness of the technical or structural inputs and constraints affecting individuals or groups. The activities may take the form of (a) experimenting with new organization structures and evaluating their effectiveness in terms of specific goals or (b) devising new ways to bring technical resources to bear on problems.

7. Process Consultation Activities: Activities on the part of the consultant that help the client to perceive, understand, and act upon process events which occur in the client's environment. These activities perhaps more accurately describe an approach, a consulting mode in which the client is given insight into the human processes in organizations and taught skills in diagnosing and managing them. Primary emphasis is on processes such as communications, leader and member roles in groups, problem solving and decision making, group norms and group growth, leadership and authority, and intergroup cooperation and competition.

8. Coaching and Counseling Activities: Activities that entail the consultant or other organization members working with individuals to help them (a) define learning goals, (b) learn how others see their behavior, and (c) learn new modes of behavior to see if these help them to achieve their goals better. A central feature of this activity is the non-evaluative feedback given by others to an individual. A second feature is the joint exploration of alternative behaviors.

9. Planning and Goal-Setting Activities: Activities that include

theory and experience in planning and goal setting, utilizing problem-solving models, planning paradigms, ideal organization versus real organization "discrepancy'' models, and the like. The goal of all of them is to improve these skills at the levels of the individual, group, and total organization.

10. Strategic Management Activities: Activities that help key policy makers reflect systematically on their organization's basic mission and goals and environmental demands, threats, and opportunities and engage in long-range action planning of both a reactive and proactive nature. These activities direct attention in two important directions: outside the organization to a consideration of the environment, and away from the present to the future

ORGANISATONAL DIAGNOSIS

In the field of Organizational Development there are many activities and

disciplines. One of those is the area of organizational diagnosis and the

use of structured organizational diagnostic tools.

The effective diagnosis of organizational culture, and structural and

operational strengths and weaknesses are fundamental to any successful

organizational development intervention.

Since the beginnings of organizational development as a profession,

diagnosis has moved from the purely behavioral towards a strategic and

holistic business diagnostic approach. Moving away from looking at human

interventions in isolation, to exploring the interactions of people in the

context in which they operate. Equally as organizations are increasingly

collaborative in nature, the traditional silo approach to diagnostics is

becoming increasingly rare. Organizational development and in particular

the diagnostic phase of activities is spreading from the occupational

psychologists towards main stream business. This is important for OD

practitioners as the role is increasingly holistic

The organizational Diagnostic phase is often integrated within an overall OD

process, commonly called 'a consulting process'. An example of such a

process is:

Entry --> Diagnosis --> Action Planning --> Implementation -->

Termination [2]

As the second phase in most change of consulting cycles it is also the first

fully operational phase of the consulting process or cycle. The purpose of the

diagnosis is to examine the problem faced by the organization in some

detail, to identify factors and forces that are causing the problem and

prepare all information needed for deciding how to orient any possible

solutions to the problems identified.

The diagnosis of the problem is a separate phase or set of activities from the

solutions themselves.

TEAM BUILDING

Team Building refers to a wide range of activities, presented to businesses, schools, sports teams, religious or nonprofit organizations designed for improving team performance Team building is pursued via a variety of practices, and can range from simple bonding exercises to complex simulations and multi-day team building retreats designed to develop a team (including group assessment and group-dynamic games), usually falling somewhere in between. It generally sits within the theory and practice of organizational development, but can also be applied to sports teams, school groups, and other contexts. Team building is not to be confused with "team recreation" that consists of activities for teams that are strictly recreational. Teambuilding is an important factor in any environment, its focus is to specialize in bringing out the best in a team to ensure self development, positive communication, leadership skills and the ability to work closely together as a team to problem solve.

Work environments tend to focus on individuals and personal goals, with reward & recognition singling out the achievements of individual employees. "How to create effective teams is a challenge in every organization" Team building can also refer to the process of selecting or creating a team from scratch.

Reasons for Team Building include

Improving communication

Making the workplace more enjoyable

Motivating a team

Getting to know each other

Getting everyone "onto the same page", including goal setting

Teaching the team self-regulation strategies

Helping participants to learn more about themselves (strengths and weaknesses)

Identifying and utilizing the strengths of team members

Improving team productivity

Practicing effective collaboration with team members

What are Team Building Exercises and what is their purpose?

Team building exercises consist of a variety of tasks designed to develop group members and their ability to work together effectively. There are many types of team building activities that range from kids games to games that involve novel complex tasks and are designed for specific needs. There are also more complex team building exercises that are composed of multiple exercises such as ropes courses, corporate drumming and exercises that last over several days. The purpose of team building exercises is to assist teams in becoming cohesive units of individuals that can effectively work together to complete tasks.

Types of Team Building Exercises

Communication Exercise

This type of team building exercise is exactly what it sounds like. Communications exercises are problem solving activities that are geared towards improving communication skills. The issues teams encounter in these exercises are solved by communicating effectively with each other.

• Goal: Create an activity which highlights the importance of good communication in team performance and/or potential problems with communication.

Problem Solving/Decision Making Exercise

Problem Solving/Decision making exercises focus specifically on groups working together to solve difficult problems or make complex decisions. These exercises are some of the most common as they appear to have the most direct link to what employers want their teams to be able to do.

• Goal: Give team a problem in which the solution is not easily apparent or requires the team to come up with a creative solution

Planning/Adaptability Exercise

These exercises focus on aspects of planning and being adaptable to change. These are important things for teams to be able to do when they are assigned complex tasks or decisions. • Goal: Show the importance of planning before implementing a solution

Trust Exercise

A trust exercise involves engaging team members in a way that will induce trust between them. They are sometimes difficult exercises to implement as there are varying degrees of trust between individuals and varying degrees of individual comfort trusting others in general.

• Goal: Create trust between team members

Subgroups of Team Building Exercises

simple social activities - to encourage team members to spend time together

group bonding sessions - company sponsored fun activities to get to know team members (sometimes intending also to inspire creativity)

personal development activities - individual programs given to groups (sometimes physically challenging)

team development activities - group-dynamic games designed to help individuals discover how they approach a problem, how the team works together, and discover better methods

psychological analysis of team roles, and training in how to work better together

Team interaction involves "soft" interpersonal skills including communication, negotiation, leadership, and motivation - in contrast to technical skills directly involved with the job at hand. Depending on the type of team building, the novel tasks can encourage or specifically teach interpersonal team skills to increase team performance.

Models of Team Behavior

Team building generally sits within the theory and practice of organizational development. The related field of team management refers to techniques, processes and tools for organizing and coordinating a team towards a common goal - as well as the inhibitors to teamwork and ways to remove, mitigate or overcome them.

Several well-known approaches to team management have come out of academic work.

The forming-storming-norming-performing model posits four stages of new team development to reach high performance. Some team activities are designed to speed up (or improve) this process in the safe team development environment.

Belbin Team Types can be assessed to gain insight into an individual's natural behavioral tendencies in a team context, and can be used to create and develop better functioning teams.

Team Sociomapping is a visual approach to team process and structure modeling. This model is based on social networks approach and improves the team performance by improvement of specific cooperation ties between the people.

Organizational Development

In the organizational development context, a team may embark on a process of self-assessment to gauge its effectiveness and improve its performance. To assess itself, a team seeks feedback from group members to find out both its current strengths and weakness.

To improve its current performance, feedback from the team assessment can be used to identify gaps between the desired state and the current state, and to design a gap-closure strategy. Team development can be the greater term containing this assessment and improvement actions, or as a component of organizational development.

Another way is to allow for personality assessment amongst the team members, so that they will have a better understanding of their working style, as well as their fellow team mates.

A structured teambuilding plan is a good tool to implement team bonding and thus, team awareness. These may be introduced by companies that does teambuilding sessionsm, or done internally by the human resource department.

What does a Team-Building Consultant do?

A team-building consultant is responsible for each component of a team

building intervention. He will likely interact with the team once, or for a

limited number of times. During these first contacts, actively assessing the

team, making recommendations, and providing activities (exercises that

compose a team building intervention) for the team are the main

responsibilities of the consultant. Moreover, usually a written proposal is

required after the evaluation process, in which the trainer indicates how he

or she would go about improving the team’s performance. Once the

organization and consultant determine which recommendations to utilize (if

not all), the consultant is then responsible for providing a useful intervention

that will transfer back into the organizational setting. This responsibility

usually requires the consultant to create a detailed plan of events, while

allowing for flexibility. After the intervention has been employed, the

consultant will typically evaluate the team-building program and

communicate the results to the organization

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 objectives 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 team’s

performance”

SURVEY FEEDBACK

In globally competitive environments, organizations are seeking information about obstacles to productivity and satisfaction in the workplace. Survey feedback is a tool that can provide this type of honest feedback to help leaders guide and direct their teams. Obstacles and gaps between the

current status quo and the desired situations may or may not be directly apparent. In either case, it is vital to have a clear understanding of strategies for diagnosis and prevention of important organization problems. If all leaders and members alike are clear about the organizational development and change, strengths, weakness, strategies can be designed and implemented to support positive change. Survey feedback provides a participative approach and enables all members to become actively engaged in managing the work environment.

SURVEY PROCESS STEPS:

1. Identify project plan and objectives2. Brief team leaders and employees about the process3. Administer survey4. Conduct interviews and focus groups5. Train leaders on facilitating team discussions6. Analyze the data and construct a report7. Provide feedback to leaders8. Team leaders conduct feedback action planning and meetings9. Leaders present reports on progress and results to Senior Management10. Follow-up by senior leadership to ensure progress and

accountability

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEAM LEADER:

Once the data has been collected and observations have been clarified, it becomes the leader’s responsibility to familiarize the team with the findings. Next the leader involves the team in outlining appropriate solutions and strategies that members can "buy into" and support over the long-haul. When leaders can facilitate collaborative teaming and become an organizational development and change agent, people in the team will contribute creative ideas to enhance their work environment.

It is important for leaders to not underestimate the time and facilitation skills needed to pass on the information and foster an action-oriented environment. The initial meetings and communication sessions are just the start of a development process, not a single event. If the survey feedback is to be effective, it must be implemented into a comprehensive strategy that includes goals, responsibilities, time frames, revisions, and reviews.

Prior to the action meetings, leaders need to gain a full understanding of the survey data and begin to structure a plan for the first meeting. Once the meeting begins, the leader should guide the group's evaluation of the results and development of solutions. Following the initial meeting, a summary should be documented and action plans circulated. Follow-up meetings are necessary to coordinate and evaluate changes and progress. Action plans

are the means of fully utilizing the survey feedback, without it we simply have a snap shot of where the organization is, with no plan for positive change.

If the team feedback meeting is poorly handled, there will be low front-end commitment on the part of the team. Of course group dynamics will be unique in every situation, and the leader will need to consider this as the survey data is disseminated. Tailoring sessions to meet the group characteristics will provide for a more effective discussion. In any case, consider a few of these ideas:

Be optimistic and excited about the information and how it can be used to better the organization. 

Verbally express positive points.  Ask for participation by all members and reinforce their openness and

contributions.  Invite them to explore with you the areas that need improvement. Be supportive and clear about action and follow-up plans.  Establish a clear commitment to utilize the survey feedback long-term

and seek further feedback from the group. 

TECHNO STRUCTURAL ACTIVITIES

Techno structural interventionsTechno structural 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 and Worley (2001) techno structural approaches focus on improving an organization’s 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.

This class of interventions include changes in how the overall work of an organization is divided into units, who reports to whom, methods of control, the arrangement of equipment and people, work flow arrangements and changes in communications and authority.

1. Sociotechnical System: is largely associated with experiments attempted to create better fit among the technology, structure and social interactions of a particular production unit.

Premises of Sociotechnical System (1) Effective work system must jointly optimize the relationship between their social and technical parts.(2) Such system must effectively manage the boundary separating and relating them to the environment.

This system tend to feature the formation of autonomous work group, the grouping of core tasks so that a team has major unit of total work to be accomplished, the training of group members in multiple skills, delegation to the work group of many aspects of how the work gets done, and the availability of great deal of information and feedback to work groups for self-regulation of productivity and quality.

2. Self managed teamswhat is a self-managed team?A self-managed team has total responsibility for its defined remit.That remit might be a specific project. A self-managed team thrives on interacting skill sets, on shared motivation and shared leadership.The team is autonomous and its members are responsible to no one but each other. The team’s accountability is based on team’s result and not on the performance of its members. Individual performance is an internal team issue.A self-managed team is not just a group of people working together but also a genuine collaboration. It is measured by its results, not the performance of its individual member.Self-managed teams:• Are more independent than other types of team.• Help to flatten organizational structure.• Eliminate intermediate levels of responsibility and removes the requirement for middle management.• Favor natural leaders.

Self –managed teams:• Should set their targets.• Should be fully empowered.• Must monitor performance and maintain quality.• Should be able to request assistance from outside the team but never have it imposed.• Must maintain contact with the organization.

3. Work redesign 

(Richard Hackman & Greg Oldham)OD approach to work redesign based on a theoretical model of what job characteristics lead to the psychological states that produce what they call "higher internal work motivation."

According Hackman and Oldham organization analyses jobs using the five core job characteristics - i.e. skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback from the job.

Skill variety Related to experiencedTask identity meaningfulness of the workTask significance

Job autonomy - Related to experiencedresponsibility for the outcomeof the work

Feedback - related to psychological stateof knowledge of the result of thework activities.

The outcome of these job characteristics is:High work motivationHigh satisfactionHigh work effectiveness.

4. Quality of work life (QWL)

An attempt to restructure multiple dimensions of the organization and to institute a mechanism, which introduces and sustains changes over time.

QWL Features- Voluntary involvement on the part of employees- Union agreement with process and participation.- Assurance of no loss of job- Training for team problem solving- Use of quality circles- Participation in forecasting, work planning- Regular plant and team meetings.

- Encouragement for skill development.- Job rotations.

5. Business Process Reengineering is the analysis and design of workflows and processes within an organization. A business process is a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome. Re-engineering is the basis for many recent developments in management. The cross-functional team, for example, has become popular because of the desire to re-engineer separate functional tasks into complete cross-functional processesBusiness Process Reengineering is also known as Business Process Redesign, Business Transformation, or Business Process Change Management.

Business process reengineering (BPR) began as a private sector technique to help organizations fundamentally rethink how they do their work in order to dramatically improve customer service, cut operational costs, and become world-class competitors. A key stimulus for reengineering has been the continuing development and deployment of sophisticated information systems and networks. Leading organizations are becoming bolder in using this technology to support innovative business processes, rather than refining current ways of doing work.

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is basically the fundamental rethinking and radical re-design, made to an organization existing resources. It is more than just business improvising.It is an approach for redesigning the way work is done to better support the organization's mission and reduce costs. Reengineering starts with a high-level assessment of the organization's mission, strategic goals, and customer

needs. Basic questions are asked, such as "Does our mission need to be redefined? Are our strategic goals aligned with our mission? Who are our customers?" An organization may find that it is operating on questionable assumptions, particularly in terms of the wants and needs of its customers. Only after the organization rethinks what it should be doing, does it go on to decide how best to do it.Within the framework of this basic assessment of mission and goals, reengineering focuses on the organization's business processes—the steps and procedures that govern how resources are used to create products and services that meet the needs of particular customers or markets. As a structured ordering of work steps across time and place, a business process can be decomposed into specific activities, measured, modeled, and improved. It can also be completely redesigned or eliminated altogether. Reengineering identifies, analyzes, and redesigns an organization's core business processes with the aim of achieving dramatic improvements in critical performance measures, such as cost, quality, service, and speed.Reengineering recognizes that an organization's business processes are usually fragmented into sub processes and tasks that are carried out by several specialized functional areas within the organization. Often, no one is responsible for the overall performance of the entire process. Reengineering maintains that optimizing the performance of sub processes can result in some benefits, but cannot yield dramatic improvements if the process itself is fundamentally inefficient and outmoded. For that reason, reengineering focuses on redesigning the process as a whole in order to achieve the greatest possible benefits to the organization and their customers. This drive for realizing dramatic improvements by fundamentally rethinking how the organization's work should be done distinguishes reengineering from process improvement efforts that focus on functional or incremental improvement.

The Impact of BPR on Organizational PerformanceThe two cornerstones of any organization are the people and the processes. If individuals are motivated and working hard, yet the business processes are cumbersome and non-essential activities remain, organizational performance will be poor. Business Process Reengineering is the key to transforming how people work. What appear to be minor changes in processes can have dramatic effects on cash flow, service delivery and customer satisfaction. Even the act of documenting business processes alone will typically improve organizational efficiency by 10%.

How to Implement A BPR ProjectThe best way to map and improve the organization's procedures is to take a top down approach, and not undertake a project in isolation. That means:

Starting with mission statements that define the purpose of the organization and describe what sets it apart from others in its sector or industry.

Producing vision statements which define where the organization is going, to provide a clear picture of the desired future position.

Build these into a clear business strategy thereby deriving the project objectives.

Defining behaviors that will enable the organization to achieve its' aims.

Producing key performance measures to track progress. Relating efficiency improvements to the culture of the organization Identifying initiatives that will improve performance.

Once these building blocks are in place, the BPR exercise can begin.

GRID OD

Grid O.D. is a systematic six-phase theory-based programme, which develops from the research and insights of the Managerial Grid theory. It is a normative approach in that it is built on the premise that awareness starts at the individual level and builds the foundation for further development. Team learning builds on the development of individual awareness and critique skills, and intergroup learning works best when the teams involved share commitment and common objectives. These three characteristics are a prerequisite for a total organization approach to strategy and transformation.

Grid Organization Development is a structured approach to O.D. which aims at creating and implementing systematic change in organizations (Blake & Mouton, 1969; Blake, Mouton & McCanse, 1989). The goal of Grid O.D. is to use the Grid theory of leadership styles to establish candor, mutual, trust, and respect in the workplace. The theory and seminars provide a framework for identifying sound and unsound behaviors in the workplace, and create standards of excellence in teamwork. The core insight of the Grid is that the 3 Rs of people management - resources, relationships and results - are optimally managed and transformed by studying the degree of concern for results and people issues as they interact interdependently in work relationships (Blake & McCanse, 1991; McKee & Carlson, 1999). Learning begins with individual development as related to seven specific behaviors, including initiative, inquiry, advocacy, decision making, conflict resolution, resilience, and critique. The learning then progresses to intact teams and intergroup development. These first three stages of Grid O.D. lay the foundation for organization wide change by building shared assumptions and candor, decreasing resistance to change, and increasing commitment and personal stake. Organizations can then begin addressing strategic change, which occupy the second three stages of Grid O.D.. There are six programmed phases of Grid O.D... (Figure 1)

Phase I - The Grid Seminar

The Grid seminar is a weeklong seminar in which managers and organization leaders examine their own leadership style in comparison with the Grid theory of styles. Through a series of scored activities, and critique and feedback, participants learn how their personal behavior impacts the people around them. The seven styles of leadership are analyzed and evaluated as the participants test their effectiveness against various measurements. Participants also learn specific skills to increase effectiveness. The synergetic designs make the experience more lasting than a traditional lecture-notes-test-grading setting (Mouton & Blake, 1984). Anxieties relating to personal performance are reduced by conducting the seminar composed of "stranger" teams, where no direct co-workers participate in the same team. This team structure allows members to feel more comfortable in exploring personal critique and feedback, many for the first time. The synergetic designs also increase the transfer of learning by accurately re-creating the workplace in the activities. Team members are forced to deal with diverse personalities, competition, conflict, time pressure, and competition issues in order to make progress. By the end of the week, members have enough experience with each other to provide constructive critique regarding personal performance. Members also have enough experience to provide concrete and meaningful examples that often reflect comments heard before but ignored or discounted.

Phase 2 - Grid Team BuildingPhase 2 carries the same learning from the individual setting into the intact work teams. A series of 3-4 day workshops are held during which teams apply their Phase 1 Grid Seminar learning to their own team's performance. Key team structure and process issues such as: mutual trust and respect, problem-solving, decision-making, building commitment, role definition, performance review, evaluating culture and so on, are examined in comparison with an agreed-upon model of effectiveness. The motivational "gap" produced by the comparison is then addressed by the team through designing specific improvement steps. As a conclusion, team members create an action plan for specific team-effort project along with criteria for measurement and follow-up.

Phase 3 - Intergroup Development/Interface Conflict SolvingPhase 3 is aimed at solving conflicts which might occur between two teams, groups, units, departments or management and unions. Key representatives of each group engage in a structured process whereby they study the relationship and structures as they currently exist, analyze the underlying issues and establish ways of dealing with the areas of disagreement or conflict (Blake & Mouton, 1984).

Phase 4 - Developing an Ideal Strategic ModelIn the Phase 4 design, senior organizational leaders work towards establishing a vision of organizational excellence through: (1) specifying key

optimum and minimum financial objectives, (2) clear and explicit definitions of the nature and scope of organizational activities to be pursued, (3) clear operational definitions of the nature and scope of markets, customers etc., (4) an organizational structure which integrates operations, (5) basic policies for organizational decision-making, and (6) identifying development requirements for growth and avoiding obsolescence and stagnation. With the organization sharing the "common language" of what effective leadership looks like, they are in a better position to begin designing and implementing change strategies. The assumption of the Grid learning is that strategic planning can only take place when underlying and unresolved dynamic issues are overcome. The synergetic design used to develop an ideal strategic model increases commitment by giving people throughout the organization a sense of personal stake and involvement with in the effort to be undertaken. This occurs through the structured critique cycles that include participation across the organization's hierarchy.

Phase 5 - Implementing the Ideal Strategic ModelBlake and Mouton point out that if the four phases have been completed successfully, many of the barriers to implementation will have already been surmounted or reduced. Implementing the strategic model becomes a matter of: (1) studying the gap between the ideal mode and the existing organization culture and structure, (2) specifying which parts of the organization are sound and which parts require change, (3) designing implementation steps from move from the existing to the ideal, (4) continuing to keep the business in operation which simultaneously changing towards the ideal model.

Phase 6 - Consolidation of the ModelThe final phase is the systematic effort to assess and evaluate progress by critiquing the change effort, identifying problems and taking corrective action, and monitoring changes in the external environment which make forced changes in the model. As Blake, Mouton and McCanse (1989) point out, these six phases are not a fixed and inviolate sequence. There is a natural flow to them in that insights from the Grid seminar may be brought to the team building activity, and so on. It is not uncommon, however, to begin with the Interface Conflict Solving (Phase 3) to resolve an existing impasse, and then move to individual and team development.In summary, Grid O.D. is a systematic six-phase theory-based programme, which develops from the research and insights of the Managerial Grid theory and forty years of testing. It is a normative approach in that it is built on the premise that awareness starts at the individual level and builds the foundation for further development. Team learning builds on the development of individual awareness and critique skills, and intergroup learning works best when the teams involved share commitment and common objectives. These three characteristics are a prerequisite for a total organization approach to strategy and transformation.

BEHAVIOR MODELLING

Behavior modeling involves (1) showing trainees the right or model way of

doing something (2) letting trainees practice that way, and then (3) giving

feedback on the trainees’ performance. Behavior modeling training is one of

the most widely used, well researched and highly regarded psychological

based training interventions. The basic procedure is as follows:

1. Modeling: First, trainees watch live or video examples that show models

behaving effectively in a problem situation. The video might show a

supervisor effectively disciplining a subordinate, if teaching how to discipline

is the aim of the training program.

2. Role playing: Next, the trainees are given roles to play in a simulated

situation; here they practice and rehearse the effective demonstrated by the

models.

3. Social reinforcements: The trainer provides reinforcement in the form of

praise and constructive feedback based on how the trainee performs in the

role playing situation.

4. Transfer of training: Finally, trainees are encouraged to apply their new

skills when they are back on their job..

The Modeling Process. The following steps are involved in the observational learning and modeling process:

Attention: In order to learn, you need to be paying attention. Anything that detracts your attention is going to have a negative effect on observational learning. If the model interesting or there is a novel aspect to the situation, you are far more likely to dedicate your full attention to learning.

Retention: The ability to store information is also an important part of the learning process. Retention can be affected by a number of factors, but the ability to pull up information later and act on it is vital to observational learning.

Reproduction: Once you have paid attention to the model and retained the information, it is time to actually perform the behavior you observed. Further practice of the learned behavior leads to improvement and skill advancement.

Motivation: Finally, in order for observational learning to be successful, you have to be motivated to imitate the behavior that has been modeled. Reinforcement and punishment play an important role in motivation. While experiencing these motivators can be highly effective, so can observing other experience some type of reinforcement or punishment. For example, if you see another student rewarded with extra credit for being to class on time, you might start to show up a few minutes early each day.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Organizational development services have simplified the learning process by creating a wide range of programs that compliment just about any business environment. Organizational development consultants can train staff through various formats, some of which allow them to bring workshops and seminars directly to your office.

Organizational development education and training programs have moved beyond the traditional classroom setting, making it convenient to learn more about organizational development issues and techniques. 

In house development center: A company based method for exposing prospective managers to realistic exercises to develop improved management skills.

Corporate Universities: Many firms, particularly larger ones, establish in house development centers (often called corporate universities). GE, McDonalds, and IBM are just a few examples. In–house development centers typically offer a catalogue of courses and special programs aimed at supporting the employers’ management development need. They typically do not produce all (or most) of their own training and development programs, although some do. In fact, employers are increasingly collaborating with academic institutions, training and development program

providers program providers and Web based educational portals to create packages of programs and materials appropriate to their employees’ needs.

For many firms, learning portals are becoming their virtual corporate universities. While firms such as GE have long had their own bricks and mortar corporate universities, learning portals let even smaller firms have corporate universities. Bain & Company, management consulting firm, has such a Web based virtual university for its employees. It provides a means not only for conveniently coordinating all the company’s training efforts , but also for delivering web based modules that cover topics from strategic management to mentoring.

Many Indian firms have also set up in house development centers along the lines of corporate universities. Indian public sector units (PSUs) have established dedicated training institutions with separate campus and trainers for training their employees. SAIL, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL). Public Sector Units (PSU) banks and insurance companies are examples of such organizations. Recent examples include the Infosys academy in Mysore, the Apollo Laureate Academy of Apollo Tyres Ltd., Satyam Learning Center (SLC) established by Satyam Computers, the Indian Oil Institute of Petroleum Management of IOCL, and the Tata Management training Center (TMTC) constituted for the Tata group. Groups of industries or industrial associations have sponsored learning centers to cater to the industry’s learning requirements.

The National Institute of bank management (NIBM) at Pune has been founded by the banking industry to function as the apex level training center for banking in India. Similarly, the National Insurance Academy (NIA) established by the insurance industry. The National Institute of Construction Management and Research (NICMR) was found by the construction industry and the Ahmadabad Textile Research Association (ATIRA) by the textile industry.

ORGANISATIONAL TRANSFORMATION ACTIVITIES

Wendell L. French & Cecil H. Bell, Jr. (1999) define Organisational Transformation activities as those that involve large-scale system changes, specifically activities that are designed to change fundamentally the nature of the organization. In the process of true Organisational Transformation, almost everything about the organization is changed including the structure, management philosophy, reward systems, the design of work and the organization’s mission, values and culture.

Large-scale transformation in organizations needs to be seen as both a re-socialization process as well as a journey of discovery. 

Today’s organizations need to renew and reinvent themselves continually in order to stay ahead of the competition. To achieve this, business leaders need to anticipate trends and grow their organization’s capacity for continuous learning. Laszlo and Laugel (2000) note that a key focus for leaders should be nurturing the emergence of organizational intelligence.

Global corporations of today need to be less focused on structure and internal resources and more on the dynamics of change. Companies are defined by their ideas and business processes, the nature of their internal and external relationships and by the way they work with their business partners. Organisations are looking for ways to encourage integration and create more fluid boundaries.

And transformational leaders are creating environments in which diverse viewpoints are encouraged in a culture of sharing, mutual respect, active listening and dialogue.

Transformational leaders, when managing large-scale change in organizations, are recognizing that they are managing ‘multiple-realities’ to the extent that no single change intervention is now viewed as being sufficient to make large-scale transformational change happen successfully. These leaders are looking for multiple methods for influencing the transformational process.

This is why Whole-System Participatory approaches, specifically large-group intervention models which incorporate small-group work sessions, are providing some of the best opportunities to leaders who are driving large-scale change in their organizations

. Three Types of Transformation

1. Improving Operation: To achieve a quantum improvement in the firm's efficiency, often by reducing costs, improving quality and services and reducing development time.2. Strategic Transformation: The process of changing strategy seeks to regain a sustainable competitive advantage by redefining business objectives, creating new competences and harnessing these capabilities to meet market opportunities.3. Corporate Self-Renewal: Self-Renewal creates the ability for a firm to anticipate and cope with change so that strategic and operational gap does not develop.

Phases of Transformation 

Phase-1: It begins with the automation of existing activities to reduce cost and raise capacities and expands to encompass a broader range of applications to optimize operations.Phase-2: It focuses on adding features, functions, value-added processes and new service to the core business.Phase 3: It may become principal vehicles for growth; the existing business can be redefined.