15 Organization Development SMU

Organization Development Unit 15

Sikkim Manipal University 205

Unit 15 Organization Development

Structure

15.1 Introduction

Objectives

15.2 Characteristics of Organization development

Self Assessment Questions 1

15.3 History of organization development


15.4 Process of organization development


15.5 OD interventions


15.6 Summary

Terminal Questions

Answer to SAQ’s and TQ’s

15.1 Introduction

Organization development (OD) is a planned approach to improve employee and organizational

effectiveness by conscious interventions in those processes and structures that have an immediate

bearing on the human aspect of the organization (Ramanarayan, Rao, and Singh 1998). OD is an

organizationwide planned effort, managed from the top, to increase organizational effectiveness and

health through planned interventions in the organizational processes, using behavioural science

knowledge. In the initial phase of the development of OD, primary focus was on human as well as the

process aspect of the organizations with a view to improve trust, communication, teamwork and

interpersonal relationship (Friedlander and Brown 1974).



Learning objectives:

The learning objectives of this unit are as follows:

1. Characteristics of Organization development

2. History of organization development

3. OD interventions

15.2 Characteristics Of Organization Development

A number of special characteristics together distinguish organizational development from other

approaches to managing and improving organizational function.

Behavioural science base It is primarily concerned with improving the organization by focusing on aspects that have a bearing

on human and social improvement. Its principles have been drawn largely from the field of

organizational behavior and social sciences.

Normative approach to organizational change OD is a normative process grounded in valueladen assumption of what constitutes ideal individual

and organizational growth. Development for the OD practitioners means the movement of individuals

and organizations in certain directions consistent with democratic and humanistic values and ideals

such as autonomy, selfactualization, etc.

Deliberate intervention in the organization OD implies deliberate intervention in the ongoing processes of an organization. While all the social

systems, in the ordinary course of events, tend to grow in predictable patterns, they may fail to

optimize their capabilities due to an inability to recognize their potential or to anticipate and effectively

cope with internal and external crisis. Development implies planning and action to ensure that growth

takes place consistent with values.



Normative deductive strategy – It is based on the assumptions that the social norms are one of the strong reinforcers of behaviour

(Chin and Benne 1976). The culture of the organization is affected by those norms and hence, to

change the existing organizational culture prevalent norms have to be reduced, modified and

replaced by more effective ones. This approach talks about the change in the organization, which

looks forward to a longterm improvement through internalization of new norms of behavior.

Systems approach to change

Leavitt (1972) has viewed an organization as a social system consisting of different subsystems

such as task, structure, technology and human resource, interlinked by various processes. Any

change in one part or process has implications for other parts or processes relevant to the system.

OD techniques are used to change or modify the processes to change the system consequently.

Using actionresearch model – Actionresearch model is a “data based, problem solving model that replicated the steps involved in

the scientific method of inquiry” (French and Bell 1991). OD, using this model, involves a systematic

process of diagonising organizational problems through data collection and analysis, feeding the data

back to the organizational client group, discussing the findings, planning collaborative action and

implementing proposed solutions.

Use of external consultant Here, the assumption in OD is that the presence of a qualified behavioural scientist as an external

consultant can help the process of OD in the following manner:

• The specialized knowledge of that consultant becomes available to the organization.

• The consultant, as a neutral outsider, is likely to face lesser resistance during the process of

change.

• He is less likely to have a personal stake in implementation of proposed change.




1. OD implies ____________________ intervention in the ongoing processes of an organization

2. It is based on the assumptions that the social norms are one of the strong ________________ of behaviour

3. Leavitt (1972) has viewed an organization as a ___________system

15.3 History Of Organization Development The concept of OD has emerged from four stems. They are described below:

Laboratory training background

This is popularly known as Tgroup or Sensitivity Training conducted in the National Training

Laboratory (NTL). Kurt Lewin was the pioneer of this research. In this training, a small unstructured

group of participants, unknown to each other, learnt about issues such as interpersonal relations,

personal growth, leadership and group dynamics from their own interactions. The experiment

concluded:

• Feedback about group interaction was a rich learning experience.

• The process of groupbuilding had potential for learning that could be transferred to backhome

situation.

Actionresearch/surveyfeedback background It was observed that a collaborative effort between the organizational members and the scientists

was required to gather data about an organization’s functioning to analyze the causes of problems,

and to devise and implement solutions. Further work in this area was conducted by Likert (1967) and

Mann (1962). Data was required to assess the degree of effectiveness of those solutions. This

approach, today, is as one of the most important methods for OD interventions in organizations.

Participative management background



Following the beliefs proposed by the two stems discussed earlier, Likert (1967) proposed another

framework to enhance organizational effectiveness. This framework proposed organizations as

having one of the four types of management systems:

• Exploitive authoritative system (system 1) which exhibits an autocratic topdown approach to

leadership.

• Benevolent authoritative system (system 2) which is more paternalistic than system 1.

• Consultative system (system 3) which is characterized by increased employee interaction, open

communication and decisionmaking.

• Participative group (system 4) which nurtures high degree of employee involvement, participation

and open work culture.

Using system management, through a surveyfeedback process, Likert experimented with several

interventions. The open culture and employee involvement facilitated the implementation process of

the solutions provided for the problems.

Quality of work life (QWL) background Based on the research of Eric Trist et al. at the Tavistcock Institute of Human Relations in London,

this approach looked both at technical and human sides of organizations and how they are

interrelated. QWL programs, in general, require joint participation by union and management in the

process of workdesigning, which consequently result into high level of task variety, appropriate

feedback and employee discretion. The most distinguishing feature of QWL program is the

development of selfmanaging work groups which consist of multiskilled workers.


1. Laboratory training is popularly known as __________ training.

2. Exploitive authoritative system exhibits an autocratic ______________ approach to leadership.

3. The most distinguishing feature of QWL program is the development of __________________

work groups which consist of multiskilled workers.



15.4 Process Of Organization Development

A typical OD process can be divided into the following phases:

Problem identification: The first step in OD process involves understanding and identification of the

existing and potential problems in the organization. The awareness of the problem includes

knowledge of the possible organizational problems of growth, human satisfaction, the usage of

human resource and organizational effectiveness.

Data collection: Having understood the exact problem in this phase, the relevant data is collected

through personal interviews, observations and questionnaires.

Diagnosis: OD efforts begin with diagnosis of the current situation. Usually, it is not limited to a single

problem. Rather a number of factors like attitudes, assumptions, available resources and

management practice are taken into account in this phase. According to Rao and Hari Krishna

(2002), four steps in organizational diagnosis can be identified:

Structural analysis: Determines how the different parts of the organization are functioning in terms of

laid down goals.

Processes analysis: Process implies the manner in which events take place in a sequence. It refers

to the pattern of decisionmaking, communication, group dynamics and conflict management patterns

within organizations to help in the process of attainment of organizational goals.

Function analysis: This includes strategic variables, performance variables, results, achievements

and final outcomes.

Domain analysis: Domain refers to the area of the organization for organizational diagnosis.

Planning and implementation: After diagnosing the problem, the next phase of OD, with the OD

interventions, involves the planning and implementation part of the change process.



Evaluation and feedback: Any OD activity is incomplete without proper feedback. Feedback is a

process of relaying evaluations to the client group by means of specific report or interaction.

Self assessment questions 3

1. The __________ step in OD process involves understanding and identification of the existing and potential problems in the organization.

2. Any OD activity is incomplete without proper _____________.

15.5 OD Interventions

OD intervention refers to an activity that is carried on in an organization with the help of an internal or

external OD consultant for achieving a given goal or objective (Prasad 1970). Broadly, OD

interventions can be categorized as under:

• Human process interventions

• Technostructural interventions

• Human resource interventions

• Strategic interventions

Human Process Interventions

These interventions are aimed at the social processes occurring within organizations. Some of the

important human process interventions are discussed below.

Tgroups Tgroups are designed to provide members with experiential learning about group dynamics,

leadership and interpersonal relationships. The basic Tgroup training or sensitivity training is to

change the standards, attitudes and behavior of individuals by using psychological techniques and

programs. Sensitivity training involves group confession where the individual’s problems become the

problems of the group, which in turn tries to find a solution. After critiquing others and being critiqued,

doubt is introduced into the mind of each individual as to whose standards are really proper. The

objectives of Tgroup training are:



• Increased understanding, insight and selfawareness about one’s own and others’ behavior and

its impact on self and others.

• Better understanding about the group and intergroup processes (facilitating and inhibiting group

function).

• Increased diagnostic skills.

• Increased ability to transfer learning into action.

Process consultation It has been defined as a set of activities on the part of the consultant that helped the client to

perceive, understand and act upon the process of events that occur in the client’s environment in

order to improve the situation as defined by the client (Schein 1987: 11).

It deals primarily with five important group processes:

• Communication.

• The functional roles of group members.

• The ways in which the group solves problems and makes decisions.

• The development and growth of group norms.

• The use of leadership and authority.

Third party interventions It focuses on interpersonal or intergroup conflicts. Conflicts can arise from two sources:

• Substantive issues like work methods, pay rates and conditions of employment.

• Interpersonal issues such as differences in personality, task orientations, perceptions among

group members, completion over scarce resources.

Team building It is an effective approach to develop and nurture a team culture in an organization, which helps the

group members to enhance their interpersonal and problemsolving skills. It also helps group

members to develop a higher level of motivation to carry out the group decisions by overcoming

specific problems like apathy, general lack of interest among members, loss of productivity,

increasing complaints within the group, confusion about assignments, low participation in meetings,

lack of innovation and initiation, increasing complaints from those outside the group about the quality,



timeliness, effectiveness of services and products, etc. This intervention can be used for the following

types of teams:

• Groups reporting to the same supervisor, manager/executive.

• Groups involving people with common organizational goals.

• Temporary group formed to perform a specific, onetime task.

• Groups consisting of people whose work roles are interdependent.

• Groups whose members have no formal links in the organization, but whose collective purpose is

to achieve task they can achieve as individuals.

Depending on the types of teams, there are a number of factors that affect the outcome of

a specific teambuilding activity:

• The length of time allocated to the activity.

• The team’s willingness to look at the way in which it operates.

• The length of time the team has been working together.

• The permanence of the teams.

Technostructural Interventions

Due to increasing global competition and rapid technological and environmental changes, the

organizations are forced to move away traditional bureaucratic structures (functional, self contained

and matrix structure) to more flexible structures (processbased and networkbased structures). This

involves streamlining of workflows through structural adjustments by breaking down functional

barriers. In this context, the technostructural interventions help the organizations in structural

redesigning aiming at reorganizing organizational structure, the alternative methods of organizing

work activities and integrating people in a better way.

Human Resource Interventions

These are concerned with methods of managing people in a more effective and efficient way while

ushering in the change process in an organization. These interventions are traditionally associated

with the human resource management function and are increasingly becoming an integral part of the

change management activities, for example, dealing with setting performance goals for groups and



individuals, performance appraisal and reward management. Activities such as career planning,

managing workforce diversity, managing employee wellness also come under this category.

Strategic Interventions

These interventions focus on organizing the resources of the organization to gain a competitive edge

in the market. These generally adopt the topdown management of change approach and require a

thorough and indepth environmental scanning and awareness. The basic philosophy of this

approach lies in developing core competencies or getting access to larger market share and

technology, hitherto absent in the organization, through alliances with other organizations possessing

the same. On the other hand, interventions such as organizational culture change programme and

organizational learning helps organizations to gain the internal capacity to institute their change

management process successfully through continuous awareness, selfrenewal and learning. Thus,

the thrust in this process is mainly on identifying the external sources of change and developing

internal capabilities to address them.

Abad Ahmed (1972) has proposed six steps in an OD process:

1. Motivation for change The motivation for change emerges from pressures, external or internal, felt by the top management

or the new strategic decisions of top management.

2. Data collection, problem identification and diagnosis Throughout the OD programme, especially at the outset, these activities should be acted upon

through interviews, surveys and meetings. Both, top management, other organizational members

and OD specialist take active part in these activities.

3. Planning strategy for change At this stage, the diagnosis of problem is transformed into a proper action plan. Specific goals are set

and the specific approaches for attaining these goals are also specified sequentially.



4. Intervening in the system

It aims to resolve difficulties, remove hurdles and give momentum to increase the effectiveness of the

organization (Dwivedi 2001). Here the OD specialists, and/or the top management take active part in

the process. Some examples of these interventions are: job enlargement, process consultation and

other laboratory methods, which have been discussed earlier in this chapter.

5. Reinforcement and followup A possibility of regression to the earlier behavioural pattern does exist if adequate care is not taken to

adapt mechanisms for reinforcement and followup of the planned change. Establishing task force,

project teams and temporary systems in the organization can be created to perform the responsibility

to implement and monitor the plans defined in the OD programme.

6. Monitoring and evaluation A need for careful monitoring to get feedback regarding the effectiveness of the OD programme is

always felt. In this respect, appraisal of the change efforts, comparative analysis of control groups,

pre and postintervention assessments are some of the methods to get the feedback in this regard.

Role of OD Consultant According to Maheswari (1979), the role of an OD consultant is of a guru (teacher) who needs to

possess the knowledge, wisdom and sensitivity visàvis the problems of an organization. On the

basis of his wisdom, he may advise the client (organization) to implement certain changes. However,

it has to be remembered that effective implementation of the advices are sole responsibility of the

client. The consultant intends to advise the client to take appropriate actions, convinces the client for

the required changes and helps it to modify the mindset. OD consultants, in Indian organizations,

generally face the following difficulties (Dwivedi 2001):

The perception of the entrepreneurs about OD The owners of the organization, in India, feel

threatened that their power would be reduced if the OD interventions are applied, and it would be

difficult to discipline people. They also feel uncomfortable in discussing about their operational

methods with their managers or consultants. Moreover, they generally do not trust consultants fully.



Role of the OD consultants There is confusion about the role of the OD consultant. It is commonly

believed that the role of the OD consultant is to diagnose all organizational problems, suggest proper

solutions, put these all in a report and leave it to the anagement to take actions on it.


1. Tgroups are designed to provide members with _________ learning about group dynamics.

2. Abad Ahmed has proposed ___________ steps in an OD process.

15. 6 Summary

Organization development (OD) is a planned approach to improve employee and organizational

effectiveness by conscious interventions in those processes and structures that have an immediate

bearing on the human aspect of the organization (Ramanarayan, Rao, and Singh 1998). OD is an

organizationwide planned effort, managed from the top, to increase organizational effectiveness and

health through planned interventions in the organizational processes, using behavioral science

knowledge. A number of special characteristics together distinguish organizational development from

other approaches to managing and improving organizational function. Behavioral science base

approach is primarily concerned with improving the organization by focusing on aspects that have a

bearing on human and social improvement. Normative approach to organizational change is a

normative process grounded in valueladen assumption of what constitutes ideal individual and

organizational growth. Deliberate intervention in the organization implies deliberate intervention in

the ongoing processes of an organization. Normative deductive strategy is based on the assumptions

that the social norms are one of the strong reinforcers of behavior. Leavitt (1972) has viewed an

organization as a social system consisting of different subsystems such as task, structure,

technology and human resource, interlinked by various processes. Any change in one part or

process has implications for other parts or processes relevant to the system. Actionresearch model

is a “data based, problem solving model that replicated the steps involved in the scientific method of

inquiry” (French and Bell 1991). OD, using this model, involves a systematic process of diagonising

organizational problems through data collection and analysis, feeding the data back to the

organizational client group, discussing the findings, planning collaborative action and implementing

proposed solutions. The concept of OD has emerged from four stems: (i) Laboratory training



background, (ii) Actionresearch/surveyfeedback background, (iii) Participative management, and

(iv) Quality of work life (QWL) approach. A typical OD process can be divided into phases, such as,

Problem identification, Data collection, Diagnosis, Structural analysis, Processes analysis, Function

analysis, Domain analysis, Planning and implementation, and Evaluation and feedback. Broadly, OD

interventions can be categorized as Human process interventions, Technostructural interventions,

Human resource interventions, and Strategic interventions. Effective implementations of the advices

are sole responsibility of the client. The consultant intends to advise the client to take appropriate

actions, convinces the client for the required changes and helps it to modify the mindset. OD

consultants, in Indian organizations, generally face the following difficulties (Dwivedi 2001).

Terminal Questions

1. What is OD? Discuss the characteristics of OD.

2. What do you mean by Tgroup training? Briefly explain Likert’s framework.

3. Describe a typical OD process.

Answers to Self Assessment Questions Self Assessment Questions 1

1. Deliberate

2. Reinforcers

3. Social


1. Tgroup

2. Topdown

3. Selfmanaging


1. First

2. Feedback




1. Experiential

2. Six

Answers to Terminal Questions

1. Refer section 15.1 and 15.2

2. Refer section 15.3

3. Refer section 15.4

15 Organization Development SMU

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