Article 7. Organization Development

 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION

To remain competitive in todays global market place, organizations must change and adopt to current environment accordingly. Organization Development is the most effective tool to build their capacity to change and reinforcing strategies and processes. There are several definitions of Organizational Development made by scholars on this emerging topic.

As cited by Armstrong (2012: 157), the two founders of the organization development movement were Beckhard (1969) who probably coined the term, and bennis (1969) who, according to Buchanan and Huczynski (2007:575), described OD as a "'truth, trust, love and collaboration approach'.

" Organizational Development operates as "A system wide process of data collection, diagnosis, action planning, intervention and evaluation" (Beer, 1980 cited by Armstrong, 2012). In the current context the CIPD (2010) defined it broadly as "planned and systematic approach to enabling sustained organization performance through the involvement of its people". 

Organizational change and development can be a long and hard process. The main stakeholders are management and the employees who are internal stakeholders. External stakeholders include customers, suppliers, investors and government. The basic purpose of organization development is to increase an organizations' effeteness through planned interventions related to the organization's processes which result higher productivity, return of investments and employee satisfaction. These results make the stakeholders feel accomplished. 

Organization Development (OD) Interventions

    OD interventions refers to various plans and activities that improve performance and efficiency of the company. The traditional interventions based on behavioral science and  mostly focused on interpersonal relationships, organizational process and culture change. Instead now it has become a tertiary inhabited by  business oriented people based in the organization (Armstrong, 2012).

 Cummings and Worley (2009) insist that it is impossible to know the precise number of different types of interventions. Broadly there are four types of OD interventions.

 1. Human resource management interventions -  activities related to employee engagement, performance management, succession planning, talent management etc..

2. Techno Structural interventions - Re structuring by removing or adding layers to the hierarchy, downsizing, de-centralization or centralization etc..

3. Human Process interventions - Better utilization of human resource by motivation, team building and interpersonal relationship.

4. Strategic interventions - Organization transformation, merging with giants, change culture, upgrade Technology

Organization Development Process

Organizational development process is based on an analysis and diagnosis of the circumstances of the organization, process issues or operational barriers that are affecting its ability to perform well. As described by Manzini (1988:110 cited by Armstrong (2012:161) the diagnostic cycle consists of :

1. Data gathering - collect data related to the process or operation affected or need improvement.

2. Analysis - analyze the root cause or brainstorm for solutions to improve using analytical tools such as SWOT, PESTLE etc..

3. Feedback - Return of analyzed data for clarity, accuracy and .validation

4. Action planning - Based on the analyzed data design an action plan for solution or correction of affected process or operation.

5. Implementation - Commence of action plan by communicating to the relevant executers.

6. Evaluation - Evaluate the outcome by periodical review and feedback of stakeholders.

     

Challenges of Organizational Development 

Though the organizational changes are necessary for the development of the company, it is unavoidable to face barriers and challenges through the process. Some of the challenges are depicted below.

Communication barriers - creating clear and open communication channels before commencement of a new process helps minimize conflicts

Fear of the unknown - Some employees may reluctant to adopt with the changes due to fear of failing and could not cope up with the changes.

Poor Leadership - Organizational change can become even more challenging when the leadership is poor and not trustworthy.

Goals are not aligned - Some employees may feel that the organization's' goals do not align with the changed process.

Poor planning  -  when changes occur unexpectedly, employees can easily disappointed and lose faith. Also it results waste of  time  and resources rather getting benefits.

Objectives of Organization Development

The objectives focused on improving overall effectiveness of an organization. Commonly defined objectives depicted below:

• Enhancing Organizational performance
• Encouraging collaboration'
• developing leadership capabilities
• improving organizational culture
• Building change management capabilities
• Enhancing employee development and growth
• Product and service improvement
• Increasing profit margins and Return of investment.

While change can be difficult most companies find that the benefits of organizational development far outweigh the cost.

CONCLUSION

Organizations must integrate organizational development into their processes. Organizational development is not a simple process which needs to exert energy on planning and implementation. Every step of the process has systematic methods to identify, analyses, diagnose and overcome with solutions. OD interventions are the various activities use for improve efficiency and traditionally based on behavioral science. There are certain barriers while implementing OD processes which needs to overcome strategically.

Reference

Armstrong M. (2012), Armstrong’s Hand Book of Human Resource Management Practice, 12^th Edition

https://www.td.org/talent-development-glossary-terms/what-is-organization-development

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257869891_Organization_Development_Journal

https://online.maryville.edu/online-masters-degrees/management-and-leadership