Inform Yourself

Organizational Development (OD) "Interventions" are principal learning processes in the "action" stage (see prior post) of organization development. Interventions are structured activities used individually or in combination by the members of a client system to improve their social or task performance. They may be introduced by a change agent as part of an improvement program, or they may be used by the client following a program to check on the state of the organization's health, or to effect necessary changes in its own behavior. "Structured activities" mean such diverse procedures as experiential exercises, questionnaires, attitude surveys, interviews, relevant group discussions, and even lunchtime meetings between the change agent and a member of the client organization. Every action that influences an organization's improvement program in a change agent-client system relationship can be said to be an intervention.

There are many possible intervention strategies from which to choose. Several assumptions about the nature and functioning of organizations are made in the choice of a particular strategy. Richard Beckhard, an early organizational development pioneer, lists six such assumptions:

1. The basic building blocks of an organization are groups (teams). Therefore, the basic units of change are groups, not individuals.

2. An always relevant change goal is the reduction of inappropriate competition between parts of the organization and the development of a more collaborative condition.

3. Decision making in a healthy organization is located where the information sources are, rather than in a particular role or level of hierarchy.

4. Organizations, subunits of organizations, and individuals continuously manage their affairs against goals. Controls are interim measurements, not the basis of managerial strategy.

5. One goal of a healthy organization is to develop generally open communication, mutual trust, and confidence between and across levels.

6. People support what they help create. People affected by a change must be allowed active participation and a sense of ownership in the planning and conduct of the change.

Interventions range from those designed to improve the effectiveness of individuals through those designed to deal with teams and groups, intergroup relations, and the total organization. There are interventions that focus on task issues (what people do), and those that focus on process issues (how people go about doing it). Finally, interventions may be classified according to which change mechanism they tend to emphasize: for example, feedback, awareness of changing cultural norms, interaction and communication, conflict, and education through either new knowledge or skill practice.

One of the most difficult tasks confronting the change agent is to help create in the client system a safe climate for learning and change. In a favorable climate, human learning builds on itself and continues indefinitely during man's lifetime. Out of new behavior, new dilemmas and problems emerge as the spiral continues upward to new levels. In an unfavorable climate, in contrast, learning is far less certain, and in an atmosphere of psychological threat, it often stops altogether. Unfreezing old ways can be inhibited in organizations because the climate makes employees feel that it is inappropriate to reveal true feelings, even though such revelations could be constructive. In an inhibited atmosphere, therefore, necessary feedback is not available. Also, trying out new ways may be viewed as risky because it violates established norms. Such an organization may also be constrained because of the law of systems: If one part changes, other parts will become involved. Hence, it is easier to maintain the status quo. Hierarchical authority, specialization, span of control, and other characteristics of formal systems also discourage experimentation.

The change agent must address all of these hazards and obstacles. Some of the things which will help them are:

1. A real need in the client system to change
2. Genuine support from management
3. Setting a personal example: listening, supporting behavior
4. A sound background in the behavioral sciences
5. A working knowledge of systems theory
6. A belief in man as a rational, self-educating being fully capable of learning better ways to do things.

A few examples of interventions include team building, coaching, Large Group Interventions, mentoring, performance appraisal, downsizing, TQM, and leadership development.

At one point, Organizational Development was described as "organization improvement through action research". If one idea can be said to summarize OD's underlying philosophy, it would be action research. Permanent social change is the motivation to change and is strongly related to action: If people are active in decisions affecting them, they are more likely to adopt new ways. Rational social management proceeds in a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action, and fact-finding about the result of action.

Figure 1: Systems Model of Action-Research Process

The Action-Research Process involves three steps of change:

"Unfreezing": Faced with a dilemma or disconfirmation, the individual or group becomes aware of a need to change.

"Changing": The situation is diagnosed and new models of behavior are explored and tested.

"Refreezing": Application of new behavior is evaluated, and if reinforcing, adopted.

Action research is depicted as a cyclical process of change. The cycle begins with a series of planning actions initiated by the client and the change agent working together. The principal elements of this stage include a preliminary diagnosis, data gathering, feedback of results, and joint action planning. In the language of systems theory, this is the input phase, in which the client system becomes aware of problems as yet unidentified, realizes it may need outside help to effect changes, and shares with the consultant the process of problem diagnosis.

The second stage of action research is the action, or transformation, phase. This stage includes actions relating to learning processes (perhaps in the form of role analysis) and to planning and executing behavioral changes in the client organization. As shown in Figure 1, feedback at this stage would move via Feedback Loop A and would have the effect of altering previous planning to bring the learning activities of the client system into better alignment with change objectives. Included in this stage is action-planning activity carried out jointly by the consultant and members of the client system. Following the workshop or learning sessions, these action steps are carried out on the job as part of the transformation stage.

The third stage of action research is the output, or results, phase. This stage includes actual changes in behavior (if any) resulting from corrective action steps taken following the second stage. Data are again gathered from the client system so that progress can be determined and necessary adjustments in learning activities can be made. Minor adjustments of this nature can be made in learning activities via Feedback Loop B (see Figure 1). Major adjustments and reevaluations would return the OD project to the first, or planning, stage for basic changes in the program. As indicated in the diagram, the planning stage is a period of unfreezing, or problem awareness. The action stage is a period of changing or trying out new forms of behavior in an effort to understand and cope with the system's problems. (There is inevitable overlap between the stages, since the boundaries are not clear-cut and cannot be in a continuous process). The results stage is a period of refreezing, in which new behaviors are tried out on the job and, if successful and reinforcing, become a part of the system's repertoire of problem-solving behavior.

Action research is problem centered, client centered, and action oriented. It involves the client system in a diagnostic, active-learning, problem-finding, and problem-solving process. Data are not simply returned in the form of a written report but instead are fed back in open joint sessions, and the client and the change agent collaborate in identifying and ranking specific problems, in devising methods for finding their real causes, and in developing plans for coping with them realistically and practically. Scientific method in the form of data gathering, forming hypotheses, testing hypotheses, and measuring results, although not pursued as rigorously as in the laboratory, is nevertheless an integral part of the process. Action research also sets in motion a long-range, cyclical, self-correcting mechanism for maintaining and enhancing the effectiveness of the client's system by leaving the system with practical and useful tools for self-analysis and self-renewal. Organization Development (OD) helps in development of the total organization.

Next up, Organizational Development Interventions

The following is a six-step model (The Weisbord Model) Organizational Development (OD) professionals utilize in understanding organizations:

1. Purposes: The organization’s members are clear about the organization’s mission and purpose and goal agreements. The key factor here is whether members support the organization’s purpose.

2. Structure: How does an organization divide up the work? The question is whether there is an adequate fit between the purpose and the internal structure. Does the structure support achievement of the organization’s mission?

3. Relationship: Relationship here is critical! It must be defined between individuals, between units or departments that perform different tasks, and between the people and requirements of their job. Are the relationships healthy relationships?

4. Rewards: The Organizational Development (OD) professional should diagnose the similarities between what the organization formally rewards or punishes its members for doing. Is the organization sending mixed messages? Is the organization rewarding less useful behaviors?

5. Leadership: Leadership here means to watch for blips among the other boxes and maintain balance among them. How effective is the organization in providing leadership for its members? Is the organization active or passive in leadership?

6. Helpful Mechanism: These are the tools that organizations must attend to in order to survive such as planning, control, budgeting, and other information systems that help organization member accomplish the organization’s mission. Does the organization have helpful mechanisms in place? If so, how effective are those mechanisms in assisting the organizational members achieve the organization’s mission?

This six step model enables the Organizational Development (OD) professional to clearly understand and define the organization as it truly exists today, before any Action Research or Organizational Development (OD) interventions are performed on the organization.

Next we cover Action Research and Organizational Development (OD) interventions.

Systems Context
Organizational Development (OD) deals with a total system — the organization as a whole, including its relevant environment —departments or work groups — in the context of the total system. Parts of systems, for example, individuals, cliques, structures, norms, values, and products are not considered in isolation; the principle of interdependency, that is, that change in one part of a system affects the other parts, is fully recognized. Thus, Organizational Development (OD) interventions focus on the total culture and cultural processes of organizations. The focus is also on groups, since the relevant behavior of individuals in organizations and groups is generally a product of group influences rather than personality. How these various parts interact and interoperate is critical to the overall system, the organization. As a result, the entire system must be the focus of the Organizational Development (OD) initiative. No single part or group should be reviewed without taking into account its interdependency with the larger system.

Improved Organizational Performance
The objective of Organizational development (OD) is to improve the organization's capacity to handle its internal and external functioning and relationships. This would include such things as improved interpersonal and group processes, more effective communication, enhanced ability to cope with organizational problems of all kinds, more effective decision processes, more appropriate leadership style, improved skill in dealing with destructive conflict, and higher levels of trust and cooperation among organizational members. These objectives stem from a value system based on an optimistic view of the nature of man — that man in a supportive environment is capable of achieving higher levels of development and accomplishment. Essential to organization development and effectiveness is the scientific method — inquiry, a rigorous search for causes, experimental testing of hypotheses, and review of results. The organization is only as effective as the sum of its parts. Each part supports itself and its interdependent parts and the larger system, the organization.

Organizational Self-Renewal
The ultimate aim of Organizational Development (O)D practitioners is to "work themselves out of a job" by leaving the client organization with a set of tools, behaviors, attitudes, and an action plan with which to monitor its own state of health and to take corrective steps toward its own renewal and development. This is consistent with the systems concept of feedback as a regulatory and corrective mechanism. The objective is to leave the organization more effective and educated on how to continuously measure, review, and correct itself so it maintains peak levels of effectiveness through continuous self-renewal.

Next, we cover six (6) steps to understanding the organization

As we mentioned in our prior post, Organizational Development (OD) is a strategy implemented by an organization as means to inducing a specific desired end result. This end result may be beliefs, attitudes, values, or perhaps organizational structure in order to meet the dizzying array of challenges facing organizations today so they are more effective in achieving business objectives.

Organizational Development is typically a long range effort in an organizations problem solving, collaborative management, or renewal processes through the use of a change agent and the application of theory while applying behavioral sciences. Here, change agent means a leader who is engaged in the application of the holistic transformative process as opposed to managing an incremental or efficiency based change methodology. That said, there is a particular structure Organizational Development (OD) typically takes within and organization. Here are the main players and the key structure an organization needs in order to start Organizational Development (OD) strategy.

Change Agent: A change agent is not a technical expert in a particular area such as accounting, information technology, finance, or production etc. Here a change agent is a behavioral scientist who knows how to engage people within an organization so they are involved in solving their own problems. Their main strength lies in understanding human behavior and then applying various intervention techniques in order to engage individuals within the organization in the Organizational Development (OD) strategy. The change agent may be external or internal to the organization. IN either case, a "contractual relationship" should be clearly defined. A “contractual relationship” is an agreement that should probably be explicit with respect to all of the conditions involved except the fee.

Sponsoring Organization: The sponsoring Organization is the organization that has the problem. This means that top management or an individual assigned by top management recognizes an issue exists and is committed to taking appropriate action to resolve the issue. It is implied here that the organization MUST be actively involved in solving its own issues!

Contractual Relationship: A document defining the relationship between the sponsoring organization and the change agent regardless if the change agent is internal or external to the organization. Although neither the sponsoring organization nor the change agent can be sure of the exact nature of the problem or problems to be dealt with (if not previously define) or how long the change agents' help will be needed, it is essential that some agreement be reached. The sponsoring organization needs to know generally what the change agent's preliminary plan will be, what its own commitments are in relation to personal commitments and responsibility for the program, and what the change agent's fee will be. The change agent must assure himself that the organization’s (particularly the top executives) commitment to change is strong enough to support the kind of self-analysis and personal involvement required for success of the strategy. A termination agreement permitting either side to withdraw at any time is usually included especially if there are a large number or unknowns involved.

This structure is essential to forming a firm foundation for the Organizational Development (OD) strategy. Both the change agent and the sponsoring organization must have a high comfort level of trust with the other party’s commitment to the process and the terms under which both parties will operate. Additionally, this structure provides the clarity for the initiative itself. Is the initiative to determine the nature of the problem or problems to be dealt with or is it the strategy in eliminating the problems being dealt with by the organization? In either case it is essential to form the solid foundation on which the Organizational Development strategy is built upon. To fail to do so will lead to almost assuredly lead to failure!

Next, we cover systems context, organizational self renewal, and improved organizational performance. Until then, we wish all of our readers a GREAT day!