Organization

Development
Dr. Gunjan Mathur
 Introduction to OD
• What is OD? What is it not?
• When is OD needed?
• The concept of the action research model
About Organization Development (OD)
Relatively new field of study – 50’s & 60’s
OD is about how organizations and people function and
how to get them function better
Start Point – when the leader identifies an undesirable
situation and seeks to change it.
Focus - Making organizations function better (total
system change).
Orientation - Action (achieving results through planned
activities).
No unifying theory – just models of practice

OD is an organization improvement strategy

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Focus
Change – new state of things, different from old state of
things

Can be viewed as an opportunity or as a threat

First order change
(making moderate adjustments)
Change
Second order change
(reinvent, reengineer, rewrite)

What needs to be changed and how to go about it

OD consultants are experts in organizational change

 OD Is:
• Systematic process
• For applying behavioral science principles
& practices in organizations
• To increase individual & organizational
effectiveness.
Behavioural science (or Behavioral science)
involves the systematic analysis and
investigation of human behaviour through
controlled and experimental observations
Definition(s) of OD
Organization Development is an effort (1) planned, (2) organization-
wide, and (3) managed from top, to (4) increase organization effectiveness and
health through (5) planned interventions in organization’s “processes”, using
behavioral-science knowledge. …Beckhard,
1969

Organization Development is a process of planned change – change

of an organization’s culture from one which avoids an examination of social
processes (especially decision making, planning and communication) to one
which institutionalizes and legitimizes this examination. …Burke & Hornstein, 1972

Organization Development is a systematic application of behavioral

science knowledge to the planned development and reinforcement of
organizational strategies, structures, and processes for improving an
organization’s effectiveness. …Cummings & Worley, 1993

Organization development is a planned process of change in an organization’s

culture through the utilization of behavioral science technologies, research,
and theory. …Burke, 1994
 What is OD?
• It is a systematic method for gathering
data about how organizations function as
social systems and an analysis of the
meaning of those data.
• The OD practitioners job is to search for
causes and consequences of
organizational functioning.
• Process: Diagnosis/Discovery,
Intervention/Implementation, Evaluation
 Purpose of OD
• To design interventions to close the gaps
between what is and what ought to be. So, it is
the fit between individuals and organization;
organizational and environment; among
organization’s strategy, structure and processes.
 Important Components
• OD must be supported by top management to
improve an organization’s visioning (picture of desired
future), empowerment, learning process (interactive
listening and self-examining process), and problem-
solving (diagnose situation, solve problems, make
decisions, & take actions) through collaborative
management (participation in creating and managing
a culture), emphasizing interactive work teams
(organization’s building blocks).
 2 Main Goals
• Improve individuals, teams, and organization
functioning
• Give members the skills and knowledge to
continuously improve
 Where do the demands for
change come from?

• Outside the organization: government,

customers, competitors, market, society.
• Within the organization: strategies,
profitability, diversity, new personnel,
products/services
 What does OD focus on?

• Culture: values, assumptions, beliefs, norms

• Processes: how things get done; method for
arriving at results
• Structure: overall design of the organization; how
individual work tasks are grouped

• **The system is the target of change, individuals

are the instruments of change
 OD is not…
• Pair of hands/Expert
• Doctor prescribing

• IT IS A CONSULTATIVE PROCESS that values…

– Humanism
– Optimism
– Democracy
 Organization Development
O.D is a system wide application and
transfer of behavioural science knowledge
to the planned development, improvement
and reinforcement of the strategies,
structures and processes that lead to
organization effectiveness.
The orientation of O.D is action –
achieving results as a consequence of
planned activities.
It is an organization improvement strategy.

OD programs are long term planned ,

sustained efforts .
 Organization Development
According to Koontz (1980) O.D. may be
defined as a systematic, integrated and
planned approach to improve the
effectiveness of the enterprise. It is
designed to solve problems that adversely
affect the operational efficiency at all
levels.
It is an organisation wide effort, it is directed
towards more participative management and
integration of individual goals with the
organisational goals. OD is intended to create an
internal environment of openness, trust, mutual
confidence and collaboration and to help the
members of the organisation to interact more
effectively in the pursuit of organisational goals.
Thus the organisation is enabled to cope
effectively with external forces in the
environment.
 Objectives of OD
1. Improved organisational performance
as measured by profitability, market share,
innovativeness.
2. better adaptability of the organisation to
its environment
3. willingness of the members to face
organisational problems and contribute
creative solutions to these problems.
 Objectives of OD
Improvement in internal behaviour
patterns such as interpersonal relations,
inter-group relations, level of trust and
support among the role members,
understanding one’s own self and others,
openness and meaningful communication
and involvement in planning for
organisational development.
Characteristic features of O.D
OD focuses on culture and processes.
OD encourages collaboration between
organization leaders and members in
managing culture and processes
Teams are important for accomplishing
tasks and are important for OD activities
Characteristic features of O.D
OD focuses on the human side of the
organization and it also supports
technological and structural sides.
The whole organization must participate
and involve in problem solving and
decision making to make OD effective.
OD focuses on total system change.
Characteristic features of O.D
OD practitioners are facilitators
collaborators and co learners with the
client system.
OD relies on action research model
OD is for the betterment of both the
individual and the organization.
 characteristics
Thus The characteristics of Organisational Development (OD) can
be summed up as as follows:-
1. Organisational Development is an educational strategy that
attempts to bring about a planned change.

2. Organisational Development relates to real organisational

problems instead of hypothetical cases.
3. Organisational Development uses sensitivity training methods
and lay emphasis on the significance of experiment based training.
4. Its change agents are almost external consultants outside of the
organisation.
5. The external change agents and internal organisation executives
establish a collaborative relationship that involves mutual trust,
influence and jointly determined goals.
 characteristics
6. The external change agents are humanists and seek to establish
a social and altruistic philosophy within an organisation.
7. The goals that the change agent seeks to achieve through OD
tend to reflect human approach and aims for better conflict
resolution, increased understanding and more considerable
leadership.
8. The required changes in the organisation are usually the result of
some immediate problems but it is a long term approach covering
three to five years.

9. It is used to describe variety of change programmes and intends

to change the organisational philosophies, attitudes and skills of
people.
10. It is a dynamic process that involves considerable investment of
money and time
11. It is research based activity and aims
at conducting surveys, collection of data
and evaluation of the situation

12. It works on open and adaptive system

concepts and believes that organisational
design and managerial performance are
mutually interdependent.
 History of OD
(1) T-group
(2) Survey Feedback Technology
Four major stems of OD
(3) Action research
(4) Sociotechnical & Socioclinical approaches
(1) T-Group (Laboratory Training) – participants learn from their
own actions and the group’s evolving dynamics

(2) Developing reliable questionnaires, collecting data from

personnel, analyzing it for trends, and feeding the results back to
everyone for action planning

(3) Diagnosing, taking action, re-diagnosing and taking new

action

(4) Integrate social requirements of employees with technical

requirements needed to do work in provided environment.
 Four Stems of OD

Survey
Socio-
Laboratory research Action
technical
Training and Research
Approaches
Feedback
 History of O.D
OD is of relatively recent origin. It started
in late 1950’[Link] from four major
backgrounds or stems. The first was the
growth of the National Training
Laboratories (NTL) and the development
of training groups otherwise known as
sensitivity training or T groups.
The second stem of OD was survey
research and survey feedback both stems
are interwined with a third the emergence
of action research. the classic work on
action research conducted by social
scientists interested in applying research
to managing change.
The laboratory training stem
The T group
The idea of laboratory groups or T groups
came into existence almost by accident
during a workshop that focussed on helping
community leaders to implement fair
employment practices act.
The workshop was held in Connecticut
in1946 under the direction of the research
centre for group dynamics at MIT
The concept of T group developed out of the
evening meetings planned to discuss the
observations the researchers made during the
conference
A useful tool about group processes and one’s
impact on others through observing one’s own
behaviour in a group session and receiving
feedback about that behaviour from others
became a great learning experience .
The participants not only produced data
but processed and examined the data in
an effort to learn about group dynamics
from their own experience.

An entirely new way of studying group

dynamics was discovered.
Also called laboratory training , a T group
is designed to make participants more
aware of themselves, their capacities and
the way they effect others. the group has
no pre-planned task or agenda . An expert
often called facilitator is present who
intervenes in the process only to help
solve problems which the group is unable
to solve.
An intergroup relations workshop held at
the state teachers college in New Britain
influenced the emergence of laboratory
training.
Kurt Lewin was one of the important
researcher of the t group training
experimnets.
Laboratory training essentially
unstructured small group situations in
which participants learn from their own
actions and the group’s evolving dynamics
began to develop from various
experiments in using discussion groups to
achieve changes in behaviour in back
home situations.
Typical T groups were composed of
strangers- individual members of the
groups did not know each other before
they arrived for the group session. This
led to the problem of skill transfer to “back
home situations” . Skills learned during the
T groups were not necessarily transferred
to organizational settings once the
participants returned to their home ground.
This was a major drawback .
The idea of stranger group was rejected
and shifted to working with ongoing work
groups in the organization.
Thus the focus of intervention shifted from
interpersonal to organizational level.
The experiments contributed two major
principles of OD
One of the primary targets of change in
OD is groups not merely individuals
The participants in the group sessions can
learn about group process by examining
the data of their own experience.
 T group
The stated goals of T group experiences
included
1. self insight
2. understanding the conditions which
inhibit or facilitate group functioning
3. understanding interpersonal operations
in groups
4. developing skills for diagnosing
individual, group and organizational
behaviour
 Survey Feedback
The second major stem in the history of OD is
survey feedback. It refers to attitude surveys
and data feedback in workshops sessions.
The history of this stem revolves around the
techniques and approach developed over a
period of years by staff members at the
survey research centre SRC of the university
of Michigan.
In one of the earlier experiments Mann
reported success in administering a
company “de survey” of management and
employee opinions and attitudes, the study
was conducted at Detroit Edison beginning
in 1948.
Data regarding the viewpoints of non-
supervisory employees towards their
supervision , promotion opportunities,
work satisfaction, and other facets of their
work situation, similar reactions from first
and second line employees and from
higher levels of management.
The major findings of the survey were first
reported to top management and then
progressed down through the
organisation. The feedback sessions were
conducted in task groups, with each
supervisor and his or her immediate
subordinates discussing the data together.
Later eight accounting departments asked
for repeat of the survey. This generated a
new cycle of meetings.
Conclusions drawn were
[Link] intensive group discussion procedure
for utilizing the results of the employee
questionnaire can be a effective tool fopr
introducing positive change in the
organization.
2. the effectiveness partly deals with the
system of human relationships as a whole
and it deals with each manager
supervisor and employee in the context of
his own job, his own problems and his own
work relationships.
 Action Research stem
Action research is the process of
systematically collecting research data
about an ongoing system relative to some
objective goal or need of that system ,
feeding these data back into the system
taking actions by altering selected
variables within the system based both on
the data and on hypotheses and
evaluating the result of actions by
collecting more data.
 Action Research stem
Action research attempts to meet the dual
goals of making action more effective and
building a body of scientific knowledge
around that action.
Action in this context refers to programs
and interventions designed to solve
problems and improve conditions.
William F. Whyte and Edith L. Hamilton
used action research in their work with
Chicago’s tremont Hotel in 1945 and 1946.
Kurt Lewin and his students conducted
numerous action research projects in mid
1940’s and 1950’s. the work of these
scholars and practitioners in inventing and
utilizing action research was basic in the
evolution of OD.
 The Sociotechnical and
socioclinical stem
The fourth stem of OD is the evolution of
socioclinical and sociotechnical
approaches to helping groups and
organizations.
A clear historical and conceptual
connection can be made between the
group dynamics field and the
sociotechnical approaches to assisting
organizations.
Tavistock’s sociotechnical approach is
particularly significant , it grew out of Eric
Trist’s visit to a British coal mine, his
insights as to relevance of Lewin’s work on
group dynamics and Bion’s work on
leaderless groups resulted in a new
approach to solving mine problems.
The results of team approach were
remarkable in terms of safety and
productivity.
Trist’s subsequent experiments in work
design and the use of simultaneous work
teams in coal mining were the forerunners
of other work redesign experiments in
various industries in Europe, India,
Australia and U.S.A.
The sociotechnical approach focused on
the nonexecutive ranks of organizations
especially the redesign of work. The focus
on teams and the use of action research
and participation was consistent with
evolving OD approaches.
Sociotechnical Systems (STS)
Largely associated with experiments that
emerged under the auspices of the Travistock
Institute in Great Britain.
Efforts generally attempted to create a better
“fit” among the technology, structure, and
social interaction of a particular production
unit in a mine, factory, or office.
Sociotechnical Systems (STS
Two basic premises:
 Effective work systems must jointly optimize the
relationship between their social and technical parts.
 Such systems must effectively managed the boundary
separating and relating them to the environment.
Highly participative among stakeholders:
Employees, engineers, staff experts, and
managers.
Feature the formation of autonomous work
groups (i.e. self-managed).
Theory suggested that effectiveness,
efficiency, and morale will be enhanced.
 The changing context
The context of OD is changing from 1980’s
and 1990s. The environment has started
becoming more turbulent.
There are mergers, acquisitions,
technological innovations, bankruptcies
and downsizing.
These changes create opportunities for
OD applications.
 The changing context
In this context second generation OD IS
evolving.
Many new emerging concepts are given
consideration by researchers.
Second-Generation OD

Organization Transformation

Organizational Culture

Learning Organization

Total Quality Management

Visioning and Future Search

Business Process Reengineering

Quality of Work Life

Organization Transformation
Organization Transformation is a multi
dimensional. Multi level, qualitative,
discontinuous, radical organizational change
involving paradigmatic shift.
It is considered to be massive and
revolutionary in nature.
It is seen as requiring more demands on top
leadership, more visioning, more
experimenting, more time and manage other
variables, that occurs because of massive
change.
 Organizational Culture
Organizational Culture also needs
change to make the organisation
effective. Schein has devised
interventions to help leaders and
employees identify those cultural
assumptions that will assist the
organization in attaining its goals and
those that hinder goal attainment.
 Organizational Culture
Organization culture is made up of
organization’s artifacts, such as office
layout and status symbols, the values
underlying these artifacts and the
assumptions behind those values.
Through questionnaires actual and desired
norms and what changes are needed
are identified.
 Learning Organization
Argyris, Argyris and Schon and Senge have
done extensive work on how organizations learn
Senge discussed about the learning disabilities
that hinder organizations.
He has conducted workshops in which he uses
games and exercises to create an awareness of
these disabilities and to develop different ways
of thinking about complex problems.
 Total Quality Management
Total Quality is typically a companywide effort
seeking to install and make permanent a climate
where employees continuously improve their
ability to provide on demand products and
services that customers will find of particular
value.
TQ efforts encourage employee involvement,
demand teamwork, push decision making power
to lower levels and reduce barriers between
people.
 Total Quality Management
(TQM)
Also called continuous quality improvement.
A combination of a number of organization improvement techniques
. approaches, including the use of quality circles,statistical quality
and
control, statistical process control, self-managed teams and task
forces, and extensive use of employee participation.
Features that characterize TQM:
 Primary emphasis on customers.
 Daily operational use of the concept of internal customers.
 An emphasis on measurement using both statistical quality control and statistical
process control techniques.
 Competitive benchmarking.
 Continuous search for sources of defects with a goal of eliminating them entirely.
 Participative management.
 An emphasis on teams and teamwork.
 A major emphasis on continuous learning.
 Top management support on an ongoing basis
Visioning and Future Search
Senge believes that organizational
members develop and share their own
personal visions, and he claims that a
vision is not truly shared until it connects
with the personal visions of people
throughout the organization.
This type of connection requires OD like
processes to get implemented.
 large scale Meetings
Richard Beckhard wanted to improve the
effectiveness of large scale meetings.
He introduced the idea of confrontation
meetings which was about getting the total
management group of an organization
together in a one day session to diagnose
the state of the system and to make plans
for quickly improving conditions.
 large scale Meetings
Weisboard advices that conferences
should involve all of top management and
people from as many functions and as
many levels as possible to make action
plans.
 Reengineering
Definition – the fundamental rethinking and radical
redesign of business processes to achieve
dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary
measures of performance, such as cost, quality,
service, and speed.
Reengineering focuses on visualizing and
streamlining any or all business processes in the
organization.
Reengineering seeks to make such processes
more efficient by combining, eliminating, or
restructuring activities without regard to present
hierarchical or control procedures.
Reengineering is a top-down process; assumes
neither an upward flow of involvement nor that
consensus decision making.
Business Process Reengineering

Quality of Work Life

Focus on team work
Gain sharing plans
Skilled based pay plans
Appreciative inquiry
Quality of Work Life (QWL)

Organizational improvement efforts.

 Attempt to restructure multiple dimensions
of the organization.
 To institute a mechanism which introduces
and sustains changes over time.
An increase in participation by
employees and increase in problem
solving between the union and
management.
General Motors’ QWL:
 Voluntary involvement on the part of employees.
 Union agreement with the process and participation in it.
 Assurance of no less of jobs as a result of the programs.
 Training of employees in team problem solving.
 The use of quality circles where employees discuss problems
affecting the performance of the plant and the work environment.
 Work team participation in forecasting, work planning, and team
leader and team member selection.
 Regular plant and team meetings to discuss such matters as
quality, safety, customer orders, and schedules.
 Encouragement of skill development and job rotation within work
teams.
 Skill training.
 Responsiveness to employee concerns.