OD: Why OD Interventions Fail?

27 August 2013, Singapore: In the late 1990, Business Link organization and Warwick University conducted a study to identify why management development strategies fail to work. The findings were: -

• Activity not linked to organizational objectives
• Change process not managed
• Corporate culture not taken into account
• Lack of ownership
• Lack of evaluation
• No overall strategy for corporate development
• Purchasers not clear about what they are buying
• Suppliers finding solutions to problems they can solve
• Time pressures on managers

The main root cause is lack of investment in time and resources to conduct an appropriate diagnosis. For OD interventions to be successful, we need to …

• have a solid understanding of “where are we now”;
• know who can we benchmark and measure at;
• consider existing policy and strategy related to the identified problem area.

In summary, before rolling out any OD initiative we need to conduct some form of quantitative diagnostic process.

“Get the diagnostic process right and you have a great chance of success, miss it out or get it wrong and the chances of success are little to none.”... Mike Morrison (2009) founder of RapidBI

OD: The Changing World of HR

25 August 2013, Singapore: In 2007, a HR competency study co-sponsored by RBL Group and University of Michigan Ross School. The study identifies six (6) competencies that are essential for HR professional who adds value to a business / organization. These competencies were previously considered for OD professional: -

• The Credible Activist: being credible (respected, listened to) and active (offering a point of view and challenging others' assumptions)
• The Operational Executor: flawlessly executing the operational aspect of managing people and organizations
• The Business Ally: contributing to the success of the business by understanding its social context, how it makes money, and how to organize its parts to make more money
• The Talent Manager / Organization Designer: mastering theory, research, and practice in both talent management and organization design
• The Strategy Architect: having a vision of how the organization can succeed in the marketplace and actively shaping the strategy to fulfill this vision
• The Culture and Change Stewards: recognizing, articulating, and shaping corporate culture and facilitating the change processes required to keep the culture aligned with the business needs

(Source: OD Network (2013), Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in OD from OD Network. AMACOM)

OD Interventions

What is OD Intervention?

• a set of sequenced, planned actions or events intended to help an organization to increase its effectiveness. 
• purposely disrupt the status quo; they are deliberate attempts to change an organization or sub-unit toward a different and more effective state.

Criteria for Effective Interventions

1. The Extent to Which it (the Intervention) fits the needs of the organization
2. The degree to which it is based on causal knowledge of intended outcomes
3. The extent to which the OD intervention transfers change-management  competence to organization members.

Factors That Impact the Success of OD Interventions ...

Factors relating to Change Situation: 

1. Readiness for Change 
2. Capability to Change 
3. Cultural Context 
4. Capabilities of the Change Agent (OD Consultant)

Factors Related to the Target of Change

A. Organizational Issues

1. Strategic Issues
2. Technology and Structure Issues
3. Human Resource Issues
4. Human Process Issues

B. Organizational Levels

OD interventions are aimed at different levels of the organization: individual, group, organization and trans-organization (for example different offices of the organization around the globe; or between organization and its suppliers, customers, etc.)

OD interventions has four sets of attributes to the organization setting;

1. A set of values
2. A set of assumptions
3. A set of goals
4. A set of structured activities.

OD Interventions are classified on the basis of:

1. The objectives of interventions
2. The targets of the interventions.

Major Categories of OD Interventions

• Diagnostic activities
• Team-building activities
• Inter group teams
• Survey feedback activities
• Education and training activities
• Techno structural and structural activities
• Process consultant activities
• Grid organization development activities

Organizational Diagnostic Models

21 August 2013, Singapore: Enclosed is the short version of all the organizational diagnostic models ... source: HR Intelligence Report - Organizational Diagnostic Models: A Review & Synthesis (2008), Leadersphere Inc.

Force Field Analysis (1951)

Leavitt’s Model (1965)

Likert System Analysis (1967)

Open Systems Theory (1966)

Weisbord’s Six-Box Model (1976)

Congruence Model for Organization Analysis (1977)

McKinsey 7S Framework (1981-82)

Tichy’s Technical Political Cultural (TPC) Framework (1983)

High-Performance Programming (1984)

Diagnosing Individual and Group Behavior (1987)

Burke-Litwin Model of Organizational Performance & Change (1992)

Falletta’s Organizational Intelligence Model (2008) 

Moral Leadership

20 August 2013, Singapore: The past one week, I keep hearing 'Moral Leadership'. My colleague shared with me that as you go higher the corporate life, moral become an important factor when you made decision that affect people lives. Listed below are just some of the references I extracted ....

What is Moral Leadership?

Moral leadership is leading in a manner that includes the responsibility for ensuring standards of moral and ethical conduct.

Key Points of Moral Leaderships.

• Leading in a manner that respects the rights and dignity of others.
• Leaders also hold the responsibility for ensuring standards of moral and ethical conduct.
• Leaders can influences their followers / subordinate’s attitude and values - a moral leader will stimulate a moral influence.
• Leaders make known their values and ethics and preach them in their leadership styles and actions.

Organizational Diagnostic Model - Weisbord’s Six-Box Model (1976)

19 August 2013, Singapore: Weisbord (1974) proposes six broad categories in his model, these categories included (1) purposes, (2) structures, (3) relationships, (4) leadership, (5) rewards, and (6)helpful mechanisms.

(source: Leadersphere, Inc. (2008), Organizational Diagnostic Models) 

Weisbord refer and defined them as follow  ...

1. Purposes of an organization are the organization’s mission and goals.
2. Structure as the way in which the organization is organized e.g., by function; or by product, program; or project.
3. Relationships is the ways in which people and units interact. It also included in the way in which people interact with technology in their work.
4. Rewards are the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards people associate with their work.
5. Leadership refers to typical leadership tasks, including the balance between the other categories.
6. Helping mechanisms are the planning, controlling, budgeting, and information systems that serve to meet organizational goals. 

Listed below are samples of some of the questions he poses are as follows:

• Purposes: Do organizational members agree with and support the organization’s mission and goals?
• Structure: Is there a fit between the purpose and the internal structure
• of the organization?
• Relationships: What type of relations exist between individuals, between departments, and between individuals and the nature of their jobs? Is their interdependence? What is the quality of relations? What are the modes of conflict?
• Rewards: What does the organization formally reward, and for what do organizational members feel they are rewarded and punished? What does the organization need to do to fit with the environment?
• Leadership: Do leaders define purposes? Do they embody purposes in their programs? What is the normative style of leadership?
• Helpful Mechanisms: Do these mechanisms help or hinder the accomplishment of organizational objectives?

Introduction to Organization Development (OD)

15 August 2013, Singapore: On August 08, I decided to join the famous OD Network, USA - for the next 30 days I need to bush-up my OD knowledge. I was able to access their online OD articles. Noted that their OD definitions were less academic and very applicable to my current project.

 

What is Organization Development?

Moving away from the classical definition, some of the leaders in OD Network defined it as:

 

"OD is a field directed at interventions in the processes of human systems (formal and informal groups, organizations, communities, and societies) in order to increase their effectiveness and health using a variety of disciplines, principally applied behavioral sciences. OD requires practitioners to be conscious about the values guiding their practice and focuses on achieving its results through people."

Arnold Minors, Toronto, Canada

 

"Organization Development is a body of knowledge and practice that enhances organizational performance and individual development, viewing the organization as a complex system of systems that exist within a larger system, each of which has its own attributes and degrees of alignment. OD interventions in these systems are inclusive methodologies and approaches to strategic planning, organization design, leadership development, change management, performance management, coaching, diversity, and work/life balance."

Matt Minahan, Silver Spring, Maryland

 

Dr. Binghay in his lecture notes, stated the following ...

Nature of Organization Development

• Is a planned, organization-wide effort to increase organization’s effectiveness & viability
• A response to change
• A complex organizational strategy to change the beliefs, attitudes, values, & structure of organization
• A change process designed to bring about a particular kind of end result
• Can involve interventions in the organizations processes
• Uses behavioural science as well as organizational reflection, system improvement, planning, and self analysis

Organization Development is aimed at:

• Enhancing congruence among organization structure, process, strategy, people, & culture
• Developing new & creative organizational solutions
• Developing the organization’s self-renewing capacity

Emergence of OD

• The need for organizational reforms
• The focus on cultural change
• The increase in social awareness

Reason for Undergoing OD

• The need for organizational reforms
• The focus on cultural change
• The increase in social awareness

OD Values

• Respect for People
• Trust & Support
• Power Equalization
• Confrontation
• Participation

 

Organization Development (OD): Definitions and Five Stems of OD Practice

15 August 2013, Singapore: I notice organizations in Singapore and Malaysia are looking for HR managers / director with competency in Organization Development (OD). In this article, I would like to share the various definition of OD and the five (5) stems of OD practice between the 1950s until present day.

Definitions:

OD is a planned process of change in an organization’s culture through the utilization of behavioural science technology, research, and theory... [Warner Burke, 2004]


OD refers to a long-range effort to improve an organization’s problem-solving capabilities and its ability to cope with changes in its external environment with the help of external or internal behavioural-scientist consultants... [Wendell French, 1984]


OD is an effort (i) planned, (ii) organization-wide, and (iii) managed from the top, to (iv) increase organization effectiveness and health through (v) planned interventions in the organization’s “processes” using behavioural science knowledge... [Richard Beckhard , 1969] 

OD is a system-wide process of data collection, diagnosis, action planning, intervention, and evaluation aimed at: (1) enhancing congruence between organizational structure, process, strategy, people, and culture; (2) developing new and creative organizational solutions; and (3) developing the organization’s self-renewing capacity. It occurs through collaboration of organizational members working with a change agent using behavioural science theory, research, and technology... [Michael Beer, 1987]

OD 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... [Thomas Cummings & Christopher Worley , 2008]
 

 [Source: Cummings & Worly, 2005]