Module-VIOrganization Development and Human Resource Development: OD-HRD Interface,

participation of top management in OD/ HRDE, OD research and practice in perspective, future

of OD, Case Study

Human Resources Development is the improvement of skills, knowledge, and indirectly, the

value of the employee in the organisation. It is the responsibility of managers, and Human

Resources Department.

Organisation Development is a description of change needed in the organisation if it is to reach

its future goals. Sometimes, organisations then try to accelerate this change by creating OD plans

which involves managers from all departments. Sometimes, they create a new department called

OD. This helps to accelerate the change by moving resources and management to a special task.

US organisations started this term, and they like to create OD department and specialists. Of

course, this type of change affects people, so HR development specialist is often involved in OD.

However, it is a mistake to describe HRD and OD as the same thing.

OBJECTIVES OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

1. Individual and group development.

2. Development of organization culture and processes by constant interaction between members irrespective of levels of hierarchy.

3. Inculcating team spirit.

4. Empowerment of social side of employees.

5. Focus of value development.

6. Employee participation, problem-solving and decision-making at various levels.

7. Evaluate present systems and introduction of new systems thereby achieving total system change if required.

8. Transformation and achievement of competitive edge of the organization.

9. Achieve organization growth by total human inputs by way of research and development, innovations, creativity and exploiting human talent.

10. Behavior modification and self managed team as the basic unit of an organization.

Organizational Development Theory

Organizational Development (OD) is a field of research, theory, and practice dedicated to expanding the knowledge and effectiveness of people to accomplish more successful organizational change and performance.

OD is a process of continuous diagnosis, action planning, implementation and evaluation, with the goal of transferring knowledge and skills to organizations to improve their capacity for solving problems and managing future change.

History and Application of Organizational Development Theory

OD emerged out of human relations studies from the 1930s where psychologists realized that organizational structures and processes influence worker behavior and motivation.

Lewin's work in the 1940s and 1950s also helped show that feedback was a valuable tool in addressing social processes.

More recently, work on OD has expanded to focus on aligning organizations with their rapidly changing and complex environments through organizational learning, knowledge management and transformation of organizational norms and values.

Key Concepts of Organizational Development Theory

Organizational Climate

Defined as the mood or unique "personality" of an organization.

Attitudes and beliefs about organizational practices create organizational climate and influence members' collective behavior.

Climate features and characteristics may be associated with employee satisfaction, stress, service quality and outcomes and successful implementation of new programs. Climate features and characteristics include:

o Leadership, openness of communication, participative management, role clarity,

and conflict resolution, leader support and leader control.

Organizational Culture

Deeply seated norms, values and behaviors that members share.

The five basic elements of culture in organizations include:

1. Assumptions

2. Values

3. Behavioral norms

4. Behavioral patterns

5. Artifacts

The subjective features (assumptions, values and norms) reflect members' unconscious thoughts and interpretations of their organizations.

The subjective features shape the behaviors and artifacts take on within organizations

OD IS A PROCESS

Action Research is a process which serves as a model for most OD interventions. French and

Bell (5) describe Action Research as a "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 results of actions by collecting more data."

The steps in Action Research are (6, 7):

1. Entry. This phase consists of marketing, i.e. finding needs for change within an

organization. It is also the time to quickly grasp the nature of the organization, identify

the appropriate decision maker, and build a trusting relationship.

2. Start-up and contracting. In this step, we identify critical success factors and the real

issues, link into the organization's culture and processes, and clarify roles for the

consultant(s) and employees. This is also the time to deal with resistance within the

organization. A formal or informal contract will define the change process.

3. Assessment and diagnosis. Here we collect data in order to find the opportunities and

problems in the organization (refer to DxVxF>R above.) For suggestions about what to

look for, see the previous article in this series, on needs assessment (8). This is also the

time for the consultant to make a diagnosis, in order to recommend appropriate

interventions.

4. Feedback. This two-way process serves to tell those what we found out, based on an

analysis of the data. Everyone who contributed information should have an opportunity to

learn about the findings of the assessment process (provided there is no apparent breach

of anyone's confidentiality.) This provides an opportunity for the organization's people to

become involved in the change process, to learn about how different parts of the

organization affect each other, and to participate in selecting appropriate change

interventions.

5. Action planning. In this step we will distill recommendations from the assessment and

feedback, consider alternative actions and focus our intervention(s) on activities that have

the most leverage to effect positive change in the organization. An implementation plan

will be developed that is based on the assessment data, is logically organized, results-

oriented, measurable and rewarded. We must plan for a participative decision-making

process for the intervention.

6. Intervention. Now, and only now, do we actually carry out the change process. It is

important to follow the action plan, yet remain flexible enough to modify the process as

the organization changes and as new information emerges.

7. Evaluation. Successful OD must have made meaningful changes in the performance and

efficiency of the people and their organization. We need to have an evaluation procedure

to verify this success, identify needs for new or continuing OD activities, and improve the

OD process itself to help make future interventions more successful.

8. Adoption. After steps have been made to change the organization and plans have been

formulated, we follow-up by implementing processes to insure that this remains an

ongoing activity within the organization, that commitments for action have been

obtained, and that they will be carried out.

9. Separation. We must recognize when it is more productive for the client and consultant

to undertake other activities, and when continued consultation is counterproductive. We

also should plan for future contacts, to monitor the success of this change and possibly to

plan for future change activities.

It would be nice if real OD followed these steps sequentially. This rarely happens. Instead, the

consultants must be flexible and be ready to change their strategy when necessary. Often they

will have to move back and repeat previous steps in light of new information, new influences, or

because of the changes that have already been made.

But for successful OD to take place, all of these steps must be followed. It works best if they are

taken in the order described. And, since learning is really an iterative, not a sequential process,

we must be prepared to re-enter this process when and where appropriate

Trends within OD and their impacts on OD’s future

TRADITIONAL

The first trend has to do with increasing calls for a return to OD’s traditional and

others, traditionalist argue that OD should be driven by long –established values

of human potential, equality, trust, and collaboration. It is  proposed that OD should

do what is right by assuring that organizations promote positive social

change and corporate citizenship.

PRAGMATIC

Related to increasing demands for professionalization of the field and an emphasis on relevance.

Championed by change management practices at large consulting firms and some

OD professional associations, pragmatists argue that OD practitioners should be certified like

TRADITIONAL

Return to original humanistic values

Increasing focus on process intervention

PRAGMATIC

Emphasize values of effectiveness

Increasing focus on relevant practice

ACADEMIC

Emphasize value of understanding, prediction and control

Search for variable that explain change and effectiveness

ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Will:

Have more conflict in short term

Be more integrated in long term

most other professionals. OD should require certification of members, create a common body of

knowledge, define minimum levels of competencies, and institute other regulatory infrastructure.

SCHOLARLY

Focuses on understanding, predicting an controlling change. Unlike traditionalist and pragmatist,

scholars are concerned with creating valid knowledge, and with generalizing conclusions about

how change occurs, how it is triggered, under what conditions it works well and so on.

Scholars proposed a research agenda w/c includes

How multiple context and levels of analysis affect organizational change?

The inclusion of time, history, process and action in theories of change

The link between change processes and organization performance

The comparative analysis of international and cross cultural OD interventions

The study of receptivity, customization, sequencing, pace, and episodic versus continuous

change processes

The partnership between scholars and practitioners is studying organizational change

IMPLICATION OF OD’S FUTURE

OD will have more conflicts in the Short term

Traditionalist fear that OD is becoming too corporate and may unwittingly collude

with powerful stakeholders to promote goals in consistent with OD’s social responsibility

and humanistic values

Pragmatist on the other hand worries that relying too heavily too heavily on traditional

values will reinforce OD’s touchy feely orientation.

The debate over values demonstrates how difficult it will be to gain agreement about

standards, competencies, enforcement mechanisms, and oversight.

OD will become more integrated in the long term. There is a considerable common ground

among the diverse trends within the OD, and the emergence f a more integrated view of the field

seems likely in the long term

TRENDS IN CONTEXT OF ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT

ECONOMY More concerned with cultural diversity More concentrated wealth More concerned ecologically

WORKFORCE Increasing diverse Increasingly educated Increasingly contingent

TECHNOLOGY More E-commerce Faster organizational process More productivity

ORGANISATIONS More networked More knowledge, learning. and innovation

based

ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT will be:

More involved in driving effectiveness in a broader range of organizations

More involved in supporting technical and managerial innovation

More concerned with preserving cultural diversity

More focused on ecological sustainability

The Economy

Increasing concern over social and ecological consequences

Cultural diversity – Governments face the difficult choice of preserving their culture ant the risk

of being left out of the global economy. Income distribution – globalization of the economy is

closely related to an increasing concentration of wealth in relatively few individuals, corporation

and nations. Ecological sustainability – there are increasingly clear warnings that the ecosystem

no longer can be treated as a factor of  production and that success cannot be defined as the

accumulation of wealth and material goods at the expense of the environment

.

The Workforce

The workforce is becoming more:

Diverse – organizations, whether they operate primarily in their home country or abroad, will

need to develop policies and operating styles that embrace the changing cultural, ethnic, gender

and age diversity of the workforce.

Educated – the workforce is becoming more educated. A more educated workforce demands

higher wages, more involvement in decision making and continued investment of knowledge and

skills.

Contingent – the continued high rate of downsizings, re-engineering efforts, and mergers and

acquisitions is forcing the workforce to become more contingent and less loyal.

Technology

Internet – the backbone of global economy. E-commerce – an economy that knows

no boundaries. It involves buying and selling products and services over the internet. Two types

of E-commerce relevant to OD’s Future

•Business-to-consumer – garners much attention and awareness because it is how the public

participates in E-commerce.

•Business-to-business – more complex

Organization

Involves increasingly networked and knowledge based nature of organizations.

 The interventions help organizations become more streamlined and flexible, more capable of

improving themselves continuously in response to economic and other trends and more effective.

Networks – are highly adaptable and can disband and reform along different task or market lines

as the circumstances demand.-

 

OD will be more embedded in the organization’s Operations

This suggest that OD practices will become more embedded in the organization’s normal

operating routines. OD skills, knowledge, and competencies can and should become the daily

work of managers and employees

OD process will be more technologically Enabled

Information technology is pervasive and will have a significant effect on OD practice. First, it

will enable OD to be synchronous and asynchronous (anytime, anywhere) as well as virtual and

less face to face. Second, information technology will provide much more data about the

organization to a greater number of participants in a shorter period of time.

OD Cycle Times will be Shorter

New information technologies will expedite certain steps in the change process. Incoming years,

new technologies such as groupware and video conferencing will increasingly be used to bring

more people together faster than ever before. There is a real potential to reduce dramatically the

time required to perform many OD practices

OD will be more Interdisciplinary

OD will continue to become more interdisciplinary and rely on different perspectives and

approaches to develop and change organizations. It will balance human fulfillment and

economic performance, provide a fuller recognition of the systemic and dynamic nature

of organizations and develop improved techniques for managing large scale, and change w/n and

across natural cultures.

Concepts that can be used to describe systems changeand may yield new insights into the

change process

•Emergence

•Instability

•Phase transitions

•Bifurcation

•self-organization

•Strange attractors

OD will be Applied to More Diverse Organizations

In the future planned change will be applied to a more diverse client base. Types of organizations

that are target of planned change

•Small entrepreneurial start-ups – important underserved market for OD.

•Governments – increasingly applying OD interventions such as strategic planning, employee

involvement, and performance management.

•Global Social Change Organizations – the increasing concentration of wealth and globalization

of the economy will create a plethora of opportunities for OD to assists developing countries,

disadvantage citizens and ecology

OD will become more Cross-Cultural

As organizations and the economy become more global, the recent growth of OD practice in

international and cross-cultural situations will continue. The current trends of OD clearly point to

the need for OD applications that work across cultures.

OD will Focus more on Ecological Sustainability

Limits to the world’s ecosystem, including its capacity to absorb population growth, function

with a depleted ozone layer, and operate with polluted waters, provide serious challenges to the

traditional business model

PARTICIPATION OF TOP MANAGEMENT IN OD/ HRDE

A key feature of organizational development is the active role of top management in all the

phases of process. They are responsible for strategic direction and operation of the organization

and actively lead the transformation. They decide when to initiate organizational development,

what the development should be, and how it should be implemented, and who should be

responsible for directing it. Because existing executives may lack the talent, energy and

commitment to undertake these tasks, they may be replaced by outsiders who are recruited to

lead the development.

1. Envisioning

Executives must articulate a clear and credible vision of the new strategic orientation. They also

must set new and difficult standards for performance, and generate pride in the past

accomplishments and enthusiasm for the new strategy

2. Energizing

Executives must demonstrate personal excitement for the changes and model the behaviors that

are expected of others. Behavioral integrity, credibility, and “walking the talk” are important

ingredients. They must communicate examples of early success to mobilize energy for

development.

3. Enabling

Executives must provide the resources necessary for undertaking significant organizational

development and use rewards to reinforce new behaviors. Leaders also must build an effective

top management team to manage the new organization and develop management practices to

support the organizational development.

.