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Session 10

Apr 21, 2023 2

Vodaphone is a multibillion-dollar global communications technology company headquartered in the

United Kingdom and was an early leader in the mobile telephone market. Faced with increasing

competition, the company realized that in order to remain innovative and a leader in a challenging

market, the culture of the organization would need to adapt accordingly. Specifically, senior management

realized that its current “command and control” culture of blame and political games would hinder

collaboration and mutual accountability needed to succeed in a competitive environment. Instead, the

company wanted to encourage a culture of empowered teams who made their own decisions and

shared learning and development, speed, and accountability.

Several culture initiatives were implemented, including the development of shared values, the

introduction of IT systems that shared and exchanged information across major divisions that had

hindered cross-functional learning, and the establishment of teams and a team-building program. To

support the initiatives and encourage a new, collaborative management style, Vodaphone implemented a

leadership coaching program. Through the program, top managers attended a program to learn skills in

conducting performance reviews, helping employees set goals, and coaching teams. Following the

program, managers had one-on-one coaching sessions with a professional coach who worked with

participants to help them set coaching goals and reflect on how successfully they were able to

implement the skills learned in the program. As a result of the program, managers began to delegate

more as teams started to solve problems themselves. Teams began to feel more confident in their

decisions as managers trusted them.

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Organizational Development (OD)

A long-term effort, led and supported by top management, to improve an organization's visioning, empowerment, learning, and problem-solving processes, through an ongoing, collaborative management of organization’s culture – with special emphasis on the culture of intact work teams and other team configurations – utilizing the consultant – facilitator role and the theory and technology of applied behavioral science, including action research.

Organization development is an effort (1) planned, (2) organizationwide, and (3) managed from the top, to (4) increase organization effectiveness and health through (5) planned interventions in the organization’s “processes,” using behavioral-science knowledge.Richard Beckhard (1969)

A more recent definition comes from Burke and Bradford (2005):Based on (1) a set of values, largely humanistic; (2) application of the behavioral sciences; and (3) open systems theory, organization development is a system wide process of planned change aimed toward improving overall organization effectiveness by way of enhanced congruence of such key organizational dimensions as external environment, mission, strategy, leadership, culture, structure, information and reward systems, and work policies and procedures.

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Underlying Values

• Concept of people• Concern for science• Democratic principles• The helping relationship

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Distinguishing Characteristics Of OD

• Focuses on culture and processes • Encourages collaboration between organizational leaders and members in

managing culture and processes• Teams of all kinds are particularly important for task accomplishments • Focuses primarily on the human and social side of the organization.• Participation and involvement in problem solving and decision making by all

levels of organization • Focus on systemic change; views organizations as complex social systems • OD practitioners are facilitators, collaborators, and co-learners with the client

system - focus on imparting of problem-solving skills and knowledge of continuous learning through self-analytical methods to client to enable it to solve its problems on its own.

• Reliance on action research model with extensive participation by client system members

• Development view seeking betterment of both individuals and organization.

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Potential Conflicts with OD

• Conflict with profit making• Conflict with managerial prerogatives

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Individual Level Diagnosis

InputsGroupDesign Factors

PersonalCharacterist-ics

Transformation

JobDesign Factors

Outputs

IndividualEffectiveness

Productivity,Satisfaction

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Assumptions And Values Underlying OD

Dealing with individuals

Most individuals want to develop their potential and have drives towards

personal growth and development if provided with supportive and

challenging environment Most people desire to make, and are capable of

making, a higher level of contribution to achieving organizational goals than is normally permitted.

Implication for managers

Ask, listen, support, challenge, encourage risk-taking, permit failure,

remove obstacles and barriers, give autonomy and responsibility,

set high standards, reward success.

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Group Level Diagnosis

InputsOrganizationDesign Factors

Culture

Strategy

Transformation

Group Design Factors

Outputs

Team Effectiveness

Productivity,Satisfaction

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Assumptions And Values Underlying OD

Dealing with groups

• One of the most relevant reference group for individuals is the work

group, including peers and boss.

• Most people desire to be accepted, and interact with one or more

small reference groups.

• Most people are capable of making greater contributions to the

groups’ effectiveness and development

Implication for managers

let teams flourish; leaders should invest in groups/teams; adopt a team leadership style rather than a one-on-one style; actively engage group members to help leader in decision-making and problem-solving, by training them up suitably; help group members to deal with both positive and negative feelings; solve problems through mutual interactions.

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Organizational Level Diagnosis

Inputs

General Environment

IndustryStructure

Transformation

Strategy

Design Factors

Culture

Outputs

Performance

Productivity

Satisfaction

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Assumptions And Values Underlying OD

Designing and running an organization

• Traditional bureaucratic organization structures to give way to newer

organizational designs.

• Needs and aspirations of employees to be addressed.

• Putting people first can result in organizations that are human, developmental and empowering, as well as high performing in terms of productivity, profitability and quality of output.

Implication

People are an organization’s most important resource; they are the source of productivity and profits and should be treated with care.

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After Diagnosis

• Feeding back the information• Choosing interventions• Managing change• Institutionalizing change