Change Entry, Diagnosis & Intervention

8/10/2019 Change Entry, Diagnosis & Intervention

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Organization Change & Development


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The organization might be successful yet have room forimprovement.

The organization might be facing impending environmentalconditions that necessitate a change in how it operates.

The organization could be experiencing particular problems:Poor product quality

High rate of absenteeism

Dysfunctional conflicts among departments


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Here comes the role of OD Practitioner! The term applies tothree sets of people:

Individuals specializing in OD as a profession.

People from related field who have gained

competence in OD.Managers, having the necessary skills necessary to

change and develop their organization or

departments.


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This includes four kinds of background:Intrapersonal skillsInterpersonal skillsGeneral Consultation Skills andKnowledge of OD theory

Most importantly, Values play a key role in OD & traditionalvalues promoting trust, collaboration and openness have beensupplemented recently with concerns for improvingorganizational effectiveness and productivity.


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Ethical issues in OD involve how practitioners perform theirhelping role with clients. Several ethical codes have been

employed by various professional bodies and associations.

Ethical dilemmas in OD arise around:

Misrepresentation and Misuse of data

Coercions

Value and Goal Conflict

Technical ineptness


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They involve defining in a preliminary manner theorganizations:

ProblemsOpportunity for development andAbility to establish a collaborative relationship

between the members of the client system and ODpractitioner to work out the problems.

Entering and Contracting can vary in complexity andformality depending upon the situation.


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Entering and Contracting helps to define:

What issues will be addressed by those activitiesWho will carry them out andHow they will be accomplished.

Entering and Contracting requires collecting primary information tohelp define the problematic or developmental issues by the OD

Practitioner.

Entering and Contracting could be done:Informally if the arrangement is internal by sittingtogether and work out the modalities to reach to acommon goal.

Formally if the arrangement is external


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Entering & Contracting needs to be very carefully done.

Unless there is clarity and agreement about what issues

to work on who will address them and how they will be

accomplished and most importantly what timetable willbe followed is not specified:

OD process is likely to be confusing and

ineffective!


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An OD Process generally starts when a member of anorganization or unit contacts an OD Practitioner aboutpotential help in addressing organizational issues.

The organization member may be:

A ManagerA Staff Specialist orSome other key participant


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The practitioner may be an OD professional from inside oroutside of the organization.

Entering in OD relationship typically involves:Clarifying the nature of the organizations

current functioning and the issues to beaddressed.The relevant client system for that issue.The appropriateness of the particular ODPractitioner.


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In helping assess these issues:The OD Practitioner may need to collect preliminaryinformation and data about the organization.

Similarly:

The organization may need to collect information aboutthe practitioners competence and experience.

This knowledge will help both the parties to determine whetherthey should proceed to develop a contract for working together.


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Clarifying the organizational issues

When seeking help from an OD Practitioner, organization typicallystarts with a presenting problem the issue that has caused them toconsider an OD process.

The issues may be specific:decreased market shareincreased absenteeism or

The issues may be general:we are growing too fast.

we need to prepare for changes.


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Gaining a clearer perspective on the organizational issue may

require collecting preliminary date.

OD Practitioner often examine:Company RecordsInterview a few key members to gain an introductoryunderstanding of the organization.

Its Context andThe nature of presenting problems.

These data are collected from few hours to 2-3 days


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The relevant client includes those organization members

who can directly impact the change issue, whether it issolving a problem or improve an already successful

organization or department.

Unless these members are identified and included in theentering and contracting process, they may withhold their

support and commitment to the OD Process.


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Determining the client may vary in complexity depending

on the situation (eg. Inclusion if union, to improve

decision making process.. the manager and team would be

the relevant client. )

Determining the client may be complex when the issue

cannot be addressed in a single unit. (members from

multiple units; hierarchical levels; even outside the

organization).


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Someone who has the expertise and experience to work

with members on organizational issues.

Though no systematic information is available on how to

choose a competent OD practitioner (whether from inside

or outside the organization).

To counter this organizations may request the

consultancies and OD Practitioners to submit a detailed

proposal.


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Key elements of a Proposal may include:

Project goals or Goals of proposed effort.

Outlines of Recommended Action Plans or ImplementationPlans.

A list of Roles and Responsibilities or Specifications ofResponsibilities.

Recommended Interventions or Strategies for achieving thedesired state

Proposed Fees, Expenses, Terms and Conditions


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Certainly, OD Consulting is as much a person

specialization as it is a task specialization.

An OD Practitioner

Needs not only a repertoire of technical skills.

But also the personality and interpersonal

competence to use him/herself as an instrument of

change.


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An OD Practitioner must be able to:

Maintain boundary position.

Co-ordinate among various units, departments .

Mix disciplines, theories, technology and

Research finding in a systematic way.

The OD Practitioner is potentially the most important OD

technology available.


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The activities of entering an OD relationship are a necessary

prelude to developing an OD contract.

Contracting is a natural extension of the entering process andclarifies how the OD process will proceed

Contracting typically establishes:The expectations of the parties;The time and resources that will be expended andThe ground rules under which the parties will operate.


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Diagnosis is the process of understanding a systems current functioning.

Diagnosis provides the systematic knowledge of the organization neededto design appropriate interventions.

Thus, OD derives from Diagnosis and includes specific actions intendedto improve organizational functioning.

In other words, Diagnosis involves:Collecting pertinent information about current operations.Analyze those data andDrawing conclusions for potential change and improvement.


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Diagnosis generally follows from successful entry and

contracting, setting the stage for successful diagnosis.

Diagnosis helps OD practitioners and client members jointlydetermine:

Organizational issues to focus onHow to collect and analyze data to understand them &How to work together to develop action step from thediagnosis.


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Unfortunately, the term diagnosis can be misleading when

applied to organizations.

It suggests a model of change analogous to medicine.

An organization (patient) experiencing problems seeks help

from an OD practitioner (doctor); the practitioner examines

the organization, finds the causes of the problems and

prescribes a solution.


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First, Diagnosis in OD does not accept the implicit

assumption that something is wrong with the organization.

Second, the value and ethical beliefs that underlie ODsuggests that both organization members and change agents

should be involved in discovering the determinants of current

organizational effectiveness.

Diagnosis is used more broadly than medical definition would

suggest. It is a collaborative process between members and

the OD consultant to collect pertinent information, analyze it

and draw conclusions for action planning and intervention.


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To diagnose an organization, OD practitioners and members need

to have an idea about what information to collect and analyze.

Chances about what to look for invariably depends on how

organizations are perceived. Such perceptions can vary from

intuitive hunches to scientific explanations of how organization

functions.

Conceptual frameworks that people use to understand

organizations are referred to as diagnostic models.

They describe the relationships among different features of the

organization, its context and its effectiveness.


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As a result, diagnostic models point out what areas to examine and whatquestions to ask in assessing how organization is functioning.

However all models represent simplifications of reality and therefore

choose certain features as critical.

Model of Kert LewinBirke & Litwin ModelSystems TheoryNadler and TushmannsCongruence ModelSocio-Technical Systems and Systems ThinkingEmpowerment ModelParallel Learning StructuresTeams and Group ModelNormative Re-educative Strategy

Behaviour Science Model


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As a result, diagnostic models point out what areas to examine and whatquestions to ask in assessing how organization is functioning.

However all models represent simplifications of reality and therefore

choose certain features as critical.

Model of Kert LewinBirke & Litwin ModelSystems TheoryNadler and TushmannsCongruence ModelSocio-Technical Systems and Systems ThinkingEmpowerment ModelParallel Learning StructuresTeams and Group ModelNormative Re-educative Strategy

Behaviour Science Model


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Collection of Diagnostic Information

Questionnaires

Closed ended questionnaire

Open ended questionnaire

Interview

Individual or Group

Structured (closed): specific questions on major

components of diagnostic models.

Unstructured (open-ended): includes general and broad

uestions about or anization functionin .


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Observation Method

observing organizational behaviour in their functional

settings.

can be done casually, looking around, number of times

one behaves similarly.

Participant: OD practitioner becomes someone like

them and operates

Non-Participant: OD Practitioner is out but uses

recordings of behaviour, films, video footage and other

methods etc.


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Unobtrusive Measuresdata not collected directly from respondents but fromsecondary sources such as company records, archives.

These data are generally available in organizations and includes:Records of Absenteeism or Tardiness

GrievancesQuantity and Quality of Production or ServiceFinancial PerformanceMeeting MinutesCorrespondence with key customers, suppliers or

governmental agencies


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Analyzing of Diagnostic Information

Data Analysis Techniques fall into two broad classes:Qualitative TechniquesQuantitative Techniques

Qualitative ToolsContent Analysis

Force-Field Analysis

Quantitative ToolsMeans, SD and Frequency DistributionsScattergrams and Correlations

Difference Tests (t tests, z tests)


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Perhaps the most important stem in the diagnostic process is feedingback diagnostic information to the client organization

Although data is collected with clients help, the OD practitioner

usually is responsible for organizing and presenting them to theclient.

Properly analyzed and meaningful data can have an impact onorganizational change only if organization members can use theinformation to devise appropriate action plan.

Key objective of the feedback process is to be sure that the client hasownership of the data.


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Determining the content of feedback: effective characteristics of effective feedback data:

(a) Relevant

(b) Understandable

(c) Descriptive

(d) Verifiable

(e) Timely

(f) Limited

(g) Significant

(h) Comparative

(i) Unfinalized


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Characteristics of the Feedback Process

1. Motivation to work with the data

2. Structure for the meeting

3. Appropriate Attendance

4. Appropriate Power

5. Process Help


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Survey Feedback

Is a process of collecting and feeding back data from an

organization or department through the use of a questionnaire

or survey.

Data are analyzed, fed back to organization members, and

used by them to diagnose the organization and to develop

interventions to improve it.

Because questionnaires often are used in organization

diagnosis and it is a powerful intervention to get data

feedback.


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Is a major technique in the history and development of OD.

Trend has been to combine with other OD interventions

including work design, structural change, large-group

interventions and intergroup relations.

These change methods are outcome of planning and

implementation phase following from survey feedback.


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Step 1: Members of the organization, including those at

the top, are involved in preliminary planning of

the survey.

Step 2: The survey instrument is administered to all

members of the organization or department.

Step 3: The OD consultant usually analyzes the surveydata, tabulates the results, suggests approaches

to diagnosis, and trains client members to lead

the feedback process.


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Step 4: Data feedback usually begins at the top of theorganization and cascades downwards to groups

reporting to managers at successively lower

levels.

Step 5: Feedback meetings provide an opportunity to

work with the data.


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Ambiguity of Purpose

Distrust

Unacceptable Topics

Organizational Disturbance


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An OD intervention is a sequence of activities,actions and

events intended to help an organization improve its

performance and effectiveness.

Intervention design, or action planning, derives from carefuldiagnosis and is meant to resolve specific problems and to

improve particular areas of organizational functioning

identified in the diagnosis.

Documents

Change Entry, Diagnosis & Intervention