ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

What is OD?
 Organisational development (OD) comprises a special set of organisational
change of methods.
 Its planned , systematic process of organisational change based on behaviour
science research and theory.
 The goal of OD is to create adaptive organisations capable of transforming
and reinvesting themselves , so as to remain effective.
 OD draws heavily from psychology, sociology and anthropology .
 OD is not a single approach but a collection of techniques.
 It is based on many well-established principles regarding the behaviour of
individual and groups in an organisations.
Characteristics of OD :
 Planned change :Also called change intervention , it makes OD different from
other approaches for change in org.
 Comprehensive change : OD efforts generally involve a total system .The
change occurs the entire environment.
 Long-range change : OD takes months or years to implement.
 Emphasis upon work groups: Although some OD efforts are aimed at
individual and organisational change ,most are oriented towards groups.
 Participation of a change agent :The services of an outside expert are
generally retained to implement the OD process.
 Collaborative management: In the contrast to the traditional mgt structure in
which orders are issued at upper levels & simply carried out by lower levels,
OD stresses collaboration among levels.
OD interventions
Several OD interventions ,also called techniques ,have evolved over time.
The most successful of them possess three key characteristics :
 They are based on valid information about the functioning of the org, usually
collected by the employees.
 The intervention provides employees with opportunities to make their own
choices regarding the nature of the problems and their preferred solutions.
 Interventions are aimed at gaining the employees personal commitment to
their choices.
Four categories of interventions
 Human process interventions
 Technostructural interventions
 Human resources management interventions
 Strategic interventions
Human Process Interventions
 This OD techniques in this category aim at improving employees inter-
personal skills.
  The purpose is to provide them with the insight and skills needed to analyses
effectively their own and others behaviour so that they can intelligently solve
interpersonal and intergroup problems.
 This technique is widely called as sensitivity training.
Sensitivity or T-Group training
 Sensitivity training is to provide the employees with increased awareness of
their own behaviour and how others perceive them, greater sensitivity to the
behaviour of others, and increased understanding of group processes.
 Ten to fifteen employees are brought together in a free and open
environment , away from work places , in which participants discuss
themselves freely , aided by a facilitator.
 No formal agenda.
 Individual personality and group interaction, processes and relationships
become the focus of discussion.
 Facilitator is no teacher.
 Specific results sought from sensitivity training include increased ability to
empathize with others, improved listening skills, greater openness , increased
tolerance of individual differences and improved conflict resolution skills.
Team Building
 Team building is the process of diagnosing and improving the effectiveness of a
work group.
 It gives particular attention to work procedures and interpersonal relationships
within it , especially the role of the leader in relation to other group members.
Team building can be directed at two different types of teams of working groups:
 First, an existing or permanent team made up of a manager and his subordinates
often called family group.
 Second, a new group which may have been created through a merger or other
structural change in the organization, or formed to solve a specific problem,
which may be called the special group.
Grid Training
 Grid organisational development , an extension off the managerial grid
concept developed by BLAKE and MOUTON is usually carried out on an
organisation-wide basis.
 Grid training seeks to promote organisational excellence by fostering concern
for production and concern for people.
Steps in Grid OD
 Training
 Team development
 Intergroup development
 Organisational goal setting
 Goal attainment
 Stabilization
Technostructural intervention
  Experts in OD are increasingly relying on efforts to change the structure ,
methods, and job designs of organizations.
 As compared with human process interventions, such technostructural
interventions (as well as the human resource mgt interventions and strategic
interventions described later) generally utilize the traditional OD action research
approach, but focus more directly on productivity improvement and efficiency.

Human Resource Management Intervention

 Human resource mgt practices such as hiring, training, and performance
appraisal can mould employee commitment , motivation and productivity .
 OD practitioners are therefore , increasingly involved in using action research
to enable employees to analyse and change their firms personnel practices.
 Targets of change include the firms appraisal system , reward system, and
workforce diversity programmes.
Strategic Interventions
 There have been constant addition to the basket of OD techniques the newest
addition is the integrated strategic mgt.This approach consists of four steps :
 Analysing current strategy and organization design.
 Choosing a desired strategy and organisation design.
 Designing a strategic change plan.
 Implementing a strategic change plan .
Pre-requisites for OD
 Perception of organisational problems by key people and perception of the
relevance of the behavioural sciences in solving these problems.
 The introduction into the system of a behavioural science consultant.
 Participation of work teams, including the formal leader .
 Development of internal OD resources and facilitative skills.
 Effective mgt of the OD process and stabilization of changes .
 Involvement of personnel and industrial relations/ human resources mgt
people and congruency with personnel policy and practice .
 Monitoring the process and the measuring of results
Effectiveness of OD Programming
 It is difficult to measure the number , nature, and magnitude of confounding
variables.
 Preintervention measure of behaviour are not taken
 Those doing the evaluations of OD programmes have vested interest in
proving success.