CLASSIFYING OD INTERVENTIONS The inventory of OD interventions is quite

extensive. We will explore several classification schemes here to help you understand how interventions "clump" together in terms of

(1) the objectives of the interventions and (2) the targets of the interventions.

Becoming familiar with how interventions relate to one another is useful for planning the overall OD strategy.

As we see it, the following are the major "families" of OD interventions.

1. Diagnostic Activities

Fact-finding activities designed to ascertain the state of the system, the status of a problem, the "way things are." Available methods range from projective devices such as "build a collage that represents your place in this organization" to the more traditional data collection methods of interviews, questionnaires, surveys, meetings, and examining organizational records.

2. Team-Building Activities

Activities designed to enhance the effective operation of system teams.

These activities focus on task issues such as the way things are done, the skills and resources needed to accomplish tasks, the quality of relationship among the team members or between members and the leader, and how well the team gets its job done.

In addition, one must consider different kinds of teams, such as formal work teams, temporary tasks force teams, newly constituted teams, and cross-functional teams.

3. Intergroup Activities. Activities designed to improve the

effectiveness of interdependent groups-groups that must work together to produce a common output. They focus on joint activities and the output of the group as considered as a single system rather than as two subsystems. When two groups are involved, the activities are designated intergroup or interface activities; when more than two groups are involved, the activities are called organizational mirroring.

4. Survey Feedback Activities. Activities that rely on questionnaire surveys

to generate information that is then used to identify problems and opportunities. Groups analyze the data regarding; their performance and design action plans to correct problems.

5. Education and Training Activities. Activities designed to improve individuals' skills, abilities, and

knowledge. Several activities are available and several approaches possible.

For example, the individual can be educated in isolation from his or her own work group (say, in a T-group consisting of strangers), or one can be educated in relation to the work group (say, when a work team learns how better to manage interpersonal conflict). The activities may be directed toward technical skills required for performing tasks or may be directed toward improving interpersonal competence.

The activities may be directed toward leadership issues, responsibilities and functions of group members, decision-making, problem solving, goal setting and planning, and so forth.

6. Techno structural or Structural Activities. Activities designed to improve the effectiveness of organizational

structures and job designs. The activities may take the form of (a) experimenting with new organization structures and evaluating their effectiveness in terms of specific goals or

(b) devising new ways to bring technical resources to bear on problems. these activities and label them "structural interventions" defined as "the broad class of interventions or change efforts aimed at improving organization effectiveness through changes in the task, structural, and technological subsystems."

Included in these activities are job enrichment, management by objectives, socio technical systems, collateral organizations, and physical settings interventions.

7. Process Consultation Activities. Activities that "help the client to perceive,

understand, and act upon process events which occur in the client's environment.'" .

These activities perhaps more accurately describe an approach, a consulting mode in which the client gains insight into the human processes in organizations and learn skills in diagnosing and managing them.

Primary emphasis is on processes such as communications, leader and member roles in groups, problem solving and decision making, group norms and group growth, leadership and authority, and intergroup cooperation and competition. '

8. Grid Organization Development Activities Activities developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton, which

constitute a six-phase change model involving the total organization. Internal resources are developed to conduct most of the programs, which may take from three to five years to complete.

The model starts with upgrading individual managers' skills and leadership abilities,

moves to team improvement activities, then to intergroup relations activities. Later phases include corporate planning for improvement, developing implementation tactics, and finally, an evaluation phase assessing .change in the

organization culture and looking toward future directions.

9.Third-Party Peacemaking Activities. Activities conducted by a skilled consultant

(the third party, designed to help two members of an organization manage their interpersonal conflict. These activities are based on confrontation tactics and an understanding of the processes involved in conflict and conflict resolution.

10. Coaching and Counseling Activities. Activities that entail the consultant or other

organization members working with individuals to help

(a) define learning goals, (b) learn how others see their behavior, and (c) learn new behaviors to help them better achieve

their goals. A central feature of this activity is non evaluative feedback others give to an individual.

A second feature is the second exploration of alternative behaviors.

11. Life- and Career-Planning Activities. Activities that enable individuals to

focus on their life and career objectives and how to go about achieving them. Structured activities include producing life and career inventories, discussing goals and objectives, and assessing capabilities, needed additional training, and areas of strength and deficiency.

12. Planning and Goal-Setting Activities Activities that include theory and experience

in planning and goal setting, problem-solving models, planning paradigms, ideal organization versus real organization "discrepancy" models, and the like.

The goal is to improve these skills at the levels of the individual, group, and total organization.

13. Strategic Management Activities. Activities that help key policy makers to

reflect systematically on the organization's basic mission and goals and environmental demands, threats, and opportunities, and to engage in long-range action planning of both a reactive and proactive nature.

These activities direct attention in two important directions: outside the organization to a consideration of the environment, and away from the present to the future.

14. Organizational Transformation Activities. Activities that involve large-scale system changes; activities designed to fundamentally change the

nature of the organization. Almost everything about the organization is

changed-structure, management philosophy, reward systems, the design of work, mission, values, and cultures. Total quality programs are transformational: so are

programs to create high-performance organizations or high performance work systems.

Each of these families of interventions includes many activities. They involve both conceptual material and actual experience with the phenomenon being studied. Some families are directed toward specific targets, problems, or processes.

For example, Team-building activities are specific to work

teams, While life-planning activities are directed to

individuals, although these latter activities take place in-group settings.

Some interventions are problem specific: examples are the third-party peacemaking activities and the goal-setting activities.

Some activities are process specific: an example is intergroup activities that explore the

processes involved in managing interfaces.

Another way to classify OD interventions is by the primary target of the intervention,

for example, individuals, dyads and triads, teams and groups, intergroup relations, and the total organization.

Some interventions have multiple targets and multiple uses, and thus appear in several places in the figure. These classification schemes are intended to help you understand the range and uses of OD interventions.

OD interventions

Some logical Follow-up questions are: When is OD intervention appropriate

during the strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation processes?

What types of interventions could or should be employed?

OD Programme Contents

Interventions covered are based on the needs for each class and include one intervention from each category

(individual, group, organization). Specific interventions may include the

following: Coaching Leadership development Diagnostic instruments

Leadership and learning styles Use of training as an intervention Team development, group

dynamics, small group process consultation

Role clarification, organizational design and redesign

Visioning, collaborative strategic planning, culture change

Multicultural OD & Global Issues Large Group Methods Learning methods will include case

studies, role plays, large and small group discussion.

Figure 18.5 Organization development and the planned change process.

Table 8.1OD Interventions: An Overview (part 1 of 2)

Table 8.1OD Interventions: An Overview (part 2 of 2)

1. Structure the activity to include the relevant people, the people affected by the problem or the opportunity.

For example, if the goal is improved team effectiveness,

have the whole team engage in the activities.

If the goal is improved relations between two separate work groups, have both work groups present.

If the goal is to build linkages with some special group, say, the industrial relations people, have them there along with the people from the home group.

If the goal is better customer service, include customers in the activity.

Preplanning the group composition is necessary for properly structuring the activity.

Individual OD interventions

Role negotiation

Sensitivity training (T-groups)

Management training

Job redesign

Career planning

Team OD interventions

Team building

Process consultation

Inter-group team building

Organization-wide OD interventions

Survey feedback

Confrontation meeting

Structural redesign

Management by objectives (MBO)

Third party peace making interventions

Study Question 5: How can stress be managed in a change environment?

Stress A state of tension experienced by individuals facing

extraordinary demands, constraints, or opportunities.

Stressors Things that cause stress

Originate in work, personal, and nonwork situations.

Have the potential to influence work attitudes, behavior,

job performance, and health.

Designing an Intervention Strategy – 2 

    Systems Approach: Diagnose the Environment

e.g., force field analysis Develop an Action Plan

objectives, activities, “details” Evaluate the Results of the Intervention

Types of Interventions: Human Process-Based

Survey Feedback The systematic collection of survey data Fed back to groups to promote problem solving

and change Team Building

A process to improve a group’s problem-solving abilities

Example: process consultation

Types of Interventions:  Techno structural  Job Enlargement

Adding variety through similar tasks Job Enrichment

Increasing responsibility, knowledge of results, and meaningfulness of work

Alternative Work Schedules Compressed workweek Flextime work schedule

Types of Interventions:  Socio technical Systems Quality Circles

Involving employees in work decisions Total Quality Management (TQM)

Continuous improvement efforts Self-Managing Teams (SMTs)

Team members have authority to make decisions and regulate the team’s activities

Types of Interventions:  Socio technical Systems – 2  Total Quality Management (TQM)

Five basic components: Total commitment from senior management Quality standards and measures in place Training in quality for all employees (including Statistical

Process Control) Programs/ways to reward, recognize, and celebrate

quality achievements Strong quality communication efforts

Types of Interventions:  Socio technical Systems – 3  Self-Managing Teams

Basic components: Interdependence among team members Individual members have discretion/authority to

make important work decisions Individual members possess a variety of skills,

so that they can perform multiple tasks The team receives regular performance

feedback

Types of Interventions:  Organizational Transformation  Cultural Interventions

Efforts to change the values, norms, or ways of thinking in an organization

Strategic Changes Fundamental changes in the purpose or mission

of an organization Becoming a Learning Organization

Beyond TQM, to continuous learning and improvement for all employees

High Performance Work Systems

Types of Interventions:  Organizational Transformation – 2  

Becoming a Learning Organization Dimensions that support learning:

Organization Structure – more collaborative and team-based

Information Acquisition, Sharing, and Retention – effective knowledge and information sharing

HRM Practices – all reinforce learning Organizational Culture – promotes learning Leadership – supportive (at all levels)

Types of Interventions : Organizational Transformation – 3 

High Performance Work Systems Eight core principles:

Alignment to organizational strategy Clear goals and outcomes (all levels, all aligned) Work is organized around processes Process-oriented tracking and management of

results Work units are linked to identified processes Accountability, cycle time, and responsiveness

emphasized Collaboration, trust, and mutual support are

present Emphasis on strategic change management

Study Question 4: What is organization development?

Action research The process of systematically collecting data on

an organization, feeding it back to the members for action planning, and evaluating results by collecting more data and repeating the process as necessary.

Is initiated when someone senses a performance gap.

Study Question 4: What is organization development? Steps in the action research process:

Problem sensing. Data gathering. Data analysis and feedback. Action planning. Action implementation. Evaluation and follow-up.

Some Concluding Thoughts on Organization Development  Effectiveness: There is evidence for the

effectiveness of particular OD interventions.  However, there is much room for improvement (in the research designs used, and the results obtained).

Recent efforts have stressed “change management.”

Some Concluding Thoughts on Organization Development – 2  Many HRD applications can be viewed as

OD interventions: Human Process-Based: career development,

coaching, orientation Technostructural: skills/technical training Sociotechnical: team and quality training Organization transformation: EAPs, management

development

Summary 

Organization development can be difficult! Reluctance/resistance to change

Success is most likely with: An appropriate model of change The appropriate methods/interventions A systems approach (e.g., high performance work

systems, HRD process model) Need a dual focus on organizational

performance and employee well-being

Third party peacemaking interventions

Third party peacemaking interventions It have the potential to control the

conflict or resolve it. Its basic feature is confrontation:the two

principals must be willing to confront the fact that conflict exists and that it has consequences for the effectiveness of the two parties involved.

Walton’s approach to third party peacemaking The diagnostic model: 

The model is based on four elements: The conflict issues. Precipitating circumstances. Conflict relevant acts. The consequences of the conflict

Sources: 

Substantive issues, which is conflict related to practices, scarce resources, and differing conceptions of roles and responsibilities. 

Emotional issues, involve feelings between the parties, such as anger, hurt, fear, resentment, etc

It is also important to know the source of the conflict. 

Walton has outlined the ingredients of a productive confrontation( the process of addressing conflict), they are

1. Mutual positive motivation

2. Balance of power

3. Synchronization of confrontation efforts

4. Differentiation and integration of different phases of the intervention must be well paced

5. Conditions that promote openness should be created

6. Reliable communicative signals

7. Optimum tension in the situation

Organizational Mirror

Interventions

Host group genuinely wants to hear how the unit is perceived, the consultant feeds back to the total group information from the interviews.

The outsiders FISH BOWL to discuss & explore the data presented by the consultant.

Organization Mirror

Gives feedback to teams on how other elements of organization view them.

Units meet together to process data with objective of identifying problems and formulating solutions.

Set of activities in which host group receives feedback about how it is perceived and regarded from reps across organization

Intended to improve intergroup relationships

Organizational Mirror Interventions:

It is different from the inter group team-building intervention in that:

Three or more groups are involved Representatives of other work related groups

typically participate rather than the full membership

The focus is to assist the host unit that requested the meeting

1. Host group asks key reps from interface group (customer-supplier groups) to meet and provide feedback

2. Pre- and post interviews by consultant to OD magnitude of issue(s), precipitate participants and answer their questions

Process

At the actual session

1. Opening remarks by manger of host group to set tone

2. Guests use fishbowl discussion to maintain natural flow; hosts listen

3. Hosts fishbowl discuss, ask for clarification from guests4. Subgroups of guests and hosts form to ID most

important changes host group needs to make5. Reconvene in large group to hear summaries of each

sub group and form master task list6. Action planning, tasks, responsible parties, completion

dates established and agreed, concluding mirroring session

7. Follow-up meeting to assess and review progress

It is imperative (VITAL) that following the meeting the host group in fact implement the action plans that were developed during the meeting.

Survey-Guided Development

Survey Feedback

Process Consultation intervention

Process Consultation

“It is more of a philosophy or a set of underlying assumptions about the helping process that lead the consultant to take a certain attitude toward his or her relationship with the client.”

Edgar H. Schein

Process Consultation Defined

Process consultation is the creation of a relationship with the client that permits the client to perceive, understand, and act on the process events that occur in the client’s internal and external environment in order to improve the situation as defined by the client`

PCI-

“the central discipline for helping professionals to build strong client-consultant relationships that result in sustained change and improvement.”

Key Principles PRINCIPLE 1: Always Try to Be Helpful

“Consultation is providing help. Obviously, therefore, if I have intention of being helpful and working at it, I am likely to be successful in creating a helping relationship. If possible, every contact should be perceived as helpful.”

Key Principles

PRINCIPLE 2: Always Stay in Touch with the Current Reality

“I cannot be helpful if I do not know the realities of what is going on within me and within the client system; therefore, every contact with anyone in the client system should provide diagnostic information to both the client and to me about the here-and-now state of the client system and the relationship between the client and me.”

Key Principles

PRINCIPLE 3: Access Your Ignorance

“The only way I can discover my own inner reality is to learn to distinguish

what I know from what I assume I know, from what I truly do not know. I cannot determine what is the current reality if I do not

get in touch with what I do not know about the situation

and do not have the wisdom to ask about it.”

Key Principles

PRINCIPLE 4: Everything You Do Is an Intervention

“Just as every interaction reveals diagnostic information, so does every interaction have consequences both for the client and for me. I therefore have to own everything I do and assess the consequences to be sure that they fit my goals of creating a helping relationship.”

PRINCIPLE 5: It Is the Client Who Owns the Problem and the Solution

“My job is to create a relationship in which the client can get help. It is not my job to take the client’s problems onto my own shoulders, nor is it my job to offer advice and solutions for situations in which I do not live myself. The reality is that only the client has to live with the consequences of the problem and the solution, so I must not take the monkey off the client’s back.”

Key Principles

PRINCIPLE 6: Go with the Flow

“All client systems develop cultures and attempt to maintain their stability through maintenance of those cultures. All individual clients develop their own personalities and styles. In as much as I do not know initially what those cultural and personal realities are, I must locate the client’s own areas of motivation and readiness to change, and initially build on those.”

Key Principles

Principle 7: Timing is Crucial

“Any given intervention might work at one time and fail at another time. Therefore, I must remain constantly diagnostic and look for those moments when the client’s attention seems to be available.”

PRINCIPLE 8: Be Constructively Opportunistic with Confrontive Interventions

“All client systems have areas of instability and openness where motivation to change exists. I must find and build on existing motivations and cultural strengths (go with the flow), and, at the same time seize targets of opportunity to provide new insights and alternatives. Going with the flow must be balanced with taking some risks in intervening.”

Key Principles

PRINCIPLE 9: Everything Is Data; Errors Will Always Occur and Are the Prime Source for Learning

“No matter how carefully I observe the above principles I will say and do things that produce unexpected and undesirable reactions in the client. I must learn from them and at all costs avoid defensiveness, shame, or guilt…”

Key Principles

PRINCIPLE 10: When in Doubt, Share the Problem

“I am often in the situation where I do not know what to do next, what kind of intervention would be appropriate. It is often appropriate in those situations to share the problem with the client and involve him or her in deciding what to do next.”