UNIT 1 DEFINITION, FACTORS TO BE

CONSIDERED, NATURE AND

CLASSIFICATION OF OD
INTERVENTIONS
Structure
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Meaning of Organisational Development
1.2.1 Definition of OD
1.2.2 Characteristics of OD
1.2.3 Process of OD
1.2.4 Role of Consultant in OD
1.2.5 Objectives and Values of OD

1.3 Definition and Concept of OD Interventions

1.3.1 Factors of OD Interventions
1.3.2 Readiness for Change
1.3.3 Capability to Change
1.3.4 Cultural Context
1.3.5 Capabilities of the Change Agent
1.3.6 Contingencies Related to the target of Charge

1.4 Organisational Issues

1.4.1 Rules for Implementation

1.5 Nature and Classification of Organisational Development Interventions

1.5.1 Human Processes
1.5.2 Techno Structural
1.5.3 Human Resource Management
1.5.4 Intervention Based on the Underlying Causal Mechanisms

1.6 Major “Families” of OD Intervention Activities

1.7 Let Us Sum Up
1.8 Unit end Questions
1.9 Suggested Readings

1.0 INTRODUCTION
In this unit we will be dealing with organisational development. We start with Meaning
of organisational development, definition, characteristics and process of OD. We
then discuss the role of a consultant in organisational development. The next section
deals with OSD interventions in which we start with definition and concept of of OD
interventions. Then we discuss the various factors that are associated with OD
interventions. Then the discussion passes on to the readiness for change and OD
interventions. Whether the organisation has the capability to change and what the
cultural contexts in which the OD intervention is to be taken up and how the cultural
factors affect OD interventions. Then we take up the capabilities opf the change 5
OD Interventions agent. Following this we deal with organisational issues, and the the implementation
rules thereof. We then discuss the nature and classification of OD intervention and
deal with human processes, the techno structural factors and the management of
human resources. Finally we discuss the major aspects of the OD intervention activities

1.1 OBJECTIVES
After completing this unit, you will be able to:
 Define and give the meaning of organisational development;
 Describe the characteristics of OD;
 Explain the Process of OD;
 Analyse the role of consultant in OD;
 Elucidate the objectives and values of OD;
 Define and conceptualise OD Interventions;
 Delineate the factors of OD interventions;
 Analyse the readiness for change through OD;
 Discuss the organisational issues;
 Classify the organisational interventions; and
 Elucidate the major families of OD intervention activities.

1.2 MEANING OF ORGANISATIONAL

DEVELOPMENT
Change has become a way of life for most organisations. Pressures from increasing
competition, globalisation, technological developments and other forces have created
an environment that rewards organisations that are capable of identifying trends and
issues and responding quickly to them. The element of HRD that can best enable
organisations to embrace and manage change is organisation development. It is not
entirely clear as to who coined the term “Organisation Development” but in all
probability it was Robert Blake, Herbert Shephard and Jane Mouton. The OD
movement gained tremendous momentum by 70s and is increasingly applied throughout
the globe in the present day. It has now been evolved into accepted field of study
and professional practice. It has been estimated that in USA alone more than 5000
persons refer themselves as OD practitioners. Early OD efforts primarily addressed
first order change that is, making moderate adjustments to the organisation, its people
and its processes. Today the demands of the organisation are so great that the
second order change is required in many instances. The fundamental nature of work
and organisation is changing.
Organisation development most frequently referred to as OD is a systematic and
practical approach to launching and defusing change in organisations. It is not a one
time training or development program but is an ongoing and cycling process. It is a
complex educational strategy which aims to bring about a better fit between human
beings who work in organisations and expect things to take place as they visualise
and the busy, unrelenting environment, with its insistence on adapting to changing
times. OD is employed as “comprehensive strategy for organisation improvement”.

6
1.2.1 Definition of OD Definition, Factors to be
Considered, Nature and
Organisational development is a process that is an identifiable flow of interrelated Classification of OD
Interventions
events moving overtime towards goals of organisational improvement and individual
development. It is a journey and not a destination. Organisational development is an
effort planned, organisation – wide and managed from the top to increase organisation
effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organisation’s processes
using behavioural science knowledge (Beckhard, 1996). Organisational development
is a response to change, a complex educational strategy intended to change the
beliefs, attitudes, values and structure of organisations so that they can better adapt
to new technologies, markets and challenges and the dizzying rate to change itself
(Bennis,1969). OD can be defined as a planned and sustained effort to apply
behavioural science for system improvement, using reflexive, self analytic methods.
(Schmuck and Miles, 1971). The aims of OD are…enhancing congruence between
organisational structure, processes, strategy, people and culture, developing new and
creative organisational solutions and developing the organisations self renewing capacity.
(Beer, 1980). OD is a systematic application of behavioural science knowledge to
the planned development and reinforcement of organisational strategies, structures
and processes for improving organisation’s effectiveness. (Cummings and Worley,
1993). To sum up, Organisational Development is a long-term effort, led and
supported by top management, to improve an organisation’s visioning, empowerment,
learning and problem-solving processes, through an ongoing, collaborative management
of organisation culture – with special emphasis on the culture of intact work teams
and other team configurations- using the consultant- facilitator role and the theory
and technology of applied behavioural science, including action research.
The field of OD is so rapidly changing that in few years the label of OD may be
applied to somewhat different set of activities. Every program is unique as every
organisation has unique problems and opportunities. Organisational development is
both a professional field of social action and an area of scientific inquiry. The practice
of OD covers a wide spectrum of activities with a lot of variations. It emphasises
both macro and micro organisational changes: macro changes are intended to ultimately
improve the effectiveness of the organisation, whereas micro changes are directed at
individuals, small groups and teams. The fundamental difference between organisational
development and other organisation improvement programs is found in the OD
consultant’s role and relationship to clients.

1.2.2 Characteristic of OD
1) Long Range Effort: OD is not designed to solve short term temporary or
isolated problems. It is long term approach meant to elevate the organisation to
a higher level of functioning by improving the performance and satisfaction of
organisation members.
2) Broad Based: OD is used broadly to describe a variety of change programs.
It essentially deals with big picture – The Organisation.
3) Dynamic Process: OD includes the effort to guide and direct change as well
as to cope with or adopt to impose change.
4) System View: OD utilises system thinking. It is based on an open, adaptive
system concept. It recognises organisation structure and management performance
are mutually interdependent. The organisation is treated as an interrelated whole
and no part of the organisation can be changed without affecting other parts.
7
OD Interventions 5) Research Based: Most OD interventions are research based, not just introspect
employees rather collect data, evaluate and take decisions.
6) Goal Setting and Planning: Since OD is concerned with the entire organisation,
the change agents define goals of the group and will see to it that together they
all work to achieve the goal.
7) Normative re-educative strategy: OD is based on the principle that “norms
fond the basis of behaviour and change is re-educative process of replacing old
by new ones”.

1.2.3 Process of OD
1) Plan the changes and the process of change, necessarily, in consultations with
the trained and experienced consultants/behavioural experts by advising the top
management and seek their approval. It is primarily initiated by the top
management.
2) Change the attitudes and habits of individuals, particularly, in the areas of
interpersonal behaviour.
3) Create a team culture in the organisation.
4) Work out appropriate new structures.
5) Solve short term day-to-day and long term problems involving external and
internal change.

1.2.4 Role of a Consultant in Organisational Development

OD consultants establish a collaborative relationship of relative equality with the
organisation members as they together identify and take action on problems and
opportunities. The role of the OD consultant is to structure activities to help organisation
members learn to solve their own problems and learn to do it better over time. They
do not provide solutions to the problems but create learning situations in which
problems are identified and solutions are developed. The aim of leaving the organisation
members better able to solve their own problems is a distinctive feature of organisation
development. As an organisational development consultant, the person is devoted to
developing organisations and the people in them through planned change. This includes
working with individuals, teams and large systems.
The organisational development contultant (OD consultant) can take a variety of
approaches to the role ranging from expert to process consultant. They can operate
from the process consultant model which means that the consultant partners with his
clients to identify problems and create solutions. The point of this approach is to
leave the client system more capable of diagnosing and solving its own problems in
the future. Rather than foster dependency, the consultant’s aim is to foster independence.
By its nature, OD consulting is fresh and unique to each client situation. Many
organisations need outside help to continue or improve their operations. As an
organisational development consultant, the person’s role is to assist the company in
determining what its main problems are, how to cope effectively with them, and how
to manage any resistance to changes.
One of the first roles of an organisational development consultant is to identify,
quantify, and accurately describe problems within the company. This is not as easy
8 as it sounds. The issues often are complex, multifaceted, and intertwined with one
another. Observation and employee questionnaires are two tools consultants often Definition, Factors to be
Considered, Nature and
use to determine areas of trouble. Classification of OD
Interventions
Solving a company’s problems is at the heart of organisational development consulting.
After changes are recommended, consultants advise employers on the best way to
implement them while causing the least amount of disruption to the business’s day-
to-day operations.
One of the greatest challenges faced by organisational development consultants is
helping employees accept any changes that are recommended. Consultants should be
encouraged to make employees part of the change process whenever possible,
valuing the input they provide. Employees are less likely to resist changes that they
helped implement.

1.2.5 Objectives and Values of OD

OD is way of looking at the whole humanistic side of organisational life. OD
emphasises on the human dimension of an organisation consisting of main humanistic
values: 1) Opportunities to people to function like human beings rather than be
treated as mere inputs. 2) Opportunities for individual and the organisation to develop
to their full potential. 3). Increasing the effectiveness of individual and organisation.
4) Creating an organisational environment that generates exciting and challenging
work. Thus it focuses on the following objectives:
1) Improving mutual trust and emotional support among all the employees.
2) Promoting, in a healthy manner, incidences of intra-group and inter-group
confrontations.
3) Creating a culture in which authority is based on knowledge and skills.
4) Encouraging open communication bottom up, top down, sideways and diagonally.
5) Increasing the level of enthusiasm and satisfaction among the employees.
6) Promoting problem solving culture.
7) Improving individual employee participation and group participation to plan and
implement.
8) To find Synergistic solutions to problem with greater frequency.
Self Assessment Questions
1) What is the role of the consultant in Organisation Development Intervention?
a) Team building b) Group Development
c) Structuring activities d) Behaviour modification
2) OD objectives do not focus on which of the following?
a) Promoting problem solving culture b) find synergistic solutions
c) open communication d) Survey feedback
3) The organisation is treated as an interrelated whole and no part of the
organisation can be changed without affecting other parts is ————
a) Sensitivity training b) goal setting
c) Group development d) Systems view
9
OD Interventions
1.3 DEFINITION AND CONCEPT OF OD
INTERVENTIONS
OD interventions are sets of structured activities in which selected organisational units
(target groups or individuals) engage in a task or a sequence of tasks with the goal
of organisational improvement and individual development. Interventions constitute
the action thrust of organisation development. Behind every program is an overall
game plan or intervention strategy. This plan integrates the problems or opportunity
to be addressed, the desired outcomes of the program, and the sequencing and
timing of the various interventions. Intervention strategies are based on diagnosis and
the goals desired by the client system. The number of OD intervention is not small
but they all vary in range and depth into the penetration into the organisational system
and the purpose they serve. Most of the OD interventions are inherited from the
predecessor – the Human Relation Movement. OD intervention is not a management
development, not exclusively concerned with people, not a no fail formula, not aimed
at simply making organisation more productive and efficient, not gimmick or Fad, not
a separate discipline.
The different interventions are needed to serve different purposes in the organisation.
It is difficult to classify OD interventions because of their overlapping and interrelated
nature, for instance French and Bell designated 12 families of intervention. OD
practitioner employs any one or range of these interventions depending on the nature
of the problem. They are:
Diagnostic, Team building, Intergroup Activities, Survey Feedback Method, Education
and Training Programs, Techno Structural Activity, Process consultation, The
Management Grid, Mediation and Negotiation Activities, Coaching and Counseling
and Career planning and goal setting activities..

1.3.1 Factors of OD Interventions

In OD, three major criteria define an effective intervention:
1) the extent to which it fits the needs of the organisation;
2) the degree to which it is based on causal knowledge of intended outcomes; and
3) the extent to which it transfers change-management competence to organisation
members.
The first criterion concerns the extent to which the intervention is relevant to the
organisation and its members. Effective interventions are based on valid information
about the organisation’s functioning; they provide organisation members with
opportunities to make free and informed choices; and they gain members’ internal
commitment to those choices. Valid information is the result of an accurate diagnosis
of the organisation’s functioning. It must reflect fairly what organisation members
perceive and feel about their primary concerns and issues. Free and informed choice
suggests that members are actively involved in making decisions about the changes
that will affect them.
It means that they can choose not to participate and that interventions will not be
imposed on them. Internal commitment means that organisation members accept
ownership of the intervention and take responsibility for implementing it. If interventions
are to result in meaningful changes, management, staff, and other relevant members
10
must be committed to carrying them out. The second criterion of an effective Definition, Factors to be
Considered, Nature and
intervention involves knowledge of outcomes. Because interventions are intended to Classification of OD
produce specific results, they must be based on valid knowledge that those outcomes Interventions
actually can be produced. Otherwise there is no scientific basis for designing an
effective OD intervention. Unfortunately, and in contrast to other applied disciplines
such as medicine and engineering, knowledge of intervention effects is in a rudimentary
stage of development in OD. Much of the evaluation research lacks sufficient rigor
to make strong causal inferences about the success or failure of change programs.
Moreover, few attempts have been made to examine the comparative effects of
different OD techniques. All of these factors make it difficult to know whether one
method is more effective than another.
Despite these problems, more attempts are being made to assess systematically the
strengths and weaknesses of OD interventions and to compare the impact of different
techniques on organisation effectiveness. The third criterion of an effective intervention
involves the extent to which it enhances the organisation’s capacity to manage change.
The values underlying OD suggest that organisation members should be better able
to carry out planned change activities on their own following an intervention. They
should gain knowledge and skill in managing change from active participation in
designing and implementing the intervention. Competence in change management is
essential in today’s environment, where technological, social, economic, arid political
changes are rapid and persistent. They include the following are situational factors
that must be considered in designing any intervention: the organisation’s readiness for
change, its change capability, its cultural context, and the change agent’s skills and
abilities.

1.3.2 Readiness for Change

Intervention success depends heavily on the organisation being ready for planned
change. Indicators of readiness for change include sensitivity to pressures for change,
dissatisfaction with the status quo, availability of resources to support change, and
commitment of significant management time. When such conditions are present,
interventions can be designed to address the organisational issues uncovered during
diagnosis. When readiness for change is low, however, interventions need to focus
first on increasing the organisation’s willingness to change.

1.3.3 Capability to Change

Managing planned change requires particular knowledge and skills, including the
ability to motivate change, to lead change, to develop political support, to manage
the transition, and to sustain momentum. If organisation members do not have these
capabilities, then a preliminary training intervention may be needed before members
can engage meaningfully in intervention design.

1.3.4 Cultural Context

The national culture within which the organisation is embedded can exert a powerful
influence on members’ reactions to change, so intervention design must account for
the cultural values and assumptions held by organisation members. Interventions may
have to be modified to fit the local culture, particularly when OD practices developed
in one culture are applied to organisations in another culture. For example, a team-
building intervention designed for top managers at an American firm may need to be
modified when applied to the company’s foreign subsidiaries.
11
OD Interventions 1.3.5 Capabilities of the Change Agent
Many failures in OD result when change agents apply interventions beyond their
competence. In designing interventions, OD practitioners should assess their experience
and expertise against the requirements needed to implement the intervention effectively.
When a mismatch is discovered, practitioners can explore whether the intervention
can be modified to fit their talents better, whether another intervention more suited
to their skills can satisfy the organisation’s needs, or whether they should enlist the
assistance of another change agent who can guide the process more effectively. The
ethical guidelines under which OD practitioners operate requires full disclosure of the
applicability of their knowledge and expertise to the client situation. Practitioners are
expected to intervene within their capabilities or to recommend someone more suited
to the client’s needs.

1.3.6 Contingencies Related to the Target of Change

OD interventions seek to change specific features or parts of organisations. These
targets of change are the main focus of interventions, and researchers have identified
two key contingencies related to change targets that can affect intervention success:
the organisational issues that the intervention is intended to resolve and the level of
organisational system at which the intervention is expected to have a primary impact.

1.4 ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES

Organisations need to address certain issues to operate effectively. These issues
along with the OD interventions are intended to resolve them. It shows the following
four interrelated issues that are key targets of OD interventions:
1) Strategic issues: Organisations need to decide what products or services they
will provide and the markets in which they will compete, as well as how to
relate to their environments and how to transform themselves to keep pace with
changing conditions. These strategic issues are among the most critical facing
organisations in today’s changing and highly competitive environments. OD
methods aimed at these issues are called strategic interventions. The methods
are among the most recent additions to OD and include integrated strategic
change, mergers and acquisitions, trans-organisational development, and
organisation learning.
2) Technology and structure issues: Organisations must decide how to divide
work into departments and then how to coordinate among those departments
to support strategic directions. They also must make decisions about how to
deliver products or services and how to link people to tasks. OD methods for
dealing with these structural and technological issues are called techno-structural
interventions and include OD activities relating to organisation design, employee
involvement, and work design.
3) Human resources issues: These issues are concerned with attracting competent
people to the organisation, setting goals for them, appraising and rewarding their
performance, and ensuring that they develop their careers and manage stress.
OD techniques aimed at these issues are called human resources management
interventions.
4) Human process issues: These issues have to do with social processes occurring
among organisation members, such as communication, decision making,
12 leadership, and group dynamics. OD methods focusing on these kinds of issues
 are called human process interventions; included among them are some of the Definition, Factors to be
Considered, Nature and
most common OD techniques, such as conflict resolution and team building. Classification of OD
Interventions
1.4.1 Rules for Implementation
There are rules for managing the implementation process.
1) Maximize diagnostic data: In general, interventions will provide data needed to
make subsequent intervention decisions should come first.
2) Maximize effectiveness: Interventions should be sequenced so that early
intervention enhances the effectiveness of subsequent interventions.
3) Maximize efficiency: Interventions should be sequenced to conserve organisation
resources such as time, energy and money.
4) Maximize speed: Interventions should be sequenced to maximize the speed
which ultimate organisational improvement is attained.
5) Maximize relevance: Interventions that management sees as most relevant to
indicate problems should come first.
6) Minimize Psychological and organisational strain: A sequence of intervention
should be chosen that is least likely to create dysfunctional effects such as and
insecurity, distrust, dashed expectations, psychological damage to people, and
anticipated and unwanted effects on organisational performance.
Self Assessment Questions 2
1) Interventions will provide data needed to make subsequent intervention decisions
should come first to————.
a) Maximize efficiency b) Maximize diagnostic data
c) Maximize relevance d) Maximize speed
2) These ———————— are among the most critical facing organisations in
today’s changing and highly competitive environments.
a) Technology issues b) Cultural issues
c) Human resource issues d) Strategic issues
3) Issues that have to with social processes occurring among organisation members,
such as communication, decision making, leadership, and group dynamics are—
—————-
a) Human process issues b) Technology issues
d) Cultural issues d) Strategic issues

1.5 NATURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF OD

INTERVENTIONS
Different interventions have different dynamics; they do different things because they
are based on different casual mechanisms. It is important to know the underline
casual mechanisms of interventions to ensure the interventions fit the desire outcome.
Interventions do different things; they cause different things to happen. One
13
intervention’s major result may be increasing interaction and communication between
OD Interventions parties. Other interventions’ major results may be increasing feedback, or increasing
accountability. These differential results are often exactly what is needed to produce
change in the particular situations. There are some of the results one can expect from
OD intervention: Feedback, Awareness of changing socio cultural norms or
dysfunctional current norms, increased interaction and communication, Confrontation,
education, participation, increased accountability, increased energy and optimism.
Following are some of the OD interventions given under four major classifications:

1.5.1 Human Processes

T group, process consultation, third party intervention, team building, organisational
confrontation meetings, survey research.

1.5.2 Techno Structural

Formal structural change, differentiation and integration, cooperative union-management
projects, total quality management, kaizen, quality circles, work design.

1.5.3 Human Resource Management

Goal setting, performance appraisal, reward systems, career planning and development,
managing work force diversity, employee wellness.
Strategic: Integrated strategic management, culture change, strategic change, self
designing organisations.

1.5.4 Interventions Based On the Underlying Causal

Mechanisms
Robert Blake and Jane Mouton identified the following types of interventions based
on the underlying causal mechanisms:
1) Discrepancy intervention, which calls attention to a contradiction in action or
that then, leads to exploration.
2) Theory intervention, where behavioural science knowledge and theory are
used as plain present behaviour and assumptions underlying the behaviour.
3) Procedural intervention, which represents a critiquing of how something is, be
done to determine whether the best methods are being used.
4) Relationship intervention, which focuses attention on interpersonal relations
(particularly those where there are strong negative feelings) and surfaces the
exploration and possible resolution.
5) Experimentation intervention, in which two different action plans are tested
for consequences before a final decision on one is made.
6) Dilemma intervention, in which an imposed or emergent dilemma is used to
force examination of the possible choices involved and assumptions underlying
them
7) Perspective intervention, which draws attention away from immediate actions
and demands and allows a look at historical background, context and future
objectives order to assess whether or not the actions are “still on target”.
8) Organisational structure intervention, which calls for examination and
14 evaluation structural causes for organisational ineffectiveness.
9) Cultural intervention, which examines traditions, precedents, and practices- Definition, Factors to be
Considered, Nature and
the of the organisation’s culture- in a direct, a focused approach. Classification of OD
Interventions
1.6 MAJOR “FAMILIES” OF OD INTERVENTION
ACTIVITIES
The inventory of OD interventions is quite extensive. We will explore several
classification schemes here to help you understand how interventions “clump” together
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. The major “families” of OD intervention activities are:
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 college that represents your
place in this organisation” to the more traditional data collection methods f
interviews, questionnaires, surveys, meetings, and examining organisational
records.
2) Team Building Activities: Activities designed to enhances the effective operation
of system teams. These activities focus on the 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.
3) Intergroup Activities: Activities designed to improve the effectiveness of
interdependent groups-groups that must work together to produce a common
output.
4) Survey Feedback Activities: Activities that rely on questionnaire surveys to
generate information that is then used to identify problems and opportunities.
5) Education and Training Activities. Activities designed to improve individual’s
skills, abilities and knowledge. Several activities are available and several
approaches possible.
6) Techno structural or Structural Activities: Activities designed to improve the
effectiveness of organisational structures and job designs. The activities may
take the form of (a) experimenting with new organisation structures and evaluating
their effectiveness in terms of specific goals or (b) devising new ways to bring
technical resources to bear on problems.
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 organisation
and learns skills in diagnosing and managing them.
8) Grid Organisation Development Activities: Activities developed by Robert
Blake and Jou Mouton, which constitute a six phase change model involving the
total organisations internal resources are developed to conduct most of the
programs, which may take from to five years to complete.
9) Third- party Peacemaking Activities: Activities conducted by a skilled
consultant (the third party). Designed to “help two members of an organisation
manage their interpersonal conflict”. 15
OD Interventions 10) Coaching and Counseling Activities: Activities that entail the consultant or
other organisation member working with individual to help (a) define learning
goals, (b) learn how others see their behaviour, and (c) learn new behaviours
to help them better achieve their goals.
11) Life and Career Planning Activities: Activities that enable individuals to focus
on their and career objectives and how to go about achieving them. Structured
activities include producing life and career inventories, discussing goals and
objective and assessing abilities, needed additional training and area of strength
and deficiency.
12) Planning and Goal Setting Activities: that include theory and experience in
planning and goal setting problem-solving models, planning paradigms, ideal
organisations status real organisation “discrepancy” models, and the like.
13) Strategic management Activities: Activities that help key policymakers to
reflect systematically on the organisation’s basic mission and goals and
environmental demands, thrums and opportunity and to engage in long-range
action planning of both a reactive and active nature.
14) Organisational Transformation Activities: Activities that involve large scale
system change activities designed to fundamentally change the nature of the
organisation.
Self Assessment Questions 3
1) Which of these is not labeled as Organisation Development Intervention?
a) Team building b) Group Development
c) Process consultation d) Behaviour modification
2) ——————————is an intervention that helps to motivate people to
contribute towards a future that is desirable.
a) Behaviour modifications b) Visioning
c) Sensitivity Training d) Survey feedback
3) Activities designed to improve the effectiveness of organisational structures
and job designs are————
a) Tecno structural activity b) Team building activity
c) Coaching and counseling activities d) Inter group activity

1.7 LET US SUM UP

Each of these families of intervention 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. Another way
to classify OD interventions is by the primary target of the intervention, for example,
individuals, dyads and triads, teams and group, intergroup relations, and the total
organisational.

16
 Definition, Factors to be
1.8 UNIT END QUESTIONS Considered, Nature and
Classification of OD
1) “Organisational development has become imperative in view of dynamics of Interventions
external environmental conditions and internal tensions and strain”. Justify this
statement.
2) What is an OD Intervention? Discuss its concept and nature.
3) Describe the factors to be considered for OD interventions.
4) Discuss the types of interventions based on the underlying causal mechanisms
given by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton.
5) Elucidate the major “families” of OD intervention activities.

1.9 SUGGESTED READINGS

Cummings, T.G. &Worley, C.G., Organisational Development and Change,
Thomson: Singapore.
Desimone, R.L., Werner, J.M. & Harris, D.M., Human Resource Development,
Thomson: Singapore.
Dwivedi,R.S, Human Relations And Organisational Behaviour: A Global
Perspective, Macmillan:ND
French, Wendell L & Bell, Cecill H Jr.: Organisational Development: Behavioural
Science Interventions For Organisational Improvement, Pearson ND (LDA)
Tosi, LH, Mrero, NP & Rizzo, John R: Managing Organisational Behaviour,
Blackwell: Oxford

17
 UNIT 2 SELECTION AND ORGANISING OF
INTERVENTION ACTIVITIES
Structure
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Objectives
2.2 Selection of Organisational Development Intervention Activities
2.2.1 Framework of OD Intervention Activities
2.2.2 Issues to be considered while Selecting OD Intervention Activities
2.2.2.1 Factors that Impact the Success of OD Interventions
2.2.2.2 Assumptions about the Nature and Functioning of Organisations
2.3 Designing of OD Interventions
2.3.1 Designing Interventions
2.3.2 Definition of Effective Interventions
2.3.3 Specific Roles
2.3.4 Steps in Designing the Intervention Strategy
2.4 Organising of OD Intervention Activities
2.5 Let Us Sum Up
2.6 Unit End Questions
2.7 Suggested Readings

2.0 INTRODUCTION
In this unit we are dealing with selection and organising of intervention activities. In
this we first discuss the framework of Organisational Development intervention
actyivites. Selection of organisational development intervention activities requires a
framework of OD interventions which are presented in this section. Following this is
the issues to be considered while selecting OD intervention. The next section deals
with the factors that impact OD interventions and how to design OD interventions
and the steps thereof are discussed in the next section. The next section deals with
organising of OD intervention activities which involves guidelines in selecting the OD
interventions, the work setting itself in which the programme will be introduced an
the rewards system that goes to make the programme a success.

2.1 OBJECTIVES
After completing this unit, you will be able to:
 Define organisational development Interventions;
 Describe its characteristics;
 Explain the Selection of organisational development intervention activities;
 Elucidate the framework for OD intervention activities;
 Describe the different OD interventions;
 Elucidate the steps required to introduce OD interventions;
 Explain how to design OD intervention activities; and
18  Describe the specific roles and steps in designing OD interventions.
 Selection and Organising
2.2 SELECTION OF ORGANISATIONAL of Intervention Activities
DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTION ACTIVITIES
An organisation development intervention is a sequence of activities, actions, and
events intended to help an organisation improve its performance and effectiveness.
Intervention design, or action planning, derives from careful diagnosis and is meant
to resolve specific problems and to improve particular areas of organisational functioning
identified in the diagnosis. OD interventions vary from standardised programs that
have been developed and used in many organisations to relatively unique programs
tailored to a specific organisation or department.
All OD programs have three basic components: diagnosis, action and program
management. The diagnostic component represents a continuous collection of data
about the total system, its subunits, its processes and its culture. The action component
consists of all the activities and interventions designed to improve organisation’s
functioning. The program management component encompasses all activities designed
to ensure success of the program. While diagnosing the state of the system, focusing
on the client’s concerns, strengths, problem areas, unrealised opportunities and
discrepancy between vision of desired future and the current situation will give a
valuable input for the correct selection made regarding the OD intervention activity.
The selection of the OD intervention activity will also be influenced by the approach
that is taken towards these components. It will also be determined by the framework
of OD intervention activities that is used to obtain the diagnostic data.

2.2.1 Framework of OD Intervention Activities

While making a selection of the OD intervention activity two types of frameworks
to classify interventions are identified: process models and content models. This also
helps to choose the intervention which suits the requirements. Process models explain
the intervention process or strategy. These models communicate the “do’s” and
“don’ts” or blueprints of interventions ranging from the early stages of diagnosis of
the need of OD in the workplace, through conducting changes and evaluating the
results. We find them to be potentially useful in helping organisations follow critical
issues as interventions unfold. The process models have a distinctive focus on the
approach or steps taken to institute interventions in the organisation. These process
guides vary on the elements of focus in an intervention but they are all loosely
consistent with models seen in the general management (e.g. decision making, change
management) and health and safety literatures (e.g. risk assessment).
Content models or taxonomies on the other hand are more concerned with the
elements of the job, person or organisation that need to change. These taxonomies
use features that characterise the intervention such as the popular primary, secondary
and tertiary classification of interventions. They are useful for listing any number of
intervention strategies found in organisations (e.g., EAPs, Job design) but are seriously
lacking in their ability to help organisations chose which type of intervention best
deals with identified problems. The content models or taxonomies found in the
literature represent the organisational, job, individual or other content areas in which
changes can be brought. In their simplest form these models are a catalogue of such
human resource techniques or programs (e.g., EAPs, Role Clarification, Job Design,
and Relaxation). They vary on the characteristics by which they categorise the strategies.
In some cases, the classification lends itself to reviewing the major types of interventions
in the literature because of a focus on main differentiating (theoretical) elements of
focus. Parkes and Sparkes (1998) divide interventions into two major types— 19
OD Interventions Socio-technical interventions and psychosocial interventions. In this scheme, the socio-
technical interventions— which are also techno-structural—”are primarily concerned
with changes to objective/structural aspects of the work situation (e.g., staffing levels,
work schedules, company mergers, work patterns, staff meetings) which have
implications for the stress, health and job satisfaction among the personnel concerned”.
They view these interventions as most likely to manipulate objective work conditions
and therefore more readily amenable to systematic study. They might also be seen
as consisting of mostly primary interventions focusing on the objectives.
To better guide research and interventions, we propose an evidence-based framework
as a hybrid model. Evidence-based practices or interventions are quickly gaining
momentum in numerous medical and social fields. Put simply, they prescribe
interventions based on evidence. Such requires a clear explanation and evidence of
the sources of problems (e.g. stressors) and their consequences so as to then propose
and evaluate interventions that are expected to deal with the problem in its entirety.
Within context, the framework communicates the evidence that exist for interventions
relating to the problems. It is an improvement over the content models that simply
list intervention methods with little to no reference to the problems as it intends to
address, and requires that an account of the strength of existing evidence is taken.
If interventions are bunched into a “broad” grouping, the limited research does
suggest success for “Socio-technical” interventions. Interventions of this type center
on objective changes in the work-environment which include elements related to job
design in most instances. So changes in workload and schedules, for instances, seem
to have important effects on well-being and performance. Evidence is mixed for
psychosocial types of interventions. These are “approaches intended to change
employees’ perceptions of the work environment through strategies such as increasing
participation, communication and social support, reducing role ambiguity and conflict,
and enhancing control over work tasks”.

2.2.2 Issues to be Considered while Selecting OD

Intervention Activities
Organisational development interventions refer to the techniques (methods) created
by OD professionals, coaches and mentors to help solve the pressing problems of
organisations who seek their services. A single organisational consultant cannot use
all the interventions available in his arsenal. It is always preferable to use interventions
when the need arises. This therefore calls for an effective understanding of the
organisation, its needs and the problems it is facing so as to make sure that the right
intervention tools solve the right kinds of problems.

2.2.2.1 Factors that Impact the Success of OD Interventions

I) Factors relating to Change Situation
These relate to the environment of the organisation and include the physical and
human environment.
Readiness for Change: Intervention success depends heavily on the organisation
being ready for planned change.
Capability to Change: Managing planned change requires particular knowledge
and skills including the ability to motivate change, to lead change, to develop political
support, to manage transition, and to sustain momentum.

20
Cultural Context: The national culture within which an organisation is embedded
can exert a powerful influence on members’ reactions to change, and so intervention Selection and Organising
of Intervention Activities
design must account for the cultural values and assumptions held by organisation
members.
Capabilities of the Change Agent (OD Consultant): The success of OD
interventions depend to a great extent on the expertise, experience and talents of the
consultant.
II) Factors Related to the Target of Change
These relate to the specific targets at which OD interventions are targeted. The
targets of change can be different issues of the organisation and at different levels.
A) Organisational Issues
1) Strategic Issues: Strategic issues refer to major decisions of organisations
such as what products or services to offer, which markets to serve, mergers,
acquisitions, expansions, etc.
2) Technology and Structure Issues: These refer to issues relating to how
organisations divide their work amongst departments and how they coordinate
between departments.
3) Human Resource Issues: These issues are concerned with attracting competent
people to the organisation, setting goals for them, appraising and rewarding their
performance, and ensuring that they develop their careers and manage stress.
4) Human Process Issues: These issues have to do with social processes occurring
among organisation members, such as communication, decision-making,
leadership, and group dynamics.
B) Organisational Levels
OD interventions are aimed at different levels of the organisation: individual, group,
organisation and trans-organisation (for example different offices of the organisation
around the globe; or between organisation and its suppliers, customers, etc.) In
addition to facing interrelated issues, organisations function at different levels—
individual, group, organisation and trans-organisation. Thus, organisational levels are
targets of change in OD.
For example, some techno-structural interventions affect mainly individuals and groups
(for example, work design), whereas others impact primarily the total organisation
(for example, structural design). Many OD interventions also have a secondary
impact on the other levels. For example, structural design affects mainly the organisation
level but can have an indirect effect on groups and individuals because it sets the
broad parameters for designing work groups and individual jobs.
Again, practitioners need to think systemically. They must design interventions to
apply to specific organisational levels, address the possibility of cross-level effects,
and perhaps integrate interventions affecting different levels to achieve overall success.
For example, an intervention to create self-managed work teams may need to be
linked to organisation-level changes in measurement and reward systems to promote
team-based work.
2.2.2.2 Assumptions about the Nature and Functioning of Organisations
There are many possible intervention strategies from which to choose. Several
assumptions about the nature and functioning of organisations are made in the choice
of a particular strategy. Beckhard lists six such assumptions: 21
OD Interventions 1) The basic building blocks of an organisation are groups (teams). Therefore, the
basic units of change are groups, not individuals.
2) An always relevant change goal is the reduction of inappropriate competition
between parts of the organisation and the development of a more collaborative
condition.
3) Decision making in a healthy organisation is located where the information
sources are, rather than in a particular role or level of hierarchy.
4) Organisations, subunits of organisations, and individuals continuously manage
their affairs against goals. Controls are interim measurements, not the basis of
managerial strategy.
5) One goal of a healthy organisation is to develop generally open communication,
mutual trust, and confidence between and across levels.
6) People support what they help create. People affected by a change must be
allowed active participation and a sense of ownership in the planning and conduct
of the change.

2.3 DESIGNING OF OD INTERVENTIONS

2.3.1 Designing Interventions
An organisation development intervention is a sequence of activities, actions, and
events intended to help an organisation improve its performance and effectiveness.
Intervention design, or action planning, derives from careful diagnosis and is meant
to resolve specific problems and to improve particular areas of organisational functioning
identified in the diagnosis. OD interventions vary from standardised programs that
have been developed and used in many organisations to relatively unique programs
tailored to a specific organisation or department.
Behind every program is an overall game plan or intervention strategy. This plan
integrates the problem or opportunity to be addressed, the desired outcomes of the
program, and sequencing and timing of the various interventions. Intervention strategies
are based on diagnosis and the goals desired by the client system. Designing OD
interventions requires paying careful attention to the needs and dynamics of the
change situation and crafting a change program that will be consistent with the
previously described criteria of effective interventions. Current knowledge of OD
interventions provides only general prescriptions for change. There is scant precise
information or research about how to design interventions or how they can be
expected to interact with organisational conditions to achieve specific results. Moreover,
because the ability to implement most OD interventions is highly dependent on the
skills and knowledge of the change agent, the design of an intervention will depend
to some extent on the expertise of the practitioner. Two major sets of contingencies
that can affect intervention success are: those having to do with the change situation
(including the practitioner) and those related to the target of change. Both kinds of
contingencies need to be considered in designing interventions.

2.3.2 Definition of Effective Interventions

The term intervention refers to a set of sequenced planned actions or events intended
to help an organisation increase its effectiveness. Interventions purposely disrupt the
status quo; they are deliberate attempts to change an organisation or subunit toward
22
a different and more effective state. In OD, three major criteria define an effective Selection and Organising
of Intervention Activities
intervention:
1) the extent to which it fits the needs of the organisation;
2) the degree to which it is based on causal knowledge of intended outcomes; and
3) the extent to which it transfers change-management competence to organisation
members.
The first criterion concerns the extent to which the intervention is relevant to the
organisation and its members. Effective interventions are based on valid information
about the organisation’s functioning; they provide organisation members with
opportunities to make free and informed choices; and they gain members’ internal
commitment to those choices. Valid information is the result of an accurate diagnosis
of the organisation’s functioning. It must reflect fairly what organisation members
perceive and feel about their primary concerns and issues. Free and informed choice
suggests that members are actively involved in making decisions about the changes
that will affect them.
It means that they can choose not to participate and that interventions will not be
imposed on them. Internal commitment means that organisation members accept
ownership of the intervention and take responsibility for implementing it.
If interventions are to result in meaningful changes, management, staff, and other
relevant members must be committed to carrying them out. The second criterion of
an effective intervention involves knowledge of outcomes. Because interventions are
intended to produce specific results, they must be based on valid knowledge that
those outcomes actually can be produced. Otherwise there is no scientific basis for
designing an effective OD intervention.
Unfortunately, and in contrast to other applied disciplines such as medicine and
engineering, knowledge of intervention effects is in a rudimentary stage of development
in OD. Much of the evaluation research lacks sufficient rigor to make strong causal
inferences about the success or failure of change programs. Moreover, few attempts
have been made to examine the comparative effects of different OD techniques. All
of these factors make it difficult to know whether one method is more effective than
another.
Despite these problems, more attempts are being made to assess systematically the
strengths and weaknesses of OD interventions and to compare the impact of different
techniques on organisation effectiveness. The third criterion of an effective intervention
involves the extent to which it enhances the organisation’s capacity to manage change.
The values underlying OD suggest that organisation members should be better able
to carry out planned change activities on their own following an intervention. They
should gain knowledge and skill in managing change from active participation in
designing and implementing the intervention. Competence in change management is
essential in today’s environment, where technological, social, economic, arid political
changes are rapid and persistent.

2.3.3 Specific Roles

There are at least three distinct sets of roles that must be fulfilled when designing and
implementing intervention strategy – the change manager, the change agent, and the
roles played by individuals within the system that is being changed. The change
manager oversees the design of the intervention strategy. This person would have 23
OD Interventions overall responsibility for assessing the need for change, determining the appropriate
intervention activities, implementing the strategy and evaluating the results. The change
agent assists the change manager in developing and implementing change strategy.
This person should have knowledge of OD theories, concepts, practices and research
results so that he or she can advice the change manager on implementing issues and
the efficacy of different intervention strategies. For example, if during the initial stages
of designing the intervention strategy, the change manager lacks understanding of
some of the key concepts of planned change, the change agent may act as a trainer
and educator to ensure that these concepts are understood. The change agent must
address himself to all of these hazards and obstacles. Some of the things which will
help him are:
1) A real need in the client system to change
2) Genuine support from management
3) Setting a personal example: listening, supporting behaviour
4) A sound background in the behavioural sciences
5) A working knowledge of systems theory
6) A belief in man as a rational, self-educating being fully capable of learning better
ways to do things.
The roles of individuals within the system that is the target of the intervention
strategy are determined by the change manager. Change committees or task forces
are important for helping to collect data, develop team skills and define the emerging
tasks and roles within the system. Therefore to design an intervention strategy, the
change manager with the help of the change agent and others in the system, must be
able to diagnose the existing environment for change, develop and implement a plan
of action and evaluate the results of the intervention to determine if the desired
behavioural changes have occurred.
HRD practitioners have two primary roles in the design of OD interventions; first
they can serve as change agents and second can play role in the design and
implementation of OD interventions. OD interventions and labour relations are
inextricably linked. If an organisation wants to bring about lasting change in a unionised
work environment, management must first attempt to make labor relations a more
rational process. They must view union leaders as partners in change and emphasise
that their commitment to long term goals for change is important.

2.3.4 Steps in Designing the Intervention Strategy

Consistent with system theory, organisational issues are interrelated and need to be
integrated with each other. Organisation’s need to match answers to one set of
questions, with answers to other sets of questions to achieve high levels of effectiveness.
For example, decisions about gaining competitive advantage need to fit with choices
about organisation structure, setting goals for and rewarding people, communication,
and problem solving. Thus, intervention design must create change methods appropriate
to the organisational issues identified and diagnosed. Moreover, because the
organisational issues are themselves linked together, OD interventions similarly need
to be integrated with one another. For example, a goal-setting intervention that tries
to establish motivating goals may need to be integrated with supporting interventions,
such as a reward system that links pay to goal achievement. The key point is to think
24 systemically. Interventions aimed at one kind of organisational issue will invariably
have repercussions on other kinds of issues. Careful thinking about how OD Selection and Organising
of Intervention Activities
interventions affect the different kinds of issues and how different change programs
might be integrated to bring about a broader and more coherent impact on
organisational functioning are critical to effective intervention activity. Some of the
steps involved in designing the intervention strategy / activities are:
Diagnose the environment: Diagnosing the environment is an assessment process
that focuses on determining the readiness of the target group to accept change. Force
field analysis is essential to analyse the driving and restraining forces. To determine
the effectiveness of the intervention activity it is required that the change manager
reduces the resistance.
Organisation of report: The report begins with an overview of the theoretical
framework underpinning our conceptualisation of problem areas. This allows all
readers, familiar or new to the topic, to develop a common bearing for the concepts
and terminology. That section is followed by a brief methods section wherein the
scope of literature search is discussed, for the purposes of this mandate. This search
led to the development of the report’s core elements contained in both the results and
recommendation sections. The results section overviews basic frameworks, models
and strategies with commentary and criticism on their utility. Then it is proposed how
a framework might best “evolve” from this review for the purposes outlined in
objectives. The results section will then end with a brief summary of evidence related
to objectives. The final section of the report will close with recommendations meant
to guide the efforts of research and practices. In a practical sense, those factors that
will assist organisations and researchers to make changes that are likely to have a
positive impact are recommended
Preparation of the report: A preliminary report to serve as a discussion piece
during a consultative symposium with invited international, national and local experts
is prepared. This symposium report hereafter includes commentary received from
these participants.
Literature search: The literature review for this work is conducted over a six-
month period The main goal of this search is to uncover any papers, articles or
reports that refer to studies conducted on the intervention in the workplace, any
reviews of such studies and any conceptual or theoretical papers reflecting on the
topic.
Results of literature search: Several frameworks have been proposed as a means
of integrating intervention strategies. Over twenty-six years ago, Newman and Beehr
(1979) conducted what is considered to be a first comprehensive review of the
literature and at that time presented a way of classifying intervention types. Elements
of that method are still in evidence today and used for practical purposes within more
elaborated systems of diagnosis and action (e.g., Cox et al, 2000). In fact, its
elements are arguably part of other frameworks or models proposed.
Development of an action plan: Involves identifying specific target variables and
determining the techniques that will be used to bring about change. The action plan
specifies intervention strategy
Analysis and evaluation of the intervention choice: The analysis focuses on a
thorough examination of the project objectives through this existing literature, conceptual
models and the several competent, detailed reviews recently conducted. It also
throws light in context of the related literature for the choice, success or failure of
intervention activities. 25
OD Interventions Therefore the following objectives get fulfilled:
Objective 1 calls for a meaningful framework that integrates intervention strategies.
Accordingly, several frameworks are identified and are reviewed.
Objective 2 deals with evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of organisational
intervention strategies.
Objective 3 corresponds to the implications of findings for research and organisational
practice regarding the intervention activities. In the recommendation and conclusion
section, the implications are examined.
Thus considering the following framework, issues assumptions and guidelines the
intervention strategies and activities are selected and designed to suit the organisation
and the individuals within.
Self Assessment Questions
1) What is the role of the change manager in OD Intervention activities?
a) Team functioning b) assessing the need for change
c) oversees design of intervention d) determining appropriate
intervention activities
2) Which of these is not a framework model for OD interventions?
a) Process model b) evidence- based framework
c) content model d) human resource model
3) Factors Related to the Target of Change include————
a) Strategic Issues b) Human Process Issues
b) Technology and Structure Issues d) Systems issues

2.4 ORGANISING OF OD INTERVENTION

ACTIVITIES
“Interventions” are principal learning processes in the “action” stage of organisation
development. Interventions are structured activities used individually or in combination
by the members of a client system to improve their social or task performance. They
may be introduced by a change agent as part of an improvement program, or they
may be used by the client following a program to check on the state of the
organisation’s health, or to effect necessary changes in its own behaviour. “Structured
activities” mean such diverse procedures as experiential exercises, questionnaires,
attitude surveys, interviews, relevant group discussions, and even lunchtime meetings
between the change agent and a member of the client organisation. Every action that
influences an organisation’s improvement program in a change agent-client system
relationship can be said to be an intervention.
Interventions range from those designed to improve the effectiveness of individuals
through those designed to deal with teams and groups, intergroup relations, and the
total organisation. There are interventions that focus on task issues (what people do),
and those that focus on process issues (how people go about doing it). Finally,
interventions may be roughly classified according to which change mechanism they
tend to emphasise: for example, feedback, awareness of changing cultural norms,
interaction and communication, conflict, and education through either new knowledge
or skill practice.
26
Michel Beer suggest some guideline for choosing and sequencing intervention activities Selection and Organising
of Intervention Activities
such as maximize diagnostic data, maximize effectiveness, maximize efficiency, maximize
speed, maximize relevance and minimize psychological and organisational strain. There
are some ways to structure activities to promote learning and change are better and
some are worse. To structure activities in better ways some points help practitioner
such as:
 Structure the activity to include the relevant people, affected by the problem or
the opportunity.
 Structure the activity so that it is (a) problem oriented or opportunity oriented
and (b) oriented to the problems and opportunities generated by the clients
themselves.
 Structure the activity so that the goal is clear and the way to reach the goal is
clear.
 Structure the activity to ensure a high probability of success.
 Structure the activity so that it contains both experience- based learning and
conceptual learning,
 Structure the climate of the activity so those individuals are freed up rather than
anxious or defensive.
 Structure the activity so that the participants learn both how to solve a particular
problem and learn how to learn.
 Structure the activity so that individuals learn about task and process.
 Structure the activity so that individuals are engaged as whole persons, not
segmented persons.

INTERVENTION ACTIVITY
ORGANISATIONAL
WORK SETTING

Social factors

Organising arrangements Physical setting

Technology

ORGANISATIONAL

OUTCOMES

ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PERFORMANCE OF INDIVIDUAL

Fig. 1: Organisation and Implementation of Intervention for Organisational Development

and Change

The figure above explains how the intervention activity will go through the organisational
work setting and consider issues like social factors, physical setting, technology and
27
OD Interventions organising arrangements according to the requirements of the organisation to obtain
organisational outcomes in the form of individual development and effective
organisational performance.
Contingencies Related to the Change Situation: Researchers have identified a
number of contingencies present in the change situation that can affect intervention
success. These include individual differences among organisation members (for
example, needs for autonomy), organisational factors (for example, management
style and technical uncertainty), and dimensions of the change process itself (for
example, degree of top-management support). Unless these factors are taken into
account in designing an intervention, it will have little impact on organisational
functioning or, worse, it may produce negative results. For example, to resolve
motivational problems among blue-collar workers in an oil refinery it is important to
know whether interventions intended to improve motivation (for example, job
enrichment) will succeed with the kinds of people who work there. In many cases,
knowledge of these contingencies results in modifying or adjusting the change program
to fit the setting. In applying a reward-system intervention to an organisation, the
changes might have to be modified depending on whether the firm wants to reinforce
individual or team performance.
One of the most difficult tasks confronting the change agent is to help create in the
client system a safe climate for learning and change. In a favourable climate, human
learning builds on itself and continues indefinitely during man’s lifetime. Out of new
behaviour, new dilemmas and problems emerge as the spiral continues upward to
new levels. In an unfavourable climate, in contrast, learning is far less certain, and in
an atmosphere of psychological threat, it often stops altogether. Unfreezing old ways
can be inhibited in organisations because the climate makes employees feel that it is
inappropriate to reveal true feelings, even though such revelations could be constructive.
In an inhibited atmosphere, therefore, necessary feedback is not available. Also,
trying out new ways may be viewed as risky because it violates established norms.
Such an organisation may also be constrained because of the law of systems: If one
part changes, other parts will become involved. Hence, it is easier to maintain the
status quo. Hierarchical authority, specialisation, span of control, and other
characteristics of formal systems also discourage experimentation.
A few examples of interventions include team building, coaching, Large Group
Interventions, mentoring, performance appraisal, downsizing, TQM, and leadership
development.
The following are the different kinds of organisational development interventions:
 Sensitivity training
 Survey feedback
 Development discussion
 Goal setting and planning
 Team building and management objective.
 Managerial grid
 Job enrichment, participative management and quality circles.
 Process consultation intervention
28
 Inter-group Team-Building Interventions Selection and Organising
of Intervention Activities
 Third-Party Peacemaking Interventions
 Structural Interventions
These kinds of intervention can be used in various settings depending on the need
of the organisation. Survey feedback intervention provides data and information to
all the managers. Information related to the attitude, structure, working conditions will
be included in the survey. Managers analyse the data pertaining to each and every
employee and takes appropriate action. They try to analyse the problem, evaluate
the result and correct the problem.
On the other hand, along the consultation process, the consultant meets all departments,
work teams, and observes the interaction and skill levels of those working in those
areas. Goal setting and planning goals are important for the overall strategic plans for
the profitability of the organisation. Managerial grid identifies management behaviour
on different ways. It looks into production-oriented factors as well as the employee-
oriented factors and combines them to interact with each other. It also gives the
structural view of the laboratory training. Managerial grid interventions also relate to
the leadership skills.
Self Assessment Questions
1) To structure activities in better ways practitioner do the following—————
a) Structure activity for individuals to learn b) Structure activity to ensure
success
c) Structure day to day activities d) Structure activity to
include relevant people
2) Which of these is not an intervention activity?
a) Diagnostic process b) Survey feedback
c) Development discussion d) Sensitivity training
3) Survey feedback intervention provides data and information to all the managers
about———
a) attitude b) structure
c) working conditions d) all of these

2.5 LET US SUM UP

The growth of any organisation pulls its peoples to change their thinking toward
organisational development interventions. People with planned and changed
interventions can grow in organisations. An intervention forms the front view of any
developed organisation. So it is important to follow and implement creative
interventions. In implementing OD interventions, it is important to apply criteria to
goals, experiment with alternative arrangements, establish inter unit task force, and
identify key communicators and fire-able offenses.
An intervention forms the appropriate relationship between strategy and organisational
development. So a development model is required to reflect the human resource
management and structure to build the organisational development intervention. At
29
OD Interventions last an intervention makes a way for the effective business development with lots of
competition.

2.6 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) How can you ensure the success of the implementation of organisational
development interventions in your organisation?
2) How will you know if you’re using the right kind of intervention?
3) Why is the role of a manager critical to the success of the intervention?
4) Discuss the framework of OD intervention activities in context to the various
related issues.
5) Describe the designing of OD intervention activities and the specific roles played
at different levels by people in designing and implementing these activities.

2.7 SUGGESTED READINGS

Desimone, R.L., Werner, J.M. & Harris, D.M., Human Resource Development,
Thomson: Singapore.
Dwivedi,R.S, Human Relations And Organisational Behaviour: A Global
Perspective, Macmillan: ND
French, Wendell L & Bell, Cecill H Jr.: Organisational Development: Behavioural
Science Interventions For Organisational Improvement, Pearson ND (LDA)

30
UNIT 3 TYPOLOGY OF INTERVENTIONS
BASED ON TARGET GROUPS
Structure
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Objectives
3.2 Typology of Interventions
3.3 Classification of OD Interventions Based on Target Groups
3.3.1 Information Based Interventions
3.3.2 Consequence Based Interventions
3.3.3 Design Based Interventions

3.4 Description of OD Interventions Based on Target Groups

3.4.1 Interpersonal Interventions
3.4.2 Group Interventions
3.4.3 Intergroup Interventions
3.4.4 Rotating Membership Interventions
3.4.5 Comprehensive Interventions

3.5 Interventions Related To Total Organisations

3.5.1 Socio Technical System (STS)
3.5.2 Structural Change Interventions
3.5.3 Parallel Learning Structures
3.5.4 MBO (Participation Form)
3.5.5 Cultural Analysis
3.5.6 Confrontation Meetings
3.5.7 Visioning
3.5.8 Strategic Planning /Strategic Management Activities
3.5.9 Real Time Strategic Change
3.5.10 Grid OD 4, 5, 6
3.5.11 Interdependency Exercise
3.5.12 Survey Feedback
3.5.13 Appreciative Inquiry
3.5.14 Search Conferences
3.5.15 Quality of Work Life (QWL) Programme

3.6 Total Quality Management

3.7 Let Us Sum Up
3.8 Unit End Questions
3.9 Suggested Readings

3.0 INTRODUCTION
This unit deals with typology of interventions based on target groups. We start with
defining what is typology of interventions. We describe the various dimensions related
to typology of interventions and we discuss the results that will be obtained from OD
interventions. Then we take up classification of interventions and discuss the
classifications in terms of information based interventions, consequence based 31
OD Interventions interventions and design based interventions. Then we present the target groups like
individuals etc. and the related typology of organisational development (OD)
interventions. Then we take up description of OD interventions based on target
groups in which we discuss interpersonal interventions, group interventions, intergroup
interventions and comprehensive interventions. This is followed by the section in
which we discuss interventions related to total organistions. In this we discuss socio
technical systems, parallel learning structures, cultural analysis etc. Then we deal with
characteristics of OD practitioners role.

3.1 OBJECTIVES
On completing this unit, you will be able to:
 Define and describe typology of interventions;
 Describe the various dimensions of interventions;
 Describe target groups and the typology of interventions;
 Explain OD interventions based on target groups;
 Analyse different types of OD interventions in terms of the target groups; and
 Elucidate the characteristics of OD practitioners.

3.2 TYPOLOGY OF INTERVENTIONS

Blake and Mouton have continued to refine the nature of interventions and proposed
a theory and typology for the entire consultation field. The typology called the
Consulcube is a hundred/ cell cube depicting virtually all consultation situations. The
cube is built on three dimensions.
i) The first is what the consultant does, that is, which of five basics types of
intervention the consultant uses – acceptant (the consultant gives the client a
sense of worth, value, acceptance, and support); catalytic (the consultant helps
the client generate data and information to restructure the client’s perceptions);
confrontation(the consultant point out value discrepancies in the client’s beliefs
and actions); prescriptions (the consultant tells the client what to do to solve
the problem); and theories and principles (the consultant teaches the client
relevant behavioural science theory so the client can learn to diagnose and solve
his or her own problems.
ii) The second dimension is the focal issues causing the client’s problems. Blake
and Mouton identified four focal issue categories: power/authority, moral/cohesion,
norms/standard of conduct and goals/objectives.
iii) The third dimension of the cube is the unit of change that is the target of the
consultation. Five units are proposed: individual, group, intergroup, organisation,
and larger social systems such as a community or even a society. Blake and
Mouton’s Counsulcube represents a major contribution to developing a theory
of consultation and intervention.
Interventions do different things; they cause different things to happen. One
intervention’s major result may be increasing interaction and communication between
parties. Another intervention’s major result may be increasing feedback, or increasing
accountability. These differential results are often exactly what are needed to produce
32 change in the particular situation.
The results one can expect from OD interventions are: Typology of Interventions
Based on Target Groups
 Feedback referring to learning new data about oneself, others, group processes
or organisational dynamics;
 Awareness of changing Sociocultural Norms or dysfunctional current norms
helps people modify their behaviour, attitudes and values accordingly;
 Increased interaction and communication between individuals and groups;
 Confrontation with differences in beliefs, feelings, attitudes, values etc.;
 Education activities upgrade knowledge and concepts, beliefs and attitudes and
skills.
 Participation in problem solving, goal setting and generating new ideas;
 Increased accountability, energy and optimism.
Interventions ‘clump’ together in terms of (1) the objectives of the interventions and
(2) the targets of the interventions.

3.3 CLASSIFICATION OF OD INTERVENTIONS

BASED ON TARGET GROUPS
The interventions include many activities involving both conceptual material and actual
experience with the phenomenon being studied. Some families are directed toward
specific targets, problems or processes. One way to classify OD interventions is by
the primary target of the intervention e.g. individuals, dyads and triads, teams and
groups, intergroup relations and the total organisation. Another way is on the basis
of the content of the intervention i.e. Information- based, consequences based and
design based.

3.3.1 Information-Based Interventions

1) Interventions that define : Activities that specify or clarify the vision, mission,
purpose, process, products, services, market position, roles, relationships,
responsibilities, outcomes, expectations, and so on. Examples: holding sessions
to create vision statements; confirming market direction and market niche; mutually
setting performance goals. This intervention is delivered when people are unclear,
disagree, or have different expectations; there are conflicting objectives; or
people do not have a shared understanding.
2) Interventions that inform: Activities that communicate goals, objectives,
expectations, results, discrepancies, and so on. Examples: producing internal
newsletters; holding debriefing sessions; giving feedback. This intervention is
delivered when information has changed, the people have changed, or the
people are uninformed, and the consequence is poor performance; or people
don’t get the information they need.
3) Interventions that document: Activities that codify information (to preserve
it and make it accessible. Examples: setting up libraries; creating manuals, expert
systems, job aids, and decision guides. This intervention is delivered when
information is not accessible over time or is too complex; job aids, manuals,
help screens, and so forth are lacking or inadequate, inaccurate, or hard to
access.
33
OD Interventions 3.3.2 Consequences-Based Interventions
1) Interventions that reward: Activities and programs that induce and maintain
desired behaviours, eliminate undesirable behaviours, and reward desired
outcomes. Examples: holding public ceremonies and annual recognition events;
paying for performance. This intervention is delivered when current incentives
either reinforce the wrong behaviours or ignore the desired behaviours; or there
are few incentives for people to-do beater, more, or differently.
2) Intervention that measure: Activities and systems that provide metrics and
benchmarks so people can monitor performance and have a basis to evaluate
it. Examples: developing a scorecard; tracking means and variance in performance
over time. This intervention is delivered when people don’t know what criteria
are being used to judge productivity, performance, value, and so on, and they
could better control their own performance if they knew what the criteria were;
measures of good performance are lacking; or measures are inappropriate.
3) Interventions that enforce: Activities that actualise consequences and achieve
compliance. Example: policing; reviewing; double-checking; suspending; removing;
withholding pay. This intervention is delivered when consequences for poor
performance or unacceptable behaviour are hidden or not enforced.

3.3.3 Design Based Interventions

1) Interventions that organise: Activities that change the structure or arrange
business units, reporting relationships, work processes, jobs, and tasks. Examples:
reengineering processes; merging functions; reorganising responsibilities. This
intervention is delivered when the current structure is inefficient, results in
redundancy, adds excess costs, overly burdens cycle times, and hides
accountability.
2) Interventions that standardise: Activities that systematise or automate
processes and standardise tasks, tools, equipment, materials, components, or
measures. Examples: adopting ISO 9000; implementing uniform standards. This
intervention is delivered when deviations in equipment, materials, specifications,
procedures, common practices, and so on add extra costs; result in low yields,
and cause variance in the quality of work.
3) Interventions that (re) design: Activities that result in useful, easy-to-use,
safe, and ergonomically designed environments, workplaces, equipment, and
tolls. Examples: building in safety features; designing for ease of installation,
service, maintenance, and upgrading. This intervention is delivered when the
current work space, equipment, tools, or materials encumber, result in non-
value adding activity, or put employees health and safety at risk.
4) Interventions that reframe: Activities and programs that generate new
paradigms so that people can experience new perspectives, find creative solutions,
integrate new concepts into their behaviour, and manage change. Examples:
challenging assumptions; engaging in dialogue/ entering into new alliances;
brainstorming; creating alternative futures. This intervention is delivered when
old attitudes about work are preventing innovation or growth.
5) Interventions that counsel: Activities and programs that help individuals,
either singularly or collectively, deal with work, personal, career, family, and
financial issue. Examples: offering on-site daycare, retirement seminars, on-site
34
 physical fitness canters, and employee assistance programs. This intervention is Typology of Interventions
Based on Target Groups
delivered when people are preoccupied with or distracted by personal and
career issues, and this is limiting productivity or adding unnecessary costs.
6) Interventions that develop: Activities and programs that expand skills and
knowledge. Examples: offering training, coaching, and structured on-the-job
experiences. This intervention is delivered when current performance is suffering
or future performance will suffer because people lack skills and knowledge.
7) Interventions that align: Activities and programs that work toward congruency
between purpose and practice. Examples: setting up cross-functional teams;
soliciting customer (internal and external) feedback. This intervention is delivered
when current messages, behaviours, systems, structures, or environments do not
support the organisations goals. Figure 1 shows the Typology of OD interventions
based on Target groups:
Individual Life and career planning activities
Coaching and counseling
T-group (sensitive training)
Education and training to increase skills, knowledge in the
areas of technical task needs, relationship skills, process skills,
decision making, problem solving, planning, goal-setting skills
Grid OD phase 1
Work redesign
Gestalt OD
Behavior modeling
Dyads/Triads Process consultation
Third party peacemaking
Role negotiation technique
Gestalt OD
Teams and Groups Team building-Task directed-Process directed
Gestalt OD
Grid OD phase 2
Interdependency exercise
Appreciative inquiry
Responsibility Charting
Process Consultation
Role negotiation
Role analysis technique
“Startup” team-building activities
Education in decision making, problem solving, planning, goal
setting in group settings.
Team MBO
Appreciations and concerns exercise
Sociotechnical systems (STS)
Visioning
Quality of work life (QWL) programs
Quality circles
Force-field analysis
Self-managed teams

35
OD Interventions

Intergroup relations Intergroup activities- Process directed

-Task directed
Partnering
Process Consultant
Third party peacemaking at group level
Grid OD phase 3
Survey feedback
Total Organisation Sociotechnical system (STS)
Parallel learning structures
MBO (participation forms)
Cultural analysis
Confrontation meetings
Visioning
Strategic planning/strategic management activities
Real-time strategic change
Grid OD 4,5,6
Interdependency exercise
Survey feedback
Appreciative inquiry
Search Conferences
Quality of Work life (QWL) programs
Total quality management (TQM)
Physical settings
Large scale systems change

Fig. 1: Typology of OD Interventions based on Target Groups

Self Assessment Questions 1

1) Which of these is not a part of the individual Organisation Development
Intervention?
a) Work redesign b) Grid OD phase 1
c) Team building d) Behaviour modification
2) a) Activities and programs that generate new paradigms so that people can
experience new Interventions that reframe
b) Interventions that standardise
c) Interventions that enforce
d) Interventions that organise
3) Which of these is not the dimension of Blake and Mouton’s proposed theory
and typology for the entire consultation field called Consulcube?
a) What consultant does b) Focal issues
b) Target groups d) Humanistic view

36
 Typology of Interventions
3.4 DESCRIPTION OF OD INTERVENTIONS Based on Target Groups
BASED ON TARGET GROUPS
The OD interventions discussed represent the major organisational development
methods used.
A set of persons who serve as the focal point for a particular program or service is
a target group. This is a smaller sample than the target population. It can be individuals,
dyads, triads, teams or groups, or the organisation in total. Interventions are conducted
with an aim to focus on the problems associated with the target group as every
intervention will be target group specific and designed accordingly.
OD interventions are plans or programs comprised of specific activities designed to
effect change in some facet of an organisation. Numerous interventions have been
developed over the years to address different problems or create various results.
However, they all are geared toward the goal of improving the entire organisation
through change. In general, organisations that wish to achieve a high degree of
organisational change will employ a full range of interventions, including those designed
to transform individual and group behaviour and attitudes. Entities attempting smaller
changes will stop short of those goals, applying interventions targeted primarily toward
operating policies, management structures, worker skills, and personnel policies.
Typically, organisation development programs will simultaneously integrate more than
one of these interventions. A few of the more popular interventions are briefly described
below:

3.4.1 Interpersonal Interventions

Interpersonal interventions in an OD program are designed to enhance individual
skills, knowledge, and effectiveness. This type of program utilises group dynamics by
gathering individuals together in loosely structured meetings. Subject matter is
determined by the group, within the context of basic goals stipulated by a facilitator.
As group members try to exert structure on fellow members, group members gain
a greater awareness of their own and other’s feelings, motivations, and behaviours.
Other types of interpersonal interventions include those designed to improve the
performance review process, create better training programs, and help workers
identify their true wants and set complementary career goals, and resolve conflict.

3.4.2 Group Interventions

OD group interventions are designed to help teams and groups within organisations
become more effective. Such interventions usually assume that the most effective
groups communicate well, facilitate a healthy balance between both personal and
group needs, and function by consensus as opposed to autocracy or majority rule.
Group diagnostic interventions are simply meetings wherein members of a team
analyse their unit’s performance, ask questions about what the team needs to do to
improve, and discuss potential solutions to problems. The benefit of such interventions
is that members often communicate problems of which their co-workers were unaware.
Ideally, such communication will spur problem-solving and improved group dynamics.

3.4.3 Intergroup Interventions

Intergroup interventions are integrated into OD programs to facilitate cooperation
and efficiency between different groups within an organisation. For instance,
departmental interaction often deteriorates in larger organisations as different unit’s 37
OD Interventions battle for limited resources or become detached from the needs of other units.
Conflict resolution meetings are one common intergroup intervention. First, different
group leaders are brought together to secure their commitment to the intervention.
Next, the teams meet separately to make a list of their feelings about the other
group(s). Then the groups meet and share their lists. Finally, the teams meet to
discuss the problems and to try to develop solutions that will help both parties. This
type of intervention, say supporters, helps to gradually diffuse tension between groups
that has arisen because of faulty communication.

3.4.4 Rotating Membership Interventions

These are used by OD change agents to minimize the negative effects of intergroup
rivalry that arise from employee allegiances to groups or divisions. The intervention
basically entails temporarily putting group members into their rival groups. As more
people interact in the different groups, greater understanding results. OD joint activity
interventions serve the same basic function as the rotating membership approach, but
these involve melding members of different groups to work together toward a common
goal. Similarly, common enemy interventions achieve the same results by finding an
adversary common to two or more groups and then getting members of the groups
to work together to overcome the threat. Examples of common enemies targeted in
such programs include competitors, government regulation, and economic conditions.

3.4.5 Comprehensive Interventions

OD comprehensive interventions are used to directly create change throughout an
entire organisation, rather than focusing on organisational change through subgroup
interventions. One of the most popular comprehensive interventions is survey feedback.
This technique basically entails surveying employee attitudes at all levels of the company
and then disseminating a report that details those findings. The employees then use
the data in feedback sessions to create solutions to perceived problems. A number
of questionnaires specifically for such interventions have been developed.

3.5 INTERVENTIONS RELATED TO TOTAL

ORGANISATIONS
These interventions involve getting a broad variety of stakeholders into a large meeting
to clarify important values, to develop new ways of working, to articulate a new
vision for the organisation, or to solve pressing organisational problems. Such meetings
are powerful tools for creating awareness of organisational problems and opportunities
and for specifying valued directions for future action.

3.5.1 Socio Technical Systems (STS)

These interventions focus on an organisation’s technology (for example, task methods
and job design) and structure (for example, division of labor and hierarchy). These
change methods are receiving increasing attention in OD, especially in light of current
concerns about productivity and organisational effectiveness. They include approaches
to employee involvement, as well as methods for designing organisations, groups,
and jobs. Techno-structural intervention are rooted in the disciplines of engineering,
sociology, and psychology and in the applied fields of socio-technical systems and
organisation design, practitioners generally stress both productivity and human fulfillment
and expect that organisation effectiveness will result from appropriate work designs
and organisation structures.
38
3.5.2 Structural Change Interventions Typology of Interventions
Based on Target Groups
Structural change interventions are used by OD change agents to implement
organisational alterations related to departmentalization, management hierarchy, work
policies, compensation and benefit incentive programs, and other cornerstones of the
business. Often, the implemented changes emanate from feedback from other
interventions. One benefit of change interventions is that companies can often realise
an immediate and very significant impact in productivity and profitability (provided
the changes are warranted and implemented appropriately).
Sociotechnical system design interventions are similar to structural change techniques,
but they typically emphasise the reorganisation of work teams. The basic goal is to
create independent groups throughout the company that supervise themselves. This
administration may include such aspects as monitoring quality or disciplining team
members. The theoretic benefit of sociotechnical system design interventions is that
worker and group; productivity and quality is increased because workers have more
control over (and subsequent satisfaction from) the process in which they participate.

3.5.3 Parallel Learning Structures

Generally this consists of a steering committee and a number of working groups that
study what changes are needed in the organisation, make recommendations for
improvement, and then monitor the resulting change efforts. Use is made of facilitator
role, data gathering, data feedback and process consultation. It is used across a wide
array of change programs. These have included quality of work life (QWL) programs,
sociotechnical systems, work redesign efforts, open systems etc.

3.5.4 MBO (Participation Forms)

The concept of ‘Management by Objectives’ (MBO) was first given by Peter
Drucker in 1954. It can be defined as a process whereby the employees and the
superiors come together to identify common goals, the employees set their goals to
be achieved, the standards to be taken as the criteria for measurement of their
performance and contribution and deciding the course of action to be followed. The
essence of MBO is participative goal setting, choosing course of actions and decision
making. An important part of the MBO is the measurement and the comparison of
the employee’s actual performance with the standards set. Ideally, when employees
themselves have been involved with the goal setting and the choosing the course of
action to be followed by them, they are more likely to fulfill their responsibilities.
The principle behind Management by Objectives (MBO) is to create empowered
employees who have clarity of the roles and responsibilities expected from them,
understand their objectives to be achieved and thus help in the achievement of
organisational as well as personal goals. Some of the important features and advantages
of MBO are: Clarity of goals . With MBO, comes the concept of SMART goals i.e.
goals that are: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound. The
goals thus set are clear, motivating and there is a linkage between organisational goals
and performance targets of the employees. The focus is on future rather than on past.
Goals and standards are set for the performance for the future with periodic reviews
and feedback.
Motivation involving employees in the whole process of goal setting and increasing
employee empowerment increases employee job satisfaction and commitment. Better
communication and Coordination, Frequent reviews and interactions between superiors
39
OD Interventions and subordinates helps to maintain harmonious relationships within the enterprise and
also solve many problems faced during the period.

Define
organisational goals

Performance Defining employee

Appraisals objectives and
(Rewards /
punishments)

Continuous
Monitoring of
Providing performance and
Feedback progress

Performance
evaluation/reviews

Fig. 2: Management by Objectives (MBO) Process

3.5.5 Cultural Analysis

This intervention helps organisations develop cultures (behaviours, values, believes,
and norms) appropriate to their strategies and environments. It focuses on developing
a strong organisation culture to keep organisation members pulling in the same direction.
As a discipline, cultural analysis is based on using qualitative research methods of
the social sciences, in particular ethnography and anthropology, to collect data on
cultural phenomena; in an effort to gain new knowledge or understanding through
analysis of that data. This is particularly useful for understanding and mapping trends,
influences, effects, and affects within cultures. There are four themes to cultural
analysis:
1) Adaptation and Change: This refers to how well a certain culture adapts to
its surroundings through the use of its culture. Some examples of this are foods,
tools, home, surroundings, art, etc. that show how the given culture adapted.
Also, this aspect aims to show how the given culture makes the environment
more accommodating.
2) How culture is used to survive: How the given culture helps its members
survive the environment.
3) Holism, Specificity: The ability to put the observations into a single collection,
and presenting it in a coherent manner.
4) Expressions: This focuses on studying the expressions and performance of
40 everyday culture
3.5.6 Confrontation Meetings Typology of Interventions
Based on Target Groups
This change method mobilizes organisation members to identify problems, set action
targets, and begin working on problems. It is usually applied when organisations are
experiencing stress and when management needs to organise resources for immediate
problem solving. The intervention generally includes various groupings of employees
in identifying and solving problems.

3.5.7 Visioning
This generates a common goal, hope, and encouragement. It offers a possibility for
fundamental change, and gives people a sense of control. It gives a group something
to move toward and generates creative thinking and passion. People in the organisation
are asked to visualise how they will like their organisation to be in the future or a
span of five to twenty years. All the employees can be involved in deriving the vision
of the organisation. Based on the vision certain missions are set along with specific
goals or targets to make it more concrete.

3.5.8 Strategic Planning/Strategic Management Activities

Interventions that link the internal functioning of the organisation to the larger environment
and transform the organisation to keep pace with changing conditions are among the
newest additions to OD. They are implemented organisation wide and bring about
a fit between business strategy, structure, culture, and the larger environment. The
interventions derive from the disciplines of strategic management, organisation theory,
open—systems theory, and cultural anthropology.

3.5.9 Real Time Strategic Change

Robert Jacobs’s real time strategic change is a process congruent with search
conferences and strategic management activities. “Real- Time” refers to simultaneous
planning and implementation of individual, group and organisation wide changes. A
critical mass of organisational members sometimes hundreds comes together for a
three day meeting to discuss organisation wide issues. This process requires a great
deal of planning and a great deal of facilitator’s assistance. Extensive follow up is
essential.

3.5.10 Grid OD 4, 5, 6
This normative intervention specifies a particular way to manage an organisation. It
is a packaged OD program that includes standardised instruments for measuring
organisational practices and specific procedures for helping organisations to achieve
the prescribed approach. In the Grid OD 4 the focus shifts to corporate strategic
planning, with the goal being to learn the concepts and the skills of corporate logic
necessary to achieve corporate excellence. Using the comparisons of ideal corporate
logic the top management team is better able to recognise what aspects of the culture
must be changed to achieve excellence. Grid OD phase 5 involves implementing the
ideal strategic model. Logical components of the corporation are designated. Each
component appoints a planning team whose job is to examine every phase of the
components operations. In Grid OD phase 6 systematic critiquing, measuring and
evaluating leads to knowledge of what progress has been made, what barriers still
exist and must be overcome and what opportunities have developed that may be
exploited.

41
OD Interventions 3.5.11 Interdependency Exercise
A shortened version of this technique can be used in a large group of say 60 people,
if clusters of ten people interview each other, each having a different question. Each
cluster has the same assignment and the same question. The participants interview
each other participant and then the consultant forms a new group of ten people again.
This procedure is a rapid way to gather great deal of data for diagnostic purpose.

3.5.12 Survey Feedback

In globally competitive environments, organisations are seeking information about
obstacles to productivity and satisfaction in the workplace. Survey feedback is a tool
that can provide this type of honest feedback to help leaders guide and direct their
teams. Obstacles and gaps between the current status quo and the desired situations
may or may not be directly apparent. In either case, it is vital to have a clear
understanding of strategies for diagnosis and prevention of important organisation
problems. If all leaders and members alike are clear about the organisational
development and change, strengths, weakness, strategies can be designed and
implemented to support positive change. Survey feedback provides a participative
approach and enables all members to become actively engaged in managing the
work environment.
Survey process steps: Identify project plan and objectives; Brief team leaders and
employees about the process; Administer survey; Conduct interviews and focus
groups; Train leaders on facilitating team discussions; Analyse the data and construct
a report; Provide feedback to leaders; Team leaders conduct feedback action planning
and meetings; Leaders present reports on progress and results to Senior Management;
Follow-up by senior leadership to ensure progress and accountability.
Once the data has been collected and observations have been clarified, it becomes
the leader’s responsibility to familiarise the team with the findings. Next the leader
involves the team in outlining appropriate solutions and strategies that members can
“buy into” and support over the long-haul. When leaders can facilitate collaborative
teaming and become an organisational development and change agent, people in the
team will contribute creative ideas to enhance their work environment. It is important
for leaders to not underestimate the time and facilitation skills needed to pass on the
information and foster an action-oriented environment. The initial meetings and
communication sessions are just the start of a development process, not a single
event. If the survey feedback is to be effective, it must be implemented into a
comprehensive strategy that includes goals, responsibilities, time frames, revisions,
and reviews. Prior to the action meetings, leaders need to gain a full understanding
of the survey data and begin to structure a plan for the first meeting. Once the
meeting begins, the leader should guide the group’s evaluation of the results and
development of solutions. Following the initial meeting, a summary should be
documented and action plans circulated. Follow-up meetings are necessary to
coordinate and evaluate changes and progress. Action plans are the means of fully
utilising the survey feedback, without it we simply have a snap shot of where the
organisation is, with no plan for positive change. If the team feedback meeting is
poorly handled, there will be low front-end commitment on the part of the team.
Of course group dynamics will be unique in every situation, and the leader will need
to consider this as the survey data is disseminated. Tailoring sessions to meet the
group characteristics will provide for a more effective discussion. In any case, consider
a few of these ideas: Be optimistic and excited about the information and how it can
42
be used to better the organisation; Verbally express positive points; Ask for Typology of Interventions
Based on Target Groups
participation by all members and reinforce their openness and contributions; Invite
them to explore with you the areas that need improvement; Be supportive and clear
about action and follow-up plans; Establish a clear commitment to utilise the survey
feedback long-term and seek further feedback from the group. Most importantly,
help the group understand the purpose and mission of the survey feedback as a
leader feast on the opportunity of having clear data and truly listen and involve
members in your organisational development and change endeavor.

3.5.13 Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry is an organisational development method that seeks to engage
all levels of an organisation (and often its customers and suppliers) in its renewal,
change and improved performance. It may be particularly applicable to organisations
facing rapid change or growth. The method is based on the fact that questions tend
to focus attention. Excessive focus on dysfunctions can actually cause them to multiply
or become intractable. By contrast, when all members of an organisation are motivated
to understand and value the most favourable features of its culture, it can make
surprisingly rapid improvements. Strength-based methods are now commonly used
in the creation of organisational development strategy and implementation of
organisational effectiveness tactics. The practice emphasises learning how to perceive
organisations as entities that are alive, vital, and dynamic. The appreciative mode of
inquiry often relies on interviews to explore the life of an organisation. It seeks to
enable members to inquire deeply into the essentials of an organisation’s experience
and it’s potential. The objective is to create an understanding of the assets and
personal motivations that are of fundamental value to the particular organisation. The
following sequence describes some of the distinctions between Appreciative Inquiry
and more traditional approaches to organisational development. Appreciative Inquiry
employs a particular way of asking questions and envisioning the future that fosters
positive relationships and builds on the basic goodness in a person, a situation, or
an organisation. In so doing, it tends to enhance a system’s capacity for collaboration
and change. Appreciative Inquiry utilises a cycle of 4 processes focusing on:
1) Discover: the identification of organisational processes that work well.
2) Dream: the envisioning of processes that would work well in the future.
3) Design: planning and prioritising processes that would work well.
4) Destiny (or deliver): The implementation (execution) of the proposed design.
The basic idea is to build organisations around what works, rather than trying to fix
what doesn’t. It is the opposite of problem solving. Instead of focusing on gaps and
inadequacies to remediate skills or practices, AI focuses on how to create more of
the exceptional performance that is occurring when a core of strengths is aligned. It
opens the door to a universe of possibilities, since the work doesn’t stop when a
particular problem is solved but rather focuses on “What is the best we can be?” The
approach acknowledges the contribution of individuals, in order to increase trust and
organisational alignment. The method aims to create meaning by drawing from stories
of concrete successes and lends itself to cross-industrial social activities. There are
a variety of approaches to implementing Appreciative Inquiry, including mass-mobilized
interviews and a large, diverse gathering called an Appreciative Inquiry Summit
(Ludema, Whitney, Mohr and Griffin, 2003). Both approaches involve bringing very
large, diverse groups of people together to study and build upon the best in an
organisation or community. 43
OD Interventions Appreciative Inquiry was adapted from work done by earlier action research theorists
and practitioners and further developed by David Cooperrider of Case Western
Reserve University and Suresh Srivastva in the 1980s. Cooperrider and Srivastva
say that an organisation is a miracle to be embraced rather than a problem to be
solved. According to them, inquiry into organisational life should have the following
characteristics: Appreciative, Applicable, Provocative and Collaborative. The basic
philosophy of AI is also found in other positively oriented approaches to individual
change as well as organisational change. As noted above, “ AI ...fosters positive
relationships and builds on the basic goodness in a person, or a situation ....” The
principles behind A.I. are based in the rapidly developing science of Positive
Psychology. The idea of building on strength, rather than just focusing on faults and
weakness is a powerful idea in use in mentoring programs, and in coaching dynamics.
It is the basic idea behind teaching “micro-affirmations” as well as teaching about
micro-inequities.

3.5.14 Search Conferences

According to Emery and Purser ‘the search conference is normally a two-and- a-
half day event usually held off-site in a retreat like setting. Ideally twenty to thirty-
five people are selected to participate based on such criteria as their knowledge of
the system and their potential for taking responsibility for implementation. The consultant
meet with a voluntary committee, participants are assigned tasks and they generate
data focusing on the past, present and future factors as well as the action steps.
Volunteers agree to document the meeting and communicate with others.

3.5.15 Quality of Work Life (QWL) Programme

Quality of work life (QWL) is viewed as an alternative to the control approach of
managing people. The QWL approach considers people as an ‘asset’ to the organisation
rather than as ‘costs’. It believes that people perform better when they are allowed
to participate in managing their work and make decisions. This approach motivates
people by satisfying not only their economic needs but also their social and
psychological ones. To satisfy the new generation workforce, organisations need to
concentrate on job designs and organisation of work. Further, today’s workforce is
realising the importance of relationships and is trying to strike a balance between
career and personal lives. Successful organisations support and provide facilities to
their people to help them to balance the scales. In this process, organisations are
coming up with new and innovative ideas to improve the quality of work and quality
of work life of every individual in the organisation. Various programs like flex time,
alternative work schedules, compressed work weeks, telecommuting etc., are being
adopted by these organisations. Technological advances further help organisations to
implement these programs successfully. Organisations are enjoying the fruits of
implementing QWL programs in the form of increased productivity, and an efficient,
satisfied, and committed workforce which aims to achieve organisational objectives.
The future work world will also have more women entrepreneurs and they will
encourage and adopt QWL programs.

3.6 TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)

OD intervention that became extremely popular during the 1980s and early 1990s
is total quality management (TQM). TQM interventions utilise established quality
techniques and programs that emphasise quality processes, rather than achieving
quality by inspecting products and services after processes have been completed.
44
The important concept of continuous improvement embodied by TQM has carried Typology of Interventions
Based on Target Groups
over into other OD interventions. Sometimes called continuous quality improvement,
is a combination of a number of organisation improvement techniques and approaches
including the use of quality circles, statistical quality control, statistical process control,
self- managed teams and task forces and extensive use of employee participation.
The quality imperatives include; primary emphasis on customers, daily operational
use of the concept of internal customers, an emphasis on measurement using both
statistical quality control and statistical process control techniques, competitive
benchmarking, continuous search for sources of defects with a goal of eliminating
them entirely, participative management, an emphasis on teams and teamwork, a
major emphasis on continuous training and top management support on an ongoing
basis.TQM invites a major culture change of the organisation.
1) Physical settings: Some consultants have been active in working with clients
and in conceptualising about how to make physical setting congruent with OD
assumptions and OD process. Physical settings are an important part of
organisation culture that work groups should learn to diagnose and manage and
about which top management needs input in designing plants and buildings. If
physical settings are not at par with the requirements then it interferes with
effective group and organisational functioning. Consultants pay attention to the
physical arrangements for team building sessions where participative diagnosis
is a prerequisite.
2) Large scale systems change: When a number of OD and other interventions
are combined to create major changes in the total culture and operations of an
organisation, the term large scale change is used.
Self Assessment Questions
1) Which of these is not the part of the cycle of four processes focusing in
Appreciative Inquiry?
a) Dignity b) Destiny
c) Discover d) Dream
2) Which of the following Intervention considers people as an ‘asset’ to the
organisation rather than as ‘costs’?
a) TQM b) QWL
c) Large scale systems change d) Survey feedback
3) _____________say that an organisation is a miracle to be embraced rather
than a problem to be solved.
a) Cooperrider and Srivastva b) Mohr and Griffin
c) Peter Drucker d) Morgan and King

45
OD Interventions Characteristics of the OD Practitioners’ Role
Meta level characteristics Marginal position relative to client system
Collaboration through facilitating or
assisting clients with exploring issues,
problems, actions and strategies
Continuum of directive to non directive role
areas
Practitioner’s role Provider of expert advice in methods or
approaches to changeDiagnostician by
gathering, analysing, and summarizing
informatio n and drawing
conclusionsTrainer-educator, primarily in
behaviour science tools and techniques
Objective problem solver using problem
solving approaches Surfacer of alternatives
for approaching organisational issues
Process specialist with attention to
interpersonal and intergroup dynamics
Observer or coach actiong as a neutral
sounding board.
Example role activities and Assisting clients to describe and clarify
behaviours situations and issues Assisting clients to
understand and express their own views
and developing measures of success and
understanding of risks. Assisting clients with
information gathering and understanding
Challenging client thinking Collaboratively
developing a course of action Offering
theories to increase understanding Teaching
and modeling problem solving approaches
Contingent role Range of available role areas linked to the
needs of the client system at any given
time Role dependent on stage of
organisational development intervention

3.7 LET US SUM UP

Each of these families of intervention 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. Another way
to classify OD interventions is by the primary target of the intervention, for example,
individuals, dyads and triads, teams and group, intergroup relations, and the total
organisational.

3.8 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Discuss the classification of OD Interventions on the basis of the content of the
intervention.
2) Describe the typology of OD Interventions based on target groups.
46
3) Discuss Management by Objectives and its process as an important participative Typology of Interventions
Based on Target Groups
OD Intervention
4) What do you understand by Survey feedback? Why is it in extensive use these
days in organisations?
5) Discuss the characteristics of the OD practitioner’s role in conducting OD
Interventions.

3.9 SUGGESTED READINGS

Judith Hale, The Performance Consultant’s Fieldbook: Tool and Technique for
Improving Organisations and People, Jossey Bass Publication. explorehr.org/articles/
.../Types_of_OD_ Intervention.html
Cummings, T.G. &Worley, C.G., Organisational Development and Change,
Thomson: Singapore.
Desimone, R.L., Werner, J.M. & Harris, D.M., Human Resource Development,
Thomson: Singapore.
Dwivedi,R.S, Human Relations And Organisational Behaviour: A Global
Perspective, Macmillan:ND
French, Wendell L & Bell, Cecill H Jr.: Organisational Development: Behavioural
Science Interventions For Organisational Improvement, Pearson :ND (LDA)

47
 UNIT 4 HUMAN PROCESS
INTERVENTIONS: INDIVIDUAL
GROUP AND INTER-GROUP,
COACHING, COUNSELING,
TRAINING, BEHAVIOURAL
MODELING, MENTORING,
MOTIVATING ETC.
Structure
4.0 Introduction
4.1 Objectives
4.2 Human Process Interventions
4.2.1 Characteristics of OD Programme
4.2.2 Individuals and the OD Programme

4.3 Teams and Groups

4.3.1 Characteristics of Well Functioning Teams
4.3.2 Team Building, Task Directed, Process Directed
4.3.3 Gestalt OD
4.3.4 Grid OD Phase 2
4.3.5 Interdependcy Exercise
4.3.6 Appreciative Inquiry
4.3.7 Responsibility Charting
4.3.8 Process Consultation
4.3.9 Role Negotiation
4.3.10 Role Analysis Technique
4.3.11 “Start up” Team Building Activities

4.4 Education in Decision Making, Problem Solving, Planning, Goal Setting in

Group Settings
4.4.1 Team MBO
4.4.2 Appreciations and Concerns Exercise
4.4.3 Scoio Technical Systems (STS)
4.4.4 Visioning
4.4.5 Quality Work Life (QWL) Programmes
4.4.6 Quality Circles
4.4.7 Force Field Analysis
4.4.8 Self Managed Teams

4.5 Intergroup Relations

4.5.1 Partnering
4.5.2 Third Party Peace Making At Group Level
4.5.3 Grid OD Phase 3
4.5.4 Survey Feedback

48
4.6 Coaching and Counseling Human Process Interventions:
Individual Group and Inter-
4.6.1 Executive Coaching Group, Coaching, Counseling,
4.6.2 Training Training, Behavioural
Modeling, Mentoring,
4.6.3 Behaviour Modelling Motivating etc.
4.7 Mentoring
4.7.1 Accompanying
4.7.2 Sowing
4.7.3 Catalysing
4.7.4 Showing
4.7.5 Harvesting
4.7.6 Mentoring Relationship
4.7.7 Mosaic Mentoring
4.7.8 New Hire Mentorship
4.7.9 High Potential Mentorship

4.8 Motivation
4.8.1 Provide a Nurturing Environment
4.8.2 Encourage Personal Growth
4.8.3 Empower Employees
4.8.4 A Top Down Method
4.8.5 Incentives
4.8.6 Responsibility
4.8.7 Pleasant Working Environment
4.8.8 Interesting Work
4.8.9 Listen
4.8.10 Share Business Success
4.8.11 Job Security
4.8.12 Promotion / Growth
4.8.13 Competitive Salary
4.9 Let Us Sum Up
4.10 Unit End Questions
4.11 Suggested Readings
4.12 Answers to Self Assessment Questions

4.0 INTRODUCTION
In this unit we will be dealing with Human Process Interventions: Individual, Group
and Inter-group, Coaching, Counseling, Training, Behavioural modeling, Mentoring,
Motivating. We begin with human process intervention followed by teams and groups
and the interventions thereof. We discuss here the many OD interventions such as
Gestalt OD, Responsibility charting etc. This is followed by education in decision
making, problem solving etc. in which we discus the team management by objectives,
the socio technical systems, visioning and so on. The next section deals with intergroup
relationships in which we discuss partnering, third party peacemaking etc. Then we
take up coaching and counseling in which we deal with executive coaching, training
and behaviour modeling. Mentoring is the next section which deals elaborately with
what is mentoring and what are all involved in it. This si followed by how to motivate
employees in the organisation and the various measures that could be taken up are
considered. 49
OD Interventions
4.1 OBJECTIVES
After completing this unit, you will be able to:
 Define and describe human process interventions;
 Explain the various intervention in teams and groups;
 Elucidate the techniques involved in education in decision making, problem
solving etc.;
 Describe the intergroup relations and bring out the important aspects of the
same;
 Describe coaching and counselling and mentoring;
 Delineate the various aspects of mentoring;
 Elucidate the types of mentoring;
 Define motivation of employees; and
 Describe the various methods to motivate employees to perform at the highest
level.

4.2 HUMAN PROCESS INTERVENTIONS

Organisational development (OD) is an application of behavioural science to
organisational change. It encompasses a wide array of theories, processes, and
activities, all of which are oriented toward the goal of improving individual organisations.
Generally speaking, however, OD differs from traditional organisational change
techniques in that it typically embraces a more holistic approach that is aimed at
transforming thought and behaviour throughout an entity. Definitions of OD abound,
but they are all predicated on the notion of improving organisational performance
through proactive activities and techniques.
It is also worth noting that organisational development, though concerned with improving
workforce performance, should not be mistaken for human resource development.
“Organisation development is the planned process of developing an organisation to
be more effective in accomplishing its desired goals,” wrote Rima Shaffer in Principles
of Organisation Development. “It is distinguished from human resource development
in that HRD focuses on the personal growth of individuals within organisations, while
OD focuses on developing the structures, systems, and processes within the organisation
to improve organisational effectiveness.”
Although the field of OD is broad, it can be differentiated from other systems of
organisational change by its emphasis on process rather than problems. Indeed,
traditional group change systems have focused on identifying problems in an
organisation and then trying to alter the behaviour that creates the problem. But
Margaret Neale and Gregory Northcraft observed in “Organisational Behaviour: A
Management Challenge” , that OD initiatives focus on identifying the behavioural
interactions and patterns that cause and sustain problems. Then, rather than simply
changing isolated behaviours, OD efforts are aimed at creating a behaviourally healthy
organisation that will naturally anticipate and prevent (or quickly solve) problems.

4.2.1 Characteristics of OD Programme

OD programmes usually share several basic characteristics. For instance,
 They are considered long term efforts of at least one to three years in most
50 cases.
 OD stresses collaborative management, whereby managers and employees at Human Process Interventions:
Individual Group and Inter-
different levels of the hierarchy cooperate to solve problems. Group, Coaching, Counseling,
 OD also recognises that every organisation is unique and that the same solutions Training, Behavioural
Modeling, Mentoring,
cannot necessarily be applied at different companies. Motivating etc.
 OD programs have an emphasis on the value of teamwork and small groups.
 OD systems use small teams or even individuals as a vehicle to implement broad
organisational changes.
Organisation development initiatives do not automatically succeed. The benefits of
effective OD programs are myriad, as many executives, managers, and business
owners will attest. But OD interventions that are pursued in a sloppy, half-hearted,
or otherwise faulty manner are far less likely to bring about meaningful change than
those that have the full support of the people involved. Ownership and all involved
personnel needed to be genuinely and visibly committed to the effort. People involved
in OD have to be informed in advance of the nature of the intervention and the nature
of their involvement in it. The OD effort has to be connected to other parts of the
organisation; this is especially true of such areas as the evaluation and reward systems.
The effort has to be directed by appropriate managers and guided by competent
change agents. The intervention should be based on accurate diagnosis of organisational
conditions. Owners and managers should show their commitment to OD at all stages
of the effort, including the diagnosis, implementation, and evaluation.
Evaluation is a key to success, and should consist of more than asking people how
they felt about the effort. Owners and managers need to show employees how the
OD effort relates to the organisation’s goals and overriding mission.

4.2.2 Individual and the OD Programme

These include individuals as their target group. It can be given on one to one basis
as well. These interventions focus on people within organisations and the processes
through which they accomplish organisational goals. These processes include
communication, problem solving, group decision making, and leadership. This type
of intervention is deeply rooted in the history of OD. It represents the earliest change
programs characterising OD, including the T-group and the organisational confrontation
meeting. Human process interventions derive mainly from the disciplines of psychology
and social psychology and the applied fields of group dynamics and human relations.
Practitioners applying these interventions generally value human fulfillment and expect
that organisational effectiveness follows from improved functioning of people and
organisational processes.
Some of the programmes include (i) Life and career planning activities (ii) T-group
sensitivity training (iii) Education and training (iv) Work redesign (v) Gestalt OD (vi)
Project consultation (vii) Thir party peace making and (viii) Role negotiation technique.
These are being dealt with in detail below.
i) Life and career planning activities: The intention of a life and career planning
exercise is to provide individuals with time for reflection, so that they can
identify important aspects of their life and work. It then provides with an
opportunity to consider other approaches to life and work which may better
meet their needs. The exercise involves mainly individual work, and discussion
in pairs.
There is no requirement that you discuss more than you want to. The important 51
OD Interventions part is the individual work. Pair discussion merely makes it easier for most
people to consider the issues more deeply. The most effective way of doing this
exercise is as part of a larger group. The size does not matter all that much,
though between 12 and 24 is easily manageable. We don’t really need the larger
group after the initial screening process. If we have ample time (the workbook
is presently intended to occupy about half a day) we may decide to compare
notes during some of the later stages too. This can be an advantage, as people
can learn from each others’ ideas and experience.
Edgar Schein has provided the concept of career anchors and hypothesized five
basic career anchors i.e. technical/ functional competence, managerial
competence, creativity, security or stability and autonomy. Career anchors are
the patterns of self perceived talents, motives and values that serve to guide
stabilize and integrate the person’s career.
ii) T-group (sensitivity training): This traditional change method provides
members with experiential learning about group dynamics, leadership, and
interpersonal relations. The basic T-group brings ten to fifteen strangers together
with a professional trainer to examine the social dynamics that emerge from their
interactions. Members gain feedback about the impact of their own behaviours
on each other and learn about group dynamics.
The T- group has high relevance for developing skills of importance in the
unfolding of an OD effort and for personal growth and development. T-group
is essentially unstructured, agendaless group session for about 10 to 12 members
and a professional trainer who acts as catalyst and facilitator for the group. The
data for discussion is the data provided by the interaction of the group members
as they strive to create a viable society for themselves. The actions, reactions,
interactions and the feelings accompanying them are the data for the group. The
group meets for three days to upto two weeks. Learning from T-group varies
from individual to individual.
iii) Education and training: to increase skills, knowledge in the areas of technical
task needs, relationship skills, process skills, decision making, problem solving,
planning, goal setting skills.
Grid OD Phase 1: Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Mouton designed Grid
organisational development. Basic to the Grid OD program are the concepts
and methods of the Managerial Grid a two dimensional schematic for examining
and improving the managerial practices of individual manager. The organisation
selects managers’ part of the first Phase or Grid seminar. In this Phase a Grid
seminar conducted by in company managers is given to all managers of the
organisation.
The focus of the training: Attention is given to assessing an individual’s managerial
styles; problem solving; critiquing and communication skills are predicted; skills
of synergistic teamwork are learned and practiced, managers learn to become
9,9 managers.
iv) Work redesign: Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham have provided an OD
approach to work redesign. Extensive use of the facilitator role in team
development is recommended. They used five core job characteristics i.e. skill
variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback from job and
then redesign jobs to maximize employee motivation. The first three are related
52
 to experienced meaningfulness of the work; job autonomy related to experienced Human Process Interventions:
Individual Group and Inter-
responsibility for the outcomes of the work; feedback related to the knowledge Group, Coaching, Counseling,
of the results of work activities. The expected outcomes are high work motivation, Training, Behavioural
high job satisfaction, high work effectiveness and growth. Modeling, Mentoring,
Motivating etc.
Dyads / triads: Two individuals or units regarded as a pair are known as dyads and
a group of three individuals or units is known as triads. Some interventions in
organisations include dyads and triads depending on the type of situation and problems.
Self Assessment Questions
1) ________________intervenes directly in the relationships of power, authority
and influence within the group.
a) Team building b) Group Development
c) Role negotiation technique d) Behaviour modification
2) _________________is based on the belief that persons function as a whole
and each person possesses positive and negative characteristics that must be
owned up to and permitted expression.
a) Gestalt Therapy b) Third party peacemaking
c) Open communication d) Survey feedback
3) The traditional change method provides members with experiential learning
about group dynamics, leadership, and interpersonal relations.
a) T-Group training b) Gestalt OD
b) Work redesign d) Grid OD

4.3 TEAMS AND GROUPS

Rensis Likert and McGregor identified some characteristics of well functioning, effective
groups/ teams. McGregor’s list of characteristics is as follows:

4.3.1 Characteristics of Well Functioning Teams

1) The atmosphere tends to be relaxed, comfortable and informal.
2) The group task is well understood and accepted by the members.
3) The members listen well to each other.
4) There is a lot of task relevant discussion in which most members participate.
5) People express both their feelings and ideas.
6) Conflicts and disagreement are present but are centered around ideas and
methods not personalities and people.
7) The group is conscious of its own operation.
8) Decisions are usually based on consensus, not majority vote;.
9) When actions are decided upon, clear assignments are made and accepted by
the members.
According to McGregor when these conditions are met the team is likely to be 53
OD Interventions successful in accomplishing its mission and simultaneously satisfying the personal and
interpersonal needs of its members. So, teams and work groups are considered to
be the fundamental units of organisations as well as key leverage points for improving
the functioning of the organisation.

4.3.2 Team Building, Task Directed, Process Directed

This intervention helps work groups become more effective in accomplishing tasks.
Like process consultation, team building helps members diagnose group processes
and devise solutions to problems. It goes beyond group processes, however, to
include examination of the group’s task, member roles, and strategies for performing
tasks. The consultant also may function as a resource person offering expertise
related to the group’s task. Human process interventions that are more system wide
(than those related to Interpersonal and Groups) typically focus on the total organisation
or an entire department, as well as on relations between groups.

4.3.3 Gestalt OD
Robert Harman lists the goals of Gestalt Therapy as awareness, integration, maturation,
authenticity, self- regulation and behaviour change. One must come to terms with
oneself, must accept responsibility for one’s actions, must experience and live in the
‘here and now’ and must stop blocking off awareness, authenticity and the like by
dysfunctional behaviours. Stanley Herman applies a Gestalt orientation to organisation
development, especially in working with leader- subordinate relations and team building.
The objective here is not to provide instructions on making the organisation culture
safer, more pleasant or easier for the individual, but rather to help the individual
recognise, develop and experience his own potency and ability to cope with his
organisation world whatever its present condition. People must be able to express
their feelings fully, both positive and negative. They must ‘get in touch’ with ‘where
they are’ on issues, relations with others and relations with selves. The Gestalt OD
practitioner fosters the expression of positive and negative feelings, encourages people
to stay with transactions, structures exercises that cause individuals to become more
aware of what they want from others and pushes toward greater authenticity for
everyone.

4.3.4 Grids OD Phase 2

Team work development: The focus of this phase is work teams in the organisation.
The goal is perfecting teamwork in the organisation through analysis of team culture,
traditions and the like and also developing skills in planning, setting objectives and
problem solving. Additional aspects of this phase include feedback given to each
manager about his or her individual and team behaviour; this allows manager to see
his or her strengths and weaknesses in the team’s working.

4.3.5 Interdependency Exercise

This is a useful intervention if team members have expressed a desire to improve
cooperation among themselves and among their units. This exercise is also useful for
assisting people in getting better acquainted, in surfacing problems that may be latent
and not previously examined and in providing useful information about current
challenges being faced in others’ areas of responsibility. It works well with up to
approximately ten people, but can become too cumbersome and time consuming if
more than that number are involved. This exercise requires the participants’ cooperation
and assumes no serious conflict situations. Serious intense conflict situations require
54 a different structure and more time.
4.3.6 Appreciative Inquiry Human Process Interventions:
Individual Group and Inter-
An intervention developed by Frank Barrett and David Cooperrider and refined by Group, Coaching, Counseling,
Training, Behavioural
Gervase Bushe. This intervention is based on the assertion that the organisation ‘is Modeling, Mentoring,
a miracle to be embraced’ rather than ‘ a problem to be solved’. The central Motivating etc.
interventions are interviews and then discussions in small groups or organisation wide
meetings. Questions include ‘What have been the peak moments in the life of this
organisation?’, ‘What do staff members’ value most about themselves, their tasks
and the organisation as a whole?’ One of the important aspects that the approach
seems to generate is more attention by the consultant and the client organisation to
the strengths of the organisation and its member. AI can be productively combined
with other OD approaches.

4.3.7 Responsibility Charting

This helps to clarify who is responsible for what on various decisions and actions.
It is a simple, relevant and effective technique for improving team functioning. The
first step is to construct a grid; the types of decisions and classes of actions that need
to be taken in the total area of work under discussion are listed along the left-hand
side of the grid, and the actors who might play some part in decision making on those
issues are identified across the top of the grid. Then the process is one of assigning
a behaviour i.e. responsibility, approval required / right to veto, support and inform,
to each of the actors opposite each of the issues. A fifth behaviour is noninvolvement
of a person with the decision; this is indicated on the chart with a dash (-). Responsibility
charting is usually done in a work team context. Each decision or action is discussed
and responsibility is assigned. Then approval-veto, support and inform functions are
assigned. This can quickly identify who is to do what on new decisions as well as
help to pinpoint reasons why old decisions are not being accomplished as desired.
It helps to improve task performance of team work.

4.3.8 Process Consultation

PC represents an approach or a method for intervening in an ongoing system.
Process consultation consists of many different interventions it is not any single thing
the consultant does. The job of the process consultant is to help the organisation
solve its own problems by making it aware of organisational processes, the
consequences of these processes and the mechanism by which they can be changed.
The PC consultant works with the organisation, typically in work teams and helps
them to develop the skills necessary to diagnose and solve the process problems that
arise. Schein describes the kinds of interventions he believes the process consultant
should make agenda-setting interventions, feedback of observations or other data,
coaching or counseling of individuals and then give structural suggestions.

4.3.9 Role Negotiation

The first step in role negotiation is contract is contract setting. Here the consultant
sets the climate and establishes the ground rules starting with what you want others
to do more of or do better, to do less of or stop doing or maintain unchanged; all
demands and expectations must be written. The next step is issue diagnosis. Individuals
think about how their own effectiveness can be improved if others change their work
behaviours. Then each person fills out an issue diagnosis form for every other person
in the group. The next step is the influence trade or negotiation period, in which two
individuals discuss the most important behaviour changes they want from the other
and the changes they are willing to make themselves. Then the group breaks into
55
OD Interventions negotiating pairs, when the negotiated agreements have been made and written down,
the influence trade is concluded with a follow up meeting thereafter.

4.3.10 Role Analysis Technique

Role analysis technique (RAT) is used to help employees get a better grasp on their
role in an organisation. In the first step of a RAT intervention, people define their
perception of their role and contribution to the overall company effort in front of a
group of coworkers. Group members then provide feedback to more clearly define
the role. In the second phase, the individual and the group examine ways in which
the employee relies on others in the company, and how they define his or her
expectations. RAT interventions help people to reduce role confusion, which can
result in either conflict or the perception that some people are not doing their job.
A popular intervention similar to RAT is responsibility charting, which utilises a matrix
system to assign decision and task responsibilities.

4.3.11 “Startup” Team-Building Activities

Team building interventions are typically directed toward four main areas: diagnosis,
task accomplishments, team relationships and team and organisation processes. Major
approaches to team building or work groups are diagnostic meeting, the formal work
group team-building meeting, process consultation and Gestalt OD, as well as a
number of techniques and exercises used within team building sessions to address
specific issues.

4.4 EDUCATION IN DECISION MAKING,

PROBLEM SOLVING, PLANNING, GOAL
SETTING IN GROUP SETTINGS
These intervention involve skill development

4.4.1 Team MBO

MBO (Management by Objectives) programs evolve from a collaborative organisation
diagnosis and are systems of joint target setting and performance review designed to
increase a focus on objectives and to increase the frequency of problem solving
discussions between supervisors and subordinates and within work teams. MBO
programs are unilateral, autocratic mechanisms designed to force compliance with a
superior’s directives and reinforce one-on one leadership mode. Likert and Fisher
describe a participative team approach to MBO in use in a retail division of a
consumer products organisation and in an automobile plant. They report impressive
increase in contribution to corporate profits in the retail sales division and substantially
increased productivity and reduced scrap and rejects in the automobile plant. They
call the approach Management by Group Objectives (MBGO).

4.4.2 Appreciations and Concerns Exercise

Appreciations and concerns exercise is appropriate if interview data suggest that one
of the deficiencies in the interactions of members of a group is lack of expression of
appreciation and that another deficiency is the avoidance of confronting concerns and
irritations. The facilitator asks each member of the group to write the appreciation
and concerns relative to each member of the group. And then these are discussed
one by one to make improvements accordingly. If substantial conflict exists within the
56
group members then this exercise does not prove to be fruitful.
4.4.3 Socio Technical Systems (STS) Human Process Interventions:
Individual Group and Inter-
This change process concerns the organisation’s division of labor—how to specialise Group, Coaching, Counseling,
Training, Behavioural
task performances. Interventions aimed at structural design include moving from Modeling, Mentoring,
more traditional ways of dividing the organisations overall work (such as functional, Motivating etc.
self-contained-unit, and matrix structures) to more integrative and flexible forms
(such as process-based and networkbased structures). Diagnostic guidelines exist to
determine which structure is appropriate for particular organisational environments,
technologies, and conditions. These interventions focus on an organisation’s technology
(for example, task methods and job design) and structure (for example, division of
labor and hierarchy). These change methods are receiving increasing attention in OD,
especially in light of current concerns about productivity and organisational
effectiveness.

4.4.4 Visioning
This is a term used for an intervention, in which, group members in one or more
organisational groups, develop and describe their vision of what they want the
organisation to be like in the future. The time frame may be anywhere from six
months to five years in the future. The concept of visioning is credited to Ronald
Lippitt. It starts with writing down the characteristics they will like to see this organisation
have from one or two years in future, characteristics are made visible on a flip chart
paper and displayed, clarifications pertaining to questions are made, subjects then
extract themes from individual reports and report them to the total group. Visioning
uses mental imagery or cognitive maps to describe the organisation.

4.4.5 Quality of Work Life (QWL) Programmes

This Program has been applied to a wide variety of organisational improvement
efforts. The common element seems to be an attempt to restructure multiple dimensions
of the organisation and to institute a mechanism which introduces and sustains changes
over time. Aspects of the change mechanism are usually an increase in participation
by employees in shop floor decisions and an increase in problem solving between the
union and management. It includes voluntary involvement on the part of employees,
union agreement with the process and participation in it, assurance of no job loss,
training of employees in team problem solving, use of quality circles, work team
participation in forecasting, work planning and team leader/member selection, regular
plant and team meetings, encouragement of skill development and job rotation, skill
training and responsiveness to employee concern.

4.4.6 Quality Circles

Quality circle concept is a form of group problem solving and goal setting with a
primary focus on maintaining and enhancing the quality of the product. Quality circles
have been extensively used in Japan. It consists of a group of seven to ten employees
from a unit who have volunteered to meet together regularly to analyse and make
proposals about product quality and other problems. Supervisors who have volunteered
to participate are trained by quality control experts and facilitators. Favourable results
have been reported through the use of cross- functional quality circle teams.

4.4.7 Force-Field Analysis

Force- field analysis is a device for understanding a problematic situation and planning
corrective actions. The technique was first proposed by Kurt Lewin. It is essentially
vector analysis an analytical tool. It involves deciding upon problematic situation, 57
OD Interventions describing the desired condition, identifying the factors and forces operating in the
current force field, examine the forces, strategies to move the equilibrium from current
conditions to desired conditions, implement the action plans and describe what actions
must be taken to stabilize the equilibrium at the desired condition and implement
those actions.

4.4.8 Self-Managed Teams

Several problems are encountered in moving toward the use of self managed teams.
The first problem is what to do with the first-line supervisors who are no longer
needed as supervisors. Another is that the managers that are now one level above
the teams will likely oversee the activities of several teams and their roles will change
to emphasise planning, expediting and coordinating. Team members need to develop
new skills in running and participating in the team meetings as well as planning, quality
control and budgeting.

4.5 INTERGROUP RELATIONS

These interventions are designed to improve interactions among different groups or
departments in organisations. The microcosm group intervention involves a small
group of people whose backgrounds closely match the organisational problems being
addressed. This group addresses the problem and develops means to solve it. The
inter-group conflict model typically involves a consultant helping two groups understand
the causes of their conflict and choose appropriate solutions.

4.5.1 Partnering
Partnering is productive in situations, in which, two or more organisations are likely
to incur unnecessary conflict. It is a variation of team building, intergroup team
building and strategic planning having the objective of forming ‘an effective problem-
finding/ problem- solving management team composed of personnel from both parties,
creating a single culture with one set of goals and objectives for the project’.
Participants report better results than on non-partnered projects.
58
4.5.2 Third Party Peacemaking at Group Level Human Process Interventions:
Individual Group and Inter-
A basic feature of third party peace- making intervention is confrontation: the two Group, Coaching, Counseling,
Training, Behavioural
principals must be willing to confront the fact that conflict exists and that it has Modeling, Mentoring,
consequences for the effectiveness of the two parties involved. The third party must Motivating etc.
be able to diagnose the conflict situations. A major distinction is drawn between
substantive and emotional conflict. This distinction is important for the third party
consultant. Intervention tactics for the third party consist of structuring confrontation
and dialogue between the principals. The third party will intervene directly or indirectly
in facilitating dialogue.

4.5.3 Grid OD Phase 3

The focus of this phase is intergroup relations and the goal of this phase is to move
groups from their ineffective, win-lose actual ways of relating between groups toward
an ideal model of intergroup relations. The dynamics of intergroup cooperation are
explored. The phase consists of teams convening in twos to work on the previously
stated issues. Only the selected members of the teams take part in the exercises and
activities.

4.5.4 Survey Feedback

The process of systematically collecting data about the system and feeding back the
data for individuals and groups at all levels of the organisation to analyse, interpret
meanings and design corrective action steps. It has two major components – the use
of a climate or attitude survey and the use of feedback workshops – are called
survey feedback. The steps involved are organising top level members of the hierarchy
for preliminary planning, collecting data, feedback to top executives, each superior
discusses the data with subordinates and give feedback in presence of the consultant.
Survey feedback has shown as an effective change technique in OD.
Self Assessment Questions
1) Process consultation Intervention was developed by which of these practioners?
a) Stanley M. Hermann b) Kurt Lewin
c) Edgar Schein d) Peter Drucker
2) ____________identified characteristics of well –functioning, effective groups/
teams.
a) Rensis Likert and McGregor b) Kurt Lewin
b) Edgar Schein d) Stanley M. Hermann
3) ______________concept is a form of group problem solving and goal setting
with a primary focus on maintaining and enhancing the quality of the product.
a) Quality circle b) Socio-technical systems
b) Quality of Work Life d) Systems view

4.6 COACHING AND COUNSELING

Counselors and therapists were not in the vanguard of the coaching movement.
However, as coaching becomes more popular and more counselors discover it, more
counselors are found in various coach-training programs, and are either including
coaching as one of the services they offer or transitioning from a counseling practice
to a coaching practice. These activities frequently grow out of team- building and
59
OD Interventions intergroup interventions. In the aftermath of a team –building session an individual
may seek some attentive listening away from the group setting. Individuals may also
want feedback from the consultant or help in looking at optional behaviours that
might be more effective. Coaching, with a professional coach, is the practice of
supporting an individual, referred to as a client, through the process of achieving a
specific personal or professional result. Coaching is differentiated from therapeutic
and counseling disciplines
Coaching is performed with individuals and groups, in person, over the phone and
online. The facilitative approach to coaching in sport was pioneered by Timothy
Gallwey; hitherto, sports’ coaching was (and often remain solely a skills-based learning
experience from a master in the sport). Other contexts for coaching are numerous
and include executive coaching, life-coaching, emotional intelligence coaching and
wealth coaching. The basic skills of coaching are often being developed in managers
within organisations, specifically to up-skill their managing and leadership abilities,
rather than to apply in formal one-to-one coaching sessions. These skills can also be
applied within team meetings and are akin then to the more traditional skills of group
facilitation. Instructing, coaching and mentoring differ. Instructors disseminate
knowledge. Coaches help clients build skills. Mentors shape mental attitudes.
Alternately, instructors train to immediate tasks, coaches accompany achievements,
and mentors provide whole-life shaping.
In organisations today, coaching refers to a method of personal development or
human resource development (HRD). This field of coaching is becoming a distinct
area of practice for individuals and in organisations. A casual business practice of
coaching is the act of providing positive support and positive feedback while offering
occasional advice to an individual or group in order to help them recognise ways in
which they can improve the effectiveness of their business. Coaching is an excellent
way to attain a certain work behaviour that will improve leadership, employee
accountability, teamwork, sales, communication, goal setting, strategic planning and
more. It can be provided in a number of ways, including one-on-one, group coaching
sessions and large scale organisational work. Many corporations are instilling the
practice of 360 degree consulting before providing coaching, which permits employees
to utilise their own life or professional experiences in a positive way to create team
participation attitudes even with superiors. Coaching is not a practice restricted to
external experts or providers. Many organisations expect their senior leaders and
middle managers to coach their team members toward higher levels of performance,
increased job satisfaction, personal growth, and career development.

4.6.1 Executive Coaching

This can be grouped separately from business coaching, as there is a common
understanding that business coaching can be the equivalent of business planning, or
consulting, but the coach takes the lead in running the business process. Executive
coaching is the one-to-one relationship between a coach and a client, based around
the intrapersonal goals of the client within the organisational context. Global Executive
coaching deals specifically with the unique set of challenges created from crossing
cultures following an international or domestic relocation. Personal coaching is a
process which is designed and defined in a relationship agreement between a client
and a coach. It is based on the client’s expressed interests, goals and objectives. A
professional coach may use inquiry, reflection, requests and discussion to help clients
identify personal and/or business and/or relationship goals, develop strategies,
relationships and action plans intended to achieve those goals. A coach provides a
60
place for clients to be held accountable to themselves by monitoring the clients’
progress towards implementation of their action plans. Together they evolve and Human Process Interventions:
Individual Group and Inter-
modify the plan to best suit the client’s needs and environmental relationships. Coaches Group, Coaching, Counseling,
often act as human mirrors for clients by sharing outside and unbiased perspectives. Training, Behavioural
Coaches may teach specific insights and skills to empower the client toward their Modeling, Mentoring,
Motivating etc.
goals.
Clients are responsible for their own achievements and success. The client takes
action, and the coach may assist, but never leads or does more than the client.
Therefore, a coach cannot and does not promise that a client will take any specific
action or attain specific goals. Professional coaching is not counseling, therapy or
consulting. These different skill sets and approaches to change may be adjunct skills
and professions. Further, counseling is the professional practice of behaviour analysis
is one domain of behaviour analysis: others are behaviourism, experimental analysis
of behaviour and applied behaviour analysis. The professional practice of behaviour
analysis is the delivery of interventions to consumers that are guided by the principles
of behaviourism and the research of both the experimental analysis of behaviour and
applied behaviour analysis. Professional practice seeks maximum precision to change
behaviour most effectively in specific instances. Behaviour analysts are mental health
professionals and are licensed as licensed behaviour analysts. The professional
practice of behaviour analysis is a hybrid discipline with specific influences coming
from counseling, psychology, education, special education, communication disorders,
physical therapy and criminal justice. As a discipline it has its own conferences,
organisations, certification processes and awards.

4.6.2 Training
Self diagnostic surveys are widely used in human relations training and in laboratory
training settings. They can be also useful for team building. For a successful training
session the consultant must have expertise in the use of a particular instrument. When
shared in a group whose members have relatively high trust in each other and
relatively high communications skills, this self-disclosed information can further tolerance
and understanding between members, can be used by individuals to enhance strengths
in deficient areas and in some instances can be useful in sorting out team assignments.
Using a questionnaire, participants can plot on a two- dimensional grid where their
practices appear to be in terms of ‘concern for production’ and ‘concern for people’.
Workshops focusing on diagnosed styles can be a springboard for developing more
effective leadership and team behaviours. The advantage of using self- diagnostic
instruments are probably greater in the context of training programs involving strangers
or persons from different units than in the context of team building. Some of the
dysfunctional consequences might be: Using the results to label or stereotype others,
distorting responses so that scores produce results assumed to be ‘socially acceptable’,
focusing on the analysis of behaviour rather than on addressing and solving more
fundamental issues facing the team and fostering overdependence on the OD consultant.
One of the dysfunctional aspects of using instrumented training techniques is OD
happens when an OD consultant lets his or her ‘kit bag’ of diagnostic surveys drive
the selection of interventions. The consultant must make an informed judgment as to
what intervention would be particularly useful to the client group at a given time. Yet,
a self diagnostic survey might or might not be appropriate at times.

4.6.3 Behaviour Modelling

This is a training technique designed to improve interpersonal competence. It is an
effective tool for problems of interpersonal relations in organisations. Based on Albert 61
OD Interventions Bandura’s Social Learning theory has been shown excellent way to make first-line
supervisors more effective to improve organisational performance. The basic premise
of Social Learning theory is that for persons to engage successfully in a behaviour,
they must perceive a link between certain behaviour and their outcomes must desire
those outcomes and must believe they can do it. It starts with behaviour description,
justification to explain the impact of the observed behaviour, active listening of content
and feelings, participative problem solving and positive reinforcement to compliment
other sincerely. It teaches the skills and behaviours needed to deal with interpersonal
problems. For improving interpersonal skills behaviour modeling is an important
training option. Many first line supervisors find it difficult to discipline employees.
To learn this behaviour they must see a link between successful disciplining and
desired outcomes. We tend to describe behaviour, explain the impact of an observed
behaviour on individual, the observer, or the organisation, actively listen to accurately
reflect the content and feelings of another’s communication, participative problem
solving and provide positive reinforcement in an authentic manner in behaviour modeling.
But we need to determine the most pressing problem, design training modules for
each of about ten problems, specific behaviours exhibited by the model that cause
success are highlighted and then weekly training of four hours each are scheduled for
each module for groups. At training session the problem situation is announced and
briefly discussed. Participants then observe a videotape in which the model successfully
solves the problem by enacting specific behavioural skills. The trainees discuss the
behavioural skills and then role play the situation receiving the feedback from the
group and the trainer on their performances. Role playing continues until each participant
successfully masters all the specific skills. At the beginning of the new session
participants report how their new skill worked on the job. Thus behaviour modeling
works better with any kind of interpersonal skills.

4.7 MENTORING
Mentor is a trusted friend, counselor or teacher, usually a more experienced person.
Some professions have “mentoring programs” in which newcomers are paired with
more experienced people, who advise them and serve as examples as they advance.
Schools sometimes offer mentoring programs to new students, or students having
difficulties. Today mentors provide expertise to less experienced individuals to help
them advance their careers, enhance their education, and build their networks.
Mentorship refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more
experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less
knowledgeable person. The person in receipt of mentorship may be referred to as
a protégé (male), a protégée (female), an apprentice or, in recent years, a mentee.
Mentoring” is a process that always involves communication and is relationship
based, but its precise definition is elusive. One definition of the many that have been
proposed, is ‘Mentoring is a process for the informal transmission of knowledge,
social capital, and the psychosocial support perceived by the recipient as relevant to
work, career, or professional development; mentoring entails informal communication,
usually face-to-face and during a sustained period of time, between a person who
is perceived to have greater relevant knowledge, wisdom, or experience (the mentor)
and a person who is perceived to have less (the protégé)”.
The focus of mentoring is to develop the whole person and so the techniques are
broad and require wisdom in order to be used appropriately. A 1995 study of
mentoring techniques most commonly used in business found that the five most
62 commonly used techniques among mentors were:
4.7.1 Accompanying Human Process Interventions:
Individual Group and Inter-
This is actually making a commitment in a caring way, which involves taking part in Group, Coaching, Counseling,
Training, Behavioural
the learning process side-by-side with the learner. Modeling, Mentoring,
Motivating etc.
4.7.2 Sowing
Mentors are often confronted with the difficulty of preparing the learner before he
or she is ready to change. Sowing is necessary when you know that what you say
may not be understood or even acceptable to learners at first but will make sense
and have value to the mentee when the situation requires it.

4.7.3 Catalysing
When change reaches a critical level of pressure, learning can jump. Here the mentor
chooses to plunge the learner right into change, provoking a different way of thinking,
a change in identity or a re-ordering of values.

4.7.4 Showing
This is making something understandable, or using your own example to demonstrate
a skill or activity. You show what you are talking about, you show by your own
behaviour.

4.7.5 Harvesting
Here the mentor focuses on “picking the ripe fruit”: it is usually learned to create
awareness of what was learned by experience and to draw conclusions. The key
questions here are: “What have you learned?”, “How useful is it?” Different techniques
may be used by mentors according to the situation and the mindset of the mentee,
and the techniques used in modern organisations can be found in ancient education
systems, from the Socratic technique of harvesting to the accompaniment method of
learning used in the apprenticeship of itinerant cathedral builders during the Middle
Ages. Leadership authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner advise mentors to look for
“teachable moments” in order to “expand or realise the potentialities of the people
in the organisations they lead” and underline that personal credibility is as essential
to quality mentoring as skill.

4.7.6 Mentoring Relationship

There are two broad types of mentoring relationships: formal and informal. Informal
relationships develop on their own between partners. Formal mentoring, on the other
hand, refers to a structured process supported by the organisation and addressed to
target populations. In business formal mentoring is part of talent management address
to populations such as key employees, newly hired graduates, high potentials and
future leaders. In formal mentoring, matching of mentor and mentee is done by each
choosing the partner in order to avoid creating a forced and inauthentic relationship.
There are formal mentoring programs that are value-oriented, while social mentoring
and other types focus specifically on career development. Some mentorship programs
provide both social and vocational support. In well-designed formal mentoring
programs, there are program goals, schedules, training (for both mentors and protégés),
and evaluation. There are many kinds of mentoring relationships from school or
community-based relationships to e-mentoring relationships. These mentoring
relationships vary and can be influenced by the type of mentoring relationship that is
in effect. That is whether it has come about as a formal or informal relationship. Also 63
OD Interventions there are several models that have been used to describe and examine the sub-
relationships that can emerge. For example, Buell describes how mentoring relationships
can develop under a cloning model, nurturing model, friendship model and
apprenticeship model.
The cloning model is about the mentor trying to “produce a duplicate copy of him
or her.” The nurturing model takes more of a “parent figure, creating a safe, open
environment in which mentee can both learn and try things for him-or her.” The
friendship model are more peers “rather than being involved in a hierarchical
relationship.” Lastly, the apprenticeship is about less “personal or social aspects...
and the professional relationship is the sole focus”.
Davis and Garrison, undertook to study successful leaders of both genders and at
least two races. Their research presented evidence for the roles of: cheerleader,
coach, confidant, counselor, developer of talent, “griot” (oral historian for the
organisation or profession), guardian, guru, inspiration, master, “opener of doors”,
patron, role model, pioneer, “seminal source”, “successful leader”, and teacher. They
described multiple mentoring practices which have since been given the name of
“mosaic mentoring” to distinguish this kind of mentoring from the single mentor
approach.

4.7.7 Mosaic Mentoring

This is based on the concept that almost everyone can perform one or another
function well for someone else — and also can learn along one of these lines from
someone else. The model is seen as useful for people who are “non-traditional” in
a traditional setting, such as people of color and women in a traditionally white male
organisation. The idea has been well-received in medical education literature. There
is also mosaic mentoring programs in various faith-based organisations.

4.7.8 New-Hire Mentorship

In newcomers to the organisation (protégés) are paired with more experienced
people (mentors) in order to obtain information, good examples, and advice as they
advance. It is has been claimed that new employees who are paired with a mentor
are twice as likely to remain in their job as those who do not receive mentorship.
These mentoring relationships provide substance for career growth, and benefit both
the mentor and the mentee. For example, the mentor gets to show leadership by
giving back and perhaps being refreshed about their own work. The organisation
receives an employee that is being gradually introduced and shaped by the organisation’s
culture and operation because they have been under the mentorship of an experienced
member. The person being mentored networks, becomes integrated easier in an
organisation, gets experience and advice along the way. It has been said that “joining
a mentor’s network and developing one’s own is central to advancement” and this
is possibly why those mentored tend to do well in their organisations.
In the organisational setting mentoring usually “requires unequal knowledge”, but the
process of mentorship can differ. Bullis describes the mentoring process in the forms
of phase models. Initially, the “mentee proves himself or herself worthy of the mentor’s
time and energy”. Then cultivation occurs which includes the actual “coaching...a
strong interpersonal bond between mentor and mentee develops”. Next, under the
phase of separation “the mentee experiences more autonomy”. Ultimately, there is
more of equality in the relationship, termed by Bullis as Redefinition.
64
4.7.9 High-Potential Mentorship Human Process Interventions:
Individual Group and Inter-
This is used to groom up-and-coming employees deemed to have the potential to Group, Coaching, Counseling,
Training, Behavioural
move up into leadership roles. Here the employee (protégé) is paired with a senior Modeling, Mentoring,
level leader (or leaders) for a series of career-coaching interactions. A similar method Motivating etc.
of high-potential mentoring is to place the employee in a series of jobs in disparate
areas of an organisation, all for small periods of time, in anticipation of learning the
organisation’s structure, culture, and methods.
A mentor does not have to be a manager or supervisor to facilitate the process.
Mentorship in education is offered to support students in program completion,
confidence building and transitioning to further education or the workforce. There are
also many mentoring programs designed specifically to bring under-represented
populations into science and engineering. The blended mentoring is a mix of on-site
and online events, projected to give to career counseling and development services
the opportunity to adopt mentoring in their ordinary practice. In the reverse mentoring
situation, the mentee has more overall experience (typically as a result of age) than
the mentor (who is typically younger), but the mentor has more knowledge in a
particular area, and as such, reverses the typical constellation. Examples are when
young internet or mobile savvy Millennial Generation teens train executives in using
their high end Smart Phones. They in turn sometimes offer insight in business processes.
In Business mentoring the concept of mentoring has entered the business domain as
well. This is different from being an apprentice; a business mentor provides guidance
to a business owner or an entrepreneur on the entrepreneur’s business. An apprentice
learns a trade by working on the job with the “employer”. The experience of the
mentor can help the mentee overcome hurdles in business easily, given that the
mentor has faced similar situations in business himself.
Business professionals with a lot of experience and successful entrepreneurs are
lending their time to help others in business.

4.8 MOTIVATION
A major function of leaders is to support the motivation of other individuals and
groups. There are approaches to motivating people that are destructive, for example,
fear and intimidation. While these approaches can seem very effective in promptly
motivating people, the approaches are hurtful, and in addition, they usually only
motivate for the short-term. There are also approaches that are constructive, for
example, effective delegation and coaching.
These constructive approaches can be very effective in motivating others and for long
periods of time. Different people can have quite different motivators, for example, by
more money, more recognition, time off from work, promotions, opportunities for
learning, or opportunities for socialising and relationships.
Therefore, when attempting to help or motivate people, it’s important to identify what
motivates each of them. Ultimately, though, long-term motivation comes from people
motivating themselves. Motivating people is a myth. People cannot be motivated by
others. They are motivated from within. Leaders can however, set up an environment
in which people are able to motivate themselves. To set up an environment that
enables employees to be motivated, leaders need to understand what the motivational
needs of individuals and groups are. Determining the “what’s in it for me” for individual
employees and workgroups that is consistent with goals and strategies of the
organisation is the key to improving motivation for individuals and groups of employees. 65
OD Interventions A base for understanding what motivates human beings is found in the theories by
Maslow and Herzberg. When applying these theories, leaders must understand some
of the personal circumstances of the individuals and groups to develop the environment
that allows individuals and groups to motivate themselves and provide an overall
approach that reinforces the desired motivation. For employees whose basic needs
are fulfilled, it may be necessary to understand whether delegation of responsibility
and authority will cater to their self esteem needs. For example, giving them projects
for which they are accountable and have the resources and competence to complete.
Care has to be taken with processes and policies.
Processes and policies which are in contradiction of people’s motivators will depress
motivation. A study of Herzberg dis-satisfiers reveals that administration and policy
has the highest impact on motivation being a dis-satisfier on 36% of occasions.
However, processes and policies which motivate individuals may not be aligned to
an organisation’s strategy and objectives. Further, a robust performance management
system that recognises and rewards people in a way that fits their motivators is
necessary for developing an environment that allows individuals and groups to motivate
themselves. Developing an environment that improves employee’s motivation is hard
work. There is no one size fits all solution, as motivation is driven by “what’s in it
for me”.
Some of the basic principles guidelines to remember are:
1) Motivating employees’ starts with motivating ourselves. Enthusiasm is contagious.
If we’re enthusiastic about our job, it’s much easier for others to be, too. Also,
if we’re doing a good job of taking care of ourselves, we’ll have much clearer
perspective on how others are doing in theirs. A great place to start learning
about motivation is to start understanding your own motivations. The key to
helping to motivate your employees is to understand what motivates them.
2) Always work to align goals of the organisation with goals of employees.
Employees can be all fired up about their work and be working very hard,
however, if the results of their work don’t contribute to the goals of the
organisation. Therefore, it’s critical that managers and supervisors know what
they want from their employees. These preferences should be worded in terms
of goals for the organisation.
3) Key to supporting the motivation of our employees is, understanding what
motivates each of them. Each person is motivated by different things.
4) Recognise that supporting employee motivation is a process, not a task
Organisations change all the time, as do people. Indeed, it is an ongoing process
to sustain an environment where each employee can strongly motivate themselves.
5) Support employee motivation by using organisational systems (for example,
policies and procedures) — don’t just count on good intentions. Don’t just
count on cultivating strong interpersonal relationships with employees to help
motivate them.
Here are a few strategies to ponder while motivating employees:

4.8.1 Provide a Nurturing Environment

If one is only concerned about production and not about the people who can
produce, chances are, they will not produce. Motivating employees properly means
66
caring for more than just bottom-line results; this can often present a problem for Human Process Interventions:
Individual Group and Inter-
you. Many supervisors believe that it is not their job to nurture their employees - that Group, Coaching, Counseling,
nurturing is something that should be done at home. Those supervisors are Training, Behavioural
wrong. When employees feel genuinely cared for, then you are motivating employees Modeling, Mentoring,
Motivating etc.
to increase productivity. Being a motivating supervisor means assessing what your
employees need. Some people may just need to work with other people who care
about them. However, as your organisation grows you may need to consider providing
counseling or pastoral care. There is a direct correlation between the health of your
employees and the health of your organisation.

4.8.2 Encourage Personal Growth

This is important for you and your employees. This can be difficult for many motivating
supervisors because it is not something that can be measured. Have employees write
down their thoughts in the following areas: First, their priorities and what is important
to them; Second, their goals and dreams for the future; Third, how you as a supervisor
can assist in motivating employees to meet each of their goals. In addition, offer
training and development in areas that will improve personal growth as well as
increase their effectiveness. When employees feel good about themselves, they will
perform. Encouraging personal growth is imperative for motivating employees.

4.8.3 Empower Employees

Employees need to be trained, and then empowered to make good decisions. Trusting
the people that report to you can help towards motivating employees to take on
more responsibilities. When people take on more responsibility they begin to take
ownership.  This is a good thing. People do not like to be micromanaged. If we have
provided the proper training, we must trust our employees to use it.

4.8.4 A Top-Down Method

These are some of the essential strategies and skills possessed by a motivating
supervisor. It is up to them to start being proactive and implementing methods
towards motivating employees. It is important to remember that motivation is a top-
down method.
When considering ways to motivate employees keep in mind that each individual is
different and therefore everyone is motivated by different things. While one employee
may be motivated by money another may be motivated by working with supportive
coworkers. One way to find out what motivates your employees is to discover their
wants and needs. One way to do this is by performing surveys or questionnaires.
Below are several factors that can motivate employees.

4.8.5 Incentives
Incentives are one of the most common ways of motivating employees. Employee
incentives can be money, gift cards, gifts, vacation trips, etc. The best way to decide
what incentive to use to motivate employees is by asking them what they would like.
You may be surprised that it’s not always money that an employee seeks.

4.8.6 Responsibility
Show your employees that you trust them by giving them responsibilities. Employees
usually like having some control and making choices. It makes them feel as if they
are a necessary part of the business.
67
OD Interventions 4.8.7 Pleasant Work Environment
If an employee is working in an environment where there is a lot of negativity
between management and employees this can diminish his/her motivation. An employee
will be more motivated if he/she is working with supportive co-workers and
management.

4.8.8 Interesting Work

Performing the same tasks everyday will become boring and repetitive for employees
unless they enjoy what they do. Find out what tasks your employee is good at and
enjoys doing. Providing your employee with a task he/she enjoys can prove to be
an effective method of motivating employees.

4.8.9 Listen
Listen to your employee’s concerns and take them seriously. Employees can become
more motivated when they discover that you care about their concerns and problems.
Reward Good Work- Acknowledge employees who put in the extra effort. You can
have an “Employee of the Month” or Certificates of Appreciation. Employees like
to feel that their hard work is being acknowledged. Even a simple Thank You can
show appreciation and improve employee morale.

4.8.10 Share Business Success

Making employees feel like they are part of a bigger team can be a great tool for
motivating employees. Provide business performance reviews to let the employees
know how the business is doing. Encourage employees to strive to achieve success
and growing figures for the business. Reward the whole team when the business
reaches its goals and beyond.

4.8.11 Job Security

When motivating employees, job security is essential. If employees feel they might
be fired or laid off they are more likely not to put their best efforts into the job.

4.8.12 Promotion / Growth

Most employees have a natural wanting to improve. Everybody has dreams of where
they wish to be in the future. If there is no goal or growth to be achieved, there is
nothing to motivate them to work harder.
In addition to the above, one must be flexible and positive. Flexible means that one
should not make their employees come to work when they are sick. They should not
be penalised for emergency situations. If it’s possible be flexible with the employee’s
schedule. For example give them the option of choosing the day of the week they
want off. By doing this you show employees that you care and this will be appreciated.
As for positive attitude, as a manager and leader it is important to have a positive
attitude. Something as simple as a negative tone in your voice can be enough to
reduce employee morale. Increasing positive managerial behaviour and reducing
negative managerial behaviour will go a long way towards improving employee
engagement. When talented employees are engaged, they are able to perform
spectacularly and build and improve winning business.

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4.8.13 Competitive Salary Human Process Interventions:
Individual Group and Inter-
Though money is not always an employee’s main motivation, a competitive salary can Group, Coaching, Counseling,
Training, Behavioural
help an employee feel that they are receiving what they deserve for their job description. Modeling, Mentoring,
If an employee is under-paid they will often go searching for other jobs that offer Motivating etc.
competitive salaries.
Self Assessment Questions
1) Helping to identify the skills and capabilities that are within the person, and
enabling them to use them to the best of their ability – and by that increasing
the independence within the individual, and reducing reliance is____________
a) Mentoring b) Behaviour modification
c) Managing d) Coaching
2) Behaviour Modeling is based on Theory of________________
a) McGregor b) Albert Bandura
c) Hertzberg d) Abraham Maslow
3) Mentoring based on the concept that almost everyone can perform one or
another function well for someone else — and also can learn along one of
these lines from someone else is_____________
a) High-potential mentorship b) New hire mentoring
c) Mosaic mentoring d) Blended mentoring

4.9 LET US SUM UP

OD efforts basically entail two groups of activities: “action research” and
“interventions.” Action research is a process of systematically collecting data on a
specific organisation, feeding it back for action planning, and evaluating results by
collecting and reflecting on more data. Data gathering techniques include everything
from surveys and questionnaires to interviews, collages, drawings, and tests. The
data is often evaluated and interpreted using advanced statistical analysis techniques.
Action research can be thought of as the diagnostic component of the OD process.
But it also encompasses the intervention component, whereby the change agent uses
action plans to intervene in the organisation and make changes, as discussed below.
In a continuous process, the results of actions are measured and evaluated and new
action plans are devised to effect new changes. Thus, the intervention process can
be considered a facet of action research.

4.10 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) What are the OD Interventions conducted for Individuals to bring about
improvement in their functioning?
2) Discuss the Group / Intergroup Interventions in brief and critically analyse their
role in Organisation Development.
3) What are self-managed teams? Describe their role and functioning in the
organisations.
4) Discuss the importance of mentoring in today’s organisations.
5) What is Motivation? Discuss the guidelines for the practioners to motivate the
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employees.
OD Interventions
4.11 SUGGESTED READINGS
Cherrington, David J. (1994) Organisational Behaviour: The Management of
Individual and Organisational Performance. Boston: Allyn and Bacon,
Dove, Rick. (1997) “The Principles of Change.” Automotive Manufacturing
and Production. March.
Dyer, William G. (1989) “Team Building: A Microcosm of the Past, Present, and
Future of O.D.” Academy of Management OD Newsletter. Winter.
Gibson, James L., John M. Ivancevich, and James H. Donnelly Jr. (1994)
Organisations: Behaviour, Structure, Processes. 8th ed. Boston: Richard D. Irwin,
Goodstein, Leonard D., and W. Warner Burke. (1991)”Creating Successful
Organisation Change.” Organisational Dynamics. Spring.
Ivancevich, John M., and Michael T. Matteson. (1990) Organisational Behaviour
and Management. Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, Inc.,.
Lippitt, Gordon L., Peter Longseth, and Jack Mossop. (1985) Implementing
Organisational Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,.
Northcraft, Gregory B., and Margaret A. Neale. ( 1990)Organisational Behaviour:
A Management Challenge. Chicago: The Dryden Press,.
Recardo, Ronald J. (2000) “Best Practices in Organisations Experiencing
Extensive and Rapid Change.” National Productivity Review. Summer.
Shaffer, Rima. (2000) Principles of Organisation Development. American Society
for Training and Development,

4.12 ANSWERS TO SELF ASSESSMENT

QUESTIONS
SAQ 1: (1) c (2) a (3) a
SAQ 2: (1) c (2) a (3) a
SAQ 3: (1) d (2) b (3) c

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