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Action Research

An OD practitioner conducted interviews with senior management to identify strengths, weaknesses, and objectives for an off-site meeting. Key strengths included experienced management and workforce commitment, while weaknesses highlighted issues in marketing and organizational priorities. The action research process involves planning change, implementing interventions, and evaluating outcomes to ensure continuous improvement within the organization.

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2 views

Action Research

An OD practitioner conducted interviews with senior management to identify strengths, weaknesses, and objectives for an off-site meeting. Key strengths included experienced management and workforce commitment, while weaknesses highlighted issues in marketing and organizational priorities. The action research process involves planning change, implementing interventions, and evaluating outcomes to ensure continuous improvement within the organization.

Uploaded by

moatasem
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Action Research

Case Example

An OD practitioner conducted interviews with the senior management group. He asked four general
questions; 1. What are the strengths? 2. What are the weaknesses? 3. Are you in favor of the off-site
meeting? 4. What should be the objective of the off-site meeting?

1. What are the strengths?

• Senior management is highly experienced in business (7) • Commitment of work force (5) • Good people
throughout (3) • Last four years we experienced success in many areas (3) • Technological superior & a
market leader (3) • Creativity (2) • Managers think entrepreneurially (2)

2. What are the weaknesses?

• Marketing & Servicing System (6) • Do not establish priorities (3) • Organizational priorities are always
secondary to individual managers (3) • Lack of management depth (3) • Little planning (3) • Structure
(2) • High Costs (2) • Overly change-oriented (2) • Poor reward system (2) • Low morale (2) • Internal
competition (2) •High degree of mistrust (2)

3. What should be the objective of the off-site meeting?


• Agree on the regional structure (7) • Set financial objectives for next two years (6) • List of things we need
to do & stop doing (4) • Must hear from the GM about his team notions, ideas, expectations (4) • Some
ventilation of feelings needed (3) • Must come together more as a top management team (3) • Establish
standards for performance (3) • Increase mutual respect (2)

5. Planning Change (Joint action planning):

Next, the OD practitioner and the client members jointly agree on further actions to be taken. This is the
beginning of the moving process (described in Lewin's change model), as the organization decides how best
to reach a different quasi-stationary equilibrium. At this stage, the specific action to be taken depends on the
culture, technology, and environment of the organization; the diagnosis of the problem; and the time and
expense of the intervention. Once the diagnosis is understood and deemed accurate, action steps are
planned. Good diagnosis determines the intervention. The purposes of this planning phase are to generate
alternative steps for responding correctively to the problems identified in the diagnosis, and to decide on the
step or order of steps to take.

6. Intervention (Action):

This stage involves the actual change from one organizational state to another. It may include installing new
methods and procedures, reorganizing structures and work designs, and reinforcing new behaviors. Such
actions typically cannot be implemented immediately but require a transition period as the organization
moves from the present to a desired future state. Examples of interventions at the individual level are: job
redesign and enrichment, training and management development, changes in the quality of working life,
management by objectives, and career development. Examples of interventions at the group level are: team
building, the installation of autonomous work groups or quality control circles.

7. Evaluation (Data gathering after action):

Because action research is a cyclical process, data must also be gathered after the action has been taken to
measure and determine the effects of the action and to feed the results back to the organization. This, in
turn, may lead to re-diagnosis and new action.

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