Tutorial 6 - Organisation development and change

Question 1

How does OL differ from individual learning?

Learning organisations are those with the ability to learn how to change and improve themselves
constantly.

Individual learning, which focuses on the knowledge, skills and abilities of the individual employee,
this intervention helps organisations move beyond solving existing problems to gaining the capability
to improve continuously.

It results in the development of a learning organisation where empowered members take

responsibility for changing the organisation and learning how to do this better and better.
Organisational learning and knowledge management practices gather, organise and disseminate the
knowledge and skills of members, who are located throughout the organisation and, sometimes,
around the world.

Question 2

Explain ‘single-loop’ and ‘double-loop’ learning.

Single-Loop Learning

Definition: Single-loop learning occurs when individuals, groups, or organizations modify their
actions or strategies in response to an error or problem, but without altering the underlying
governing values or assumptions. It’s about correcting mistakes within a given set of rules.

Process: In single-loop learning, the organization detects a problem, makes an adjustment (like
tweaking a process or changing a strategy), and continues operating as before. It’s a reactive
approach that doesn’t question or challenge the broader framework or goals.

Example: If a company experiences a decline in sales, it might respond by increasing its marketing
efforts. This is a single-loop response, as it focuses on adjusting the strategy without questioning the
underlying assumptions about the product, market, or customer needs.

Double-Loop Learning
Definition: Double-loop learning goes deeper by questioning and potentially altering the underlying
assumptions, values, or policies that led to the problem. It involves reflecting on the governing
norms and frameworks and may lead to significant changes in how an organization operates.

Process: In double-loop learning, when a problem is identified, the organization not only adjusts its
actions but also critically examines and possibly changes the underlying beliefs or values. This is a
more reflective and transformative process.

Example: In the same scenario of declining sales, a double loop learning approach would involve not
just increasing marketing but also questioning whether the product meets market needs, whether
the company’s strategic goals are aligned with customer demands, or whether the organizational
culture supports innovation.

Question 3

What is the difference between organisational learning and knowledge management?

Organizational Learning

Definition: Organizational learning is the process by which an organization improves its ability to
achieve its goals by developing new knowledge, skills, and capabilities over time. It involves the
collective learning of individuals within the organization and the integration of this learning into
organizational practices, culture, and processes.

Focus: The focus is on the continuous improvement and adaptation of the organization based on the
experiences and knowledge gained by its members. Organizational learning is often about change,
innovation, and the capacity of an organization to evolve in response to internal and external
factors.

Key Elements:

Learning from Experience: Organizations learn by reflecting on past successes and failures.

Adaptation: Organizations adapt their strategies, structures, and processes based on what they have
learned.

Knowledge Creation: New insights, ideas, and innovations emerge as a result of learning.

Cultural Change: The organization's culture evolves to support continuous learning and
improvement.

Example: A tech company reflects on the failure of a product launch, analysing what went wrong and
learning from the mistakes. They then implement new processes and strategies to ensure future
products are better aligned with market needs and customer expectations.

Knowledge Management
Definition: Knowledge management (KM) is the process of systematically capturing, organizing,
sharing, and using the knowledge within an organization to improve efficiency, innovation, and
decision-making. It focuses on managing the intellectual assets of the organization to ensure that
knowledge is accessible and used effectively.

Focus: The focus is on the practical management of knowledge as a resource. KM is concerned with
storing, sharing, and applying knowledge to enhance organizational performance.

Key Elements:

Knowledge Capture: Identifying and documenting valuable knowledge within the organization.

Knowledge Sharing: Ensuring that knowledge is distributed and accessible to those who need it.

Knowledge Utilization: Applying knowledge to improve processes, products, services, and decision-
making.

Knowledge Retention: Preserving critical knowledge, especially in the face of employee turnover.

Example: A consulting firm creates a database where consultants can document best practices, case
studies, and client insights. This database allows employees across the firm to access valuable
information, improving the quality and efficiency of their work.

Question 4

Define ‘built-to-change’. Give an example of each component.

The ‘built to change’ (B2C) model is based on the premise that most organisations are designed for
stability and dependable operations.

Their design elements and managerial practices reinforce predictable behaviours aimed at sustaining
a particular competitive advantage.

Lawler and Worley argue that many change efforts are unsuccessful, not because of human
resistance or lack of visionary leadership, but because organisations are designed to be stable.
The ability to change constantly is the best sustainable source of competitive advantage. B2C designs
are geared to selecting, developing, and managing the right talent for change.

Selection practices seek quick learners who want to take initiative, desire professional growth, and
thrive on change, and this is reflected in their employment contracts, a condition of employment
and a path to success.

Rewards play a key role in motivating and reinforcing change in B2C organisations. Individual or
team bonuses are tied directly to change goals, learning new things and performing new tasks well.
There is a clear link between achieving the changed state and the reward. B2C designs emphasise
flat, lean and flexible organisation structures that can be reconfigured quickly when the
circumstances demand.

Structures are designed to put decision making into the hands of those closest to the work and the
environment. Organic designs such as process, matrix and network keep the organisation closely
connected with the environment, so that it can detect external changes and create innovative
responses to them. In B2C organisations, information and decision making processes are moved
throughout the organisation to wherever they are needed.

These performance-based systems ensure that information is transparent and current, and that it
provides a clear picture of how the organisation is performing relative to its competitors. B2C
designs stress the importance of shared leadership throughout the organisation, which is designed
to speed the decision-making process.

Shared leadership supports continuous change by spreading change expertise and commitment
across the organisation. It increases the chances that competent leaders will be there to keep the
change process moving forward.

Examples include teams within which any member is trusted to make a decision that may affect the
team. Built-to-change is applied through creating a change-friendly environment, pursuing proximity
to the future state of the organisation, building an orchestration capability, establishing strategic
adjustment as a normal condition, and seeking virtuous spirals, which is also discussed in Review
question 10.

Tutorial 7 Questions and Answers: Organisation development interventions: People and process
 1. How does the performance management model enable organisations to influence employee
work behaviours and outcomes?

The performance management model is made up of three stages that provide an integrated
process for defining, assessing and reinforcing employee work behaviours and outcomes.
Performance management involves goal setting, performance appraisal and reward systems
that align member work behaviour with business strategy, employee involvement and
workplace technology. Performance management occurs in a larger organisational context,
and organisations tend to achieve high levels of work performance when goal setting,
performance appraisal and reward systems are jointly aligned with these organisational
factors. Goal setting can clarify the duties and responsibilities that are associated with a
particular job or work group. Performance appraisal is a systematic process of jointly
assessing work-related achievements, with strengths and weaknesses. Reward systems
support goal-setting and feedback systems by rewarding the kinds of behaviours required,
implementing a particular work design or supporting a business strategy
2. In a third-party consultation, what skill must the third party develop in order to be
successful?

Third-party intervention focuses on conflicts arising between two or more people within the
same organisation. Conflict is inherent in groups and organisations and can arise from a
variety of sources, including differences in personality, task orientation and perceptions
among group members, and competition over scarce resources. It is important to emphasize
that conflict is neither good nor bad per se. Conflict can enhance motivation and innovation
and lead to a greater understanding of ideas and views. On the other hand, conflict can
prevent people from working together constructively and destroy necessary task
interactions among group members. Consequently, third-party intervention is used primarily
in situations where conflict significantly disrupts necessary task interactions and work
relationships among members. Third-party consultants must acquire some skills in order to
be successful.

These include:

 Considerable skill at diagnosis, intervention and follow-up

 High sensitivity to their own feelings as well as those of others

 The ability to recognise that some tension and conflict is inevitable

 The knowledge that too much conflict can be dysfunctional to both individuals and an organisation

 Sensitivity to the situation and the ability to use different intervention strategies and tactics to help

 Professional expertise in third-party intervention

 The ability to be perceived as neutral and unbiased on the issues and outcomes of the conflict
resolution
3. What influence do secrecy and communication about remuneration have, either positive or
negative, on motivation in the workplace?

Consider whether the workplace for cricketers is different to other workplaces in this regard.
Traditionally remuneration design was the duty of top managers and compensation specialists. Due
to the negative impacts of this approach, employee participation in the design and administration of
rewards has increased in an effort to develop positive employee perceptions through trust and
understanding. Evidence shows pay secrecy leads to decreased motivation and questioned pay
equity

4. What are the basic implications of the model for conflict resolution?

The model of conflict resolution implies that conflicts occur because some individuals show concern
for their own outcomes (distribution) and some for others’ outcomes (integration). Also, the way
that conflict is solved can have both positive and negative effects on individuals and organisations.
Constructive conflicts can bring problems that have previously been ignored out into the open,
whereas disruptive conflicts can yield strong negative emotions among organisation members

Tutorial 8
Question 1

Explain two popular options available for a manager who wants to restructure an
organisation.

Interventions aimed at structural design include the more traditional ways of dividing the
organisation’s overall work, such as functional, self-contained unit and matrix structures, as
well as more integrative and flexible forms, such as process- and network-based structures.
Diagnostic guidelines help determine which structure is appropriate for organisational
environments, technologies, and conditions.

Downsizing seeks to reduce costs and bureaucracy by decreasing the size of the organisation.
This reduction in personnel can be accomplished by lay-offs, organisation redesign and
outsourcing, which involves moving functions that are not part of the organisation’s core
competence to outside contractors. Successful downsizing is closely aligned with the
organisation’s strategy.

Re-engineering radically redesigns the organisation’s core work processes to give tighter
linkage and coordination among the different tasks. This workflow integration results in
faster, more responsive task performance. Business process management is often
accomplished with new information technology that permits employees to control and
coordinate work processes more effectively.

Question 2
Discuss the key ideas in each of three approaches to work design.

ANS:
The engineering approach focuses on efficiency and simplification, and results in traditional
job and work group designs. It proposes that the most efficient work designs can be
determined by specifying the tasks to be performed, the work methods to be used and the
work flow between individuals. The engineering approach seeks to scientifically analyse the
tasks performed by workers so as to discover those procedures that produce the maximum
output with the minimum input of energies and resources. This generally results in work
designs with high levels of specialisation and specification. Such designs have several
benefits: they allow workers to learn tasks rapidly; they permit short work cycles so that
performance can take place with little or no mental effort; they reduce costs as lower skilled
people can be hired and trained easily and paid relatively low wages.
A second approach to work design rests on motivational theories and attempts to enrich the
work experience. This motivational approach to work design views the effectiveness of
organisational activities primarily as a function of member needs and satisfaction. It seeks to
improve employee performance and satisfaction by enriching jobs. This provides people with
opportunities for autonomy, responsibility, closure (doing a complete job) and feedback
about performance. Job enrichment involves designing jobs with high levels of meaning,
discretion and knowledge of results.
The third and most recent approach to work design derives from sociotechnical systems
methods. This perspective seeks to optimise both the social and the technical aspects of work
systems. Moreover, such systems effectively manage the boundary that separates them from,
while relating them to, the environment. This allows them to exchange resources with the
environment while protecting themselves from external disruptions. ‘Self-managed teams’
are a popular form of work design drawing on sociotechnical systems theory.

Question 3

How might people react to job enrichment interventions?

ANS:
Not all people react in similar ways to job enrichment interventions. Individual differences –
such as a worker’s knowledge and skill levels, growth need, strength and satisfaction with
contextual factors – moderate the relationships between core dimensions, psychological states
and outcomes. ‘Worker knowledge and skill’ refers to the education and experience levels
that characterise the workforce. If employees lack the appropriate skills, for example,
increasing skill variety may not improve a job’s meaningfulness. Similarly, if workers lack
the intrinsic motivation to grow and develop personally, attempts to provide them with
increased autonomy may be resisted. Finally, contextual factors include reward systems,
supervisory style and co-worker satisfaction. When the employee is unhappy with the work
context, attempts to enrich the work itself may be unsuccessful.

Question 4

How do technical and personal factors affect work design?

ANS:
Each of the three approaches to work design – engineering, motivational and sociotechnical–
produces high levels of employee satisfaction and productivity, but only under certain
conditions. Whether traditional jobs, traditional work groups, enriched jobs, or self-managed
teams produce these results depends on the combination of technical and personal factors in
the workplace.

The technical dimensions affecting change on the shop floor are technical interdependence
and technical uncertainty; the former captures the extent to which cooperation among
workers is required to produce a product or service, whereas the latter captures the amount of
information processing and decision making that employees must do to complete a task. The
degree of technical interdependence determines whether work should be designed for
individual jobs or work groups. Technical uncertainty determines whether work should be
designed for external forms of control, such as supervision, scheduling or standardisation, or
for worker self-control. From a technical perspective traditional job with limited amounts of
employee interaction and self-control are appropriate with low technical interdependence and
uncertainty. With high task interdependence and low uncertainty, work should be designed
for traditional work groups in which employee interaction is scheduled and self-control is
limited. Where technical interdependence is low but uncertainty is high, work should be
structured for individual jobs with internal forms of control, as in enriched jobs. Finally,
when both technical interdependence and uncertainty are high, work should be designed for
self-managed teams in which members have the multiple skills, discretion and information
necessary to control their interactions around the shared tasks.
Two types of personal needs influence the kinds of work designs that are most effective:
social needs (the desire for significant social relationships) and growth needs (the desire for
personal accomplishment, learning and development). When work is designed to fit these
factors, it is both satisfying and productive. The strength of social needs determines whether
work should be designed for individual jobs or work groups. The strength of growth needs
determines whether work designs should be routine and repetitive or complex and
challenging. When employees have relatively low social and growth needs, traditional jobs
are most effective. Where employees have high social needs but low growth needs,
traditional work groups, such as might be found on an assembly line, are most appropriate.
These allow for some social interaction but limited amounts of challenge and discretion.
When employees have low social needs but high growth needs, enriched jobs are most
satisfying. Here, work is designed for individual jobs that have high levels of task variety,
discretion and feedback about results. Finally, where employees have high social and growth
needs, work should be specifically designed for self-managed teams. Such groups offer
opportunities for significant social interaction around tasks that are both complex and
challenging.

Satisfying both technical and human needs to achieve work-design success is unlikely to
occur in all circumstances. When the technical conditions of a company’s production
processes are compatible with the personal needs of its employees the respective work
designs combine readily and can satisfy both. When technology and people are incompatible
at least two kinds of changes can be made to design work to satisfy both requirements. One
strategy is to change technology or people to bring them more into line with each other. A
second strategy for accommodating both technical and human requirements is to design
compromise work designs that only partially fulfil the demands of either. Clearly, the strategy
of designing work to bring technology and people more into line with each other is preferable
to compromise work designs. Although the latter approach seems necessary when there are
heavy constraints on changing the contingencies, in many cases those constraints are more
imagined than real.
 Tutorial 9

OD interventions: Strategy and structure (Chapter 8)

1. What constitutes the organisation’s general environment? How would this impact on
decisions made by a change agent?

The general environment consists of all external forces that can influence an organisation or
department, and includes technological, legal and regulatory, political, economic, social and
ecological components. Each of these forces can affect the organisation in both direct and
indirect ways. For example, economic recessions can directly affect the demand for a
company’s product. The general environment can also indirectly affect organisations by
virtue of the links between external forces. For example, an organisation may have trouble
obtaining raw materials from a supplier because a consumer group has embroiled the supplier
in a labour dispute with a national union, a lawsuit with a government regulator or a boycott.
These parts of the organisation’s general environment can affect the organisation, even
though they have no direct connection to it .

2. Through what strategies do organisations gain ‘control’ over their environments? What
implications does this have for how change is managed?

Organisations try to discern customer needs through focus groups and surveys. They attempt
to understand competitor strategies through press releases, sales force behaviours and
knowledge of key personnel. Scanning units monitor and make sense out of the environment
so as to respond to it appropriately. They must identify and attend to those environmental
parts and features that are highly related to the organisation’s own survival and growth.
Proactive responses involve trying to influence external forces in favourable directions. The
range of proactive responses is almost limitless, and organisations tend to be highly selective
in choosing them, to avoid those that are costly to implement or can appear aggressive to
other competitors; for example, engaging in political activity to influence government laws
and regulations, or advertising to shape customer tastes and preferences. Collective structures
help organisations to cope with problems of environmental dependence and uncertainty
through increased coordination with other organisations and perform tasks that are too costly
and complicated for a single organisation to perform.

3. From your work experience, or from companies you have read about, describe an example
of each of the approaches to work design discussing why you think that approach was chosen.
The three approaches to work design discussed in the text are:

1 the engineering approach, which focuses on efficiency, simplification, and results. It is

associated with traditional job and work group designs. This approach is based on Taylor’s
scientific management and allows workers to learn to perform simple tasks quickly and
efficiently. On the downside, it ignores the increasing complexity of work and education of
the workforce.

2 motivational theories and attempts to enrich the work experience. Job enrichment
involves designing jobs with high levels of meaning, discretion and knowledge of results.
This approach, based on Herzberg’s motivational factors provides autonomy, responsibility
and closure from completing a job. Together, these aspects provide feedback on performance.
Lack of employee involvement in the process has cast doubt on the usefulness of Herzberg’s
original theory. The research of Hackman and Oldham represents this more recent trend in
job enrichment.

3 sociotechnical systems methods. This more recent perspective seeks to optimise both the
social and the technical aspects of work systems. It has led to the development of a popular
form of work design called ‘self-managed teams. This approach, which recognises that work,
in organisations, is a system with both social and technical aspects open to and interacting
with the environment, is based on action research in both public and private organisations in a
wide range of cultural settings.

4. Outline the four types of basic process intervention. When are they used?

T-groups derived from the early laboratory training stem of OD. They are used mainly today
to help managers learn about the effects of their behaviour on others.

Process consultation is another OD technique for helping group members to understand

diagnoses and improve their behaviour.

Third-party intervention focuses directly on dysfunctional interpersonal conflict.

Team building is aimed both at helping a team to perform its tasks better and at satisfying
individual needs.

Tutorial 10

Organisational Transformation and Change (Chapter 9)

1. What are the environmental and internal disruptions that can affect an organisation?
Provide current examples of each and explain your selections.

Internal and/or external disruptions can trigger organisation transformation. Since

transformational change involves altering the majority of an organisation’s features,
this kind of change should not be continuous. In most cases, the change is disruptive,
and organisations usually experience or perceive a threat to their survival, except for
organisations operating in highly unstable and volatile environments. For example,
firms operating in intensely competitive, high technology industries, such as the
telecommunications industry, may find themselves undergoing major transformational
change on a regular basis to keep up with enormous external pressures.
A struggling company needs to attempt to transform itself continually until it achieves
the winning formula. Ideally, careful diagnosis and planning should minimise the
number of times this needs to be repeated.
In mergers or acquisitions, transformational change is essential to join two previously
autonomous corporate cultures successfully. This is a highly complex task requiring
radical change to systems, structures, processes and often the mix of people. Failure to
manage this transformation successfully can be extremely costly and could possibly
result in business failure.
A key internal disruption can be the appointment of a new CEO or board. The
disruption may be caused by the management style, or the need to respond quickly to
changes in the marketplace. Other triggers for organisation transformation may
include government regulation, privatisation, changes in organisation size, the
introduction of new technology, changes in product or industry life cycle, new
entrants to the marketplace and high executive turnover.

2. Define organisational culture. What are the major elements at different levels of
awareness?

Organisational culture is the pattern of assumptions, values and norms that are more
or less shared by organisation members. A growing body of research has shown that
culture can affect strategy formulation and implementation as well as a firm’s ability
to achieve high levels of performance. Culture change involves helping senior
executives and administrators to diagnose the existing culture and make necessary
alterations in the basic assumptions and values underlying organisational behaviours.
Corporate/organisational culture refers to the culture of a certain corporate institution
or organisation, encompassing a variety of aspects including corporate vision, mission
statement, values, policies, procedures, internal politics, communication, reward
systems and traditions (for example, celebrations).
Organisational culture includes four major elements existing at different levels of
awareness:
• Artefacts refer to the observable behaviours and physical elements such as
structures, systems, policies and procedures.
• Norms dictate the generally accepted mode of behaviour in varying situations.
 • Values define what is important and what should be prioritised
. Basic assumptions are shared way in which people in the organisation perceive,
think and feel about aspects of their external environment.

3. Describe the deep assumptions approach to culture change with

Reference to examples.
Deep assumptions emphasise the deepest levels of organisational culture – the
generally unexamined, but tacit and shared assumptions that guide member behaviour
and that often have a powerful impact on organisational effectiveness. Examples can
be drawn from the students’ own experience, such as from secondary school.

4. Define and explain transformational change.

The text discusses three kinds of interventions as transformational change: integrated
strategic change, organisation design and culture change. Transformational change is
associated with revision of the organisation’s business strategy, modifying internal
structures, processes, and culture.
It involves qualitatively different ways of perceiving, thinking and behaving in
organisations, which requires senior executives to take an active leadership role
characterised by considerable innovation.
Due to the high level of resources required, organisations must experience or
anticipate a severe threat to survival before they will be motivated to undertake
transformational change.
In studying many organisation transformations, Tushman, Newman and Romanellivi
showed that transformational change occurs in response to at least three kinds of
disruption:
1 Industry discontinuities. Sharp changes in legal, political, economic and
technological conditions that shift the basis for competition within an
industry.
2 Product life-cycle shifts. Changes in product life cycle that require different
business strategies.
3 Internal company dynamics. Changes in size, corporate portfolio strategy or
executive turnover.

Tutorial 11

Change in a chaotic and unpredictable environment (Chapter 10)

Question 1
Identify three significant political and economic changes in the past five years that would
require businesses to adjust their practices to consider the changes.

The international diffusion of OD derives from three important trends:

1 The rapid development of foreign economies includes the dramatic restructuring of socialist
and communist economies and the rapid economic growth of developing countries. Projected
growth rates in East Asia, the Pacific and South Asia remain strong. The European Union is
continuing its push for integration through fiscal policies, the admission of new countries and
the rationalising of economic standards. The political transformations in the Middle East,
China, Russia and South Africa are producing both uncertainty and new growth-oriented
economies.

2 The increasing worldwide availability of technical and financial resources, especially the
development of the internet and e-commerce, has increased foreign governments and
organisations’ access to enormous information resources and fuelled growth and
development. The increased availability of capital and technology, for example, was cited as
a primary reason for the rise of Chilean companies in the 1980s.ii Information technology, in
particular, is making the world ‘smaller’ and more interdependent.

3 The emergence of a global economy, the instability of China’s economy, the spread of
terrorism on a worldwide basis and the impact of global warming demonstrates how
interdependent the world’s markets have become. Many foreign organisations are maturing
and growing by entering the global business community. Free trade agreements, other
lowered trade barriers, deregulation and privatisation aid this international expansion. As
organisations expand globally, they are faced with adapting structures, information systems,
coordinating processes and human resources practices to worldwide operations in a variety of
countries.

Question 2

Explain the three key facets in worldwide strategic orientation. Give examples that are not in
the book.

The style of arrangement of products/services, organisation and personnel enables businesses

to compete in the global marketplace.

1 Global organisation must offer products or services in more than one country and actively
manage substantial direct investments in those countries. Because each country (or collective
of economic communities) has a different variety of demands, such as unique product
requirements, tariffs, value-added taxes, governmental regulations, transportation laws and
trade agreements, the organisation must be prepared to respond to each one. New Zealand has
a free trade agreement with China which has resulted in an aggressive approach by Chinese
companies to doing business in New Zealand. New Zealanders have always thought that the
opposite would eventuate.
2 Worldwide businesses must balance product and functional concerns with geographic
issues of distance, time, and culture. For example, Australian companies manufacturing in
China must consider the 27-day impact of Chinese New Year, which falls just as Australian
companies are returning to work after their Christmas and New Year break. If manufacturing
timetables are not carefully managed, more than six weeks of time can be lost.

3 Worldwide companies operate across cultural boundaries using a wide variety of personnel,
including expatriates, short-term and extended business travellers, and local employees.
Workers with different cultural backgrounds must be managed in ways that support the
overall goals and image of the organisation Human resource management has to be adapted
to fit the culture and accomplish operational objectives. The Philippines is a major exporter
of human resources, with greater than 3 million departures per year of workers leaving for
medium-term employment in other countries. This requires sophisticated health screening
both outbound and inbound.

Question 3

What are the characteristics of the global design? How do these differ from the characteristics
of the multinational orientation and transnational design?

Global design is characterised by a strategy that focuses on standardised products with the
goal of attaining efficiency through volumes. The structure is centralised, with balanced and
coordinated activities and global product division. There will be formal information systems
and human resource functions will be ethnocentric; that is, the policies are derived from the
home country’s cultural perspective. OD interventions include career planning, role
clarification and employee involvement complemented by senior management team building
and conflict management.

In contrast, a multinational orientation will be characterised by products tailored to the

particular market with goals of local responsiveness through specialisation. These companies
have decentralised operations, but with centralised planning and global geographic divisions.
The information systems are differentiated by profit centres and human resource functions are
regiocentric or polycentric. OD interventions focus on intergroup relations, local management
team building with management development and reward systems highlighted. Multinational
companies favour developing strategic alliances.

Transnational design companies are characterised by developing products tailored to the

particular market with goals of learning and responsiveness through integration. Their
structure is usually decentralised with worldwide coordination based on a global matrix or
network. Information systems are subtle with clan-oriented controls. Human resource
strategies are dominated by geocentric selection. OD interventions include extensive election
and rotation. There is a focus on organisation cultural development, intergroup relations and
building the corporate vision.
Question 4

Describe what is meant by ‘worldwide organisational development’ and offer some best-
practice examples.

Worldwide organisation development applies to organisations that are operating across

multiple geographic and cultural boundaries. It has come about due to free-trade legislation
that has globalised markets, facilitated by the growth of the internet.

Worldwide organisations can be defined in terms of three key facets:

1 offering products or services in more than one country and actively managing substantial
direct investments in those countries.

2 balancing product and functional concerns with geographic issues of distance, time and
culture

3 carrying out coordinated activities across cultural boundaries.

The airline, automobile and oil refining industries are timely examples in Australia.
Discussion of the issues that Qantas, Ford, Toyota, GMH and Caltex deal with on a daily
basis, as a consequence of being worldwide organisations undergoing (often
transformational) development, are regularly in the news.

Tutorial 12
Competitive and Collaborative Strategies (Chapter 11)
Question 1
Distinguish between competitive and collaborative strategies. What
type of environment would be beneficial for each?
Competitive strategies are the choices that organisations make to
improve their competitive situation, including integrated strategic
change and mergers and acquisitions (see Competitive Strategies.
Collaborative strategies help organisations to deal with environmental
dependence and uncertainty as well as included alliances and
networks. Examples may include bargaining, contracting, co-opting
and creating joint ventures, federations, strategic alliances and
consortia (see Collaborative Strategies).
Question 2
Select two of the competitive strategies. After explaining the
characteristics of each, compare them.
Competitive strategies include integrated strategic change, mergers
and acquisitions. Integrated strategic change is a comprehensive OT
intervention aimed at a single organisation or business unit. It
suggests that business strategy and organisation design must be
aligned and changed together to respond to external and internal
disruptions. Mergers and acquisitions represent a second strategy of
competition. These interventions seek to leverage the strengths (or
shore up the weaknesses) of one organisation by combining with
another organisation. This complex strategic change involves
integrating many of the interventions previously discussed in this text,
including human process, technostructural and human resource
management interventions.
Question 3
Why would an organisation choose to merge rather than acquire
another company?
A merger refers to two independent organisations integrating and
becoming one new organisation. An acquisition refers to one
organisation purchasing another where the latter becomes subsumed
within the former. A merger is likely to occur where the two
organisations become equal partners in the new entity. An acquisition
is likely to occur where the purchased organisation is markedly
smaller than the buying entity. (However, ‘reverse takeovers’, where
the buyer is smaller than the organisation being purchased, are
known.)

Question 4
What are the advantages and disadvantages of alliances? Give
examples where appropriate.
An alliance is a relationship between one or more – typically two –
organisations. ‘An alliance is a formal agreement between two
organisations to pursue a set of private and common goals through the
sharing of resources, including intellectual property, people, capital,
technology, capability, and physical assets’ (see Alliance
Interventions.

Question 5
Define and describe competitive strategies.
Competitive strategies are strategies to increase performance and gain
comparative advantage through alignment with the environment.
They include integrated strategic change, mergers and acquisitions.
Integrated strategic change is a comprehensive OT intervention aimed
at a single organisation or business unit. Mergers and acquisitions
seek to leverage the strengths (or shore up the weaknesses) of one
organisation by combining with another organisation. The theories are
based on the premises that organisations have access to unique
resources and add value in a variety of ways that are difficult to
imitate.