ENTERING INTO AN OD

RELATIONSHIP
a member of an organization or unit contacts an OD practitioner about
potential help in addressing an organizational issue

Member of an PRACTITIONER
Organization may be an OD professional
Manager, staff specialist, key from inside or outside of the
participant of an organization organization
 ENTERING INTO AN OD
RELATIONSHIP

the organization may need to

gather information about the
practitioner’s competence and
experience
 ENTERING INTO AN OD
RELATIONSHIP
This knowledge will help both
parties determine whether they
should proceed to develop a
contract for working together

Member of an need to collect preliminary

Organization data about the organization
 ENTERING INTO AN OD
RELATIONSHIP

clarifying the nature of the organization’s

current functioning and the issue(s) to be
addressed

the relevant client system for that

issue

the appropriateness of the

particular OD practitioner
 CLARIFYING THE ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUE

ORGANIZATION PRACTITIONER
presents problem—the issue that has caused collects preliminary data by examining
them to consider an OD process company record and interviewing key
people
may present Gathers data in a relatively short period of
• specific (decreased market share, time – few to hours to 2 days
increased absenteeism)
• general (“we’re growing too fast)
• In the form of a solution (We need to
downsize our organization)

Things may change as new information is gathered and new events

occur.
 DETERMINING THE RELEVANT CLIENT

• The relevant client Issues Client

includes those to improve the Should include key
productivity of a officers of the union,
organization unionized manufacturing managers and staff
members who can plant
directly impact the Branch’s decision-making Branch manager and team
change issue. process members
resolving conflicts client might include
between his or her unit members from all
and other departments in departments involved
the organization in the conflict as well as
the executive to whom all
of the departments report
 DETERMINING THE RELEVANT CLIENT

The practitioner may ask the ff:

• Who can directly impact the organizational issue?
• Who has a vested interest in it?
• Who has the power to approve or reject the OD
effort?
• Who is the process owner?
 SELECTING AN OD PRACTITIONER

• The practitioner should have the expertise

and experience to work with members on
the organizational issue.
• The OD professional needs not only a
repertoire of technical skills but also the
personality and interpersonal competence to
use himself or herself as an instrument of
change.
 SELECTING AN OD PRACTITIONER

• “How effective has the person been in the past, with

what kinds of organizations, using what kinds of
techniques?” In other words, references must be
checked.
• Organizations may request that proposals be
submitted. A written proposal include project goals,
outlines of action plans, a list of roles and
responsibilities, recommended interventions, and
proposed fees and expenses.
FOUNDATION COMPETENCIES
4. Management and organization theory
Knowledge
A. Planning, organizing, leading, and
1. Organization behavior
controlling
A. Organization culture
B. Problem solving and decision
B. Work design
making
C. Interpersonal relations
C. Systems theory
D. Power and politics
D. Contingency theory
E. Leadership
E. Organization structure
F. Goal setting
F. Characteristics of environment and
G. Conflict
technology
H. Ethics
G. Models of organization and
2. Individual psychology
system
A. Learning theory
5. Research methods/statistics
B. Motivation theory
A. Measures of central tendency
C. Perception theory
B. Measures of dispersion
3. Group dynamics
C. Basic sampling theory
A. Roles
D. Basic experimental design
B. Communication processes
E. Sample inferential statistics
C. Decision-making process
D. Stages of group development
E. Leadership
CORE COMPETENCIES
2. Organization research: field research
1. Organization design: the
methods; interviewing; content analysis;
decision process associated with
design of questionnaires and interview
formulating and aligning the
protocol; designing change evaluation
elements of an organizational
processes; longitudinal data collection and
system, including but not limited
analysis; understanding and detecting alpha,
to structural systems, human
beta, and gamma change; and a host of
resource systems, information
quantitative and qualitative methods
systems, reward systems, work
design, political systems, and
3. System dynamics: the description and
organization culture
understanding of how systems evolve and
A. The concept of fit and
develop over time, how systems respond to
alignment
exogenous and endogenous disruption as well
B. Diagnostic and design model
as planned interventions (e.g., evolution and
for various sub-systems that
revolution, punctuated equilibrium theory,
make up an organization
chaos theory, catastrophe theory, incremental
at any level of analysis,
vs. quantum change, transformation theory,
including the structure of
and so on)
work, human resources,
information systems, reward
systems, work design,
political systems, and so on
C. Key thought leaders in
organization design
 CONTRACTING

establishes the expectations of the parties, the

time and resources that will be spent, and the ground rules under
which the parties
will operate.

INFORMAL FORMAL
A verbal agreement typically occurs when
between the client and the organizations employ
OD practitioner outside OD practitioners
CONTRACTING

Mutual Expectations

Time and Resources

Ground Rules
 MUTUAL EXPECTATIONS

ORGANIZATION PRACTITIONER

• states the services and • states what he or she

outcomes expects to gain from the
accomplishments OD process.
• describes what the • can include opportunities
organization expects to try new interventions,
from the process and the report the results to
consultant other potential clients,
and receive appropriate
compensation or
recognition
 TIME AND RESOURCES

• must be clear about how much energy and how many

resources will be dedicated to the change process
• access to key people or information, enough time to do
the job, and commitment from certain stakeholder
groups
• Essential requirements and desirable requirements
 GROUND RULES

specifying how the client and the OD practitioner will work

together

• Confidentiality
• if and how the OD practitioner will become involved
in personal or interpersonal issues
• how to terminate the relationship
• and whether the practitioner is supposed to make
expert recommendations or help the manager make
decisions
DIAGNOZING ORGANIZATIONS
process of understanding a system’s current
functioning

• Effective diagnosis provides the systematic

knowledge of the organization needed to
design appropriate interventions
• involves collecting pertinent information
about current operations, analyzing those
data, and drawing conclusions for potential
change and improvement.
 The Need for Diagnostic Models
diagnostic models point out what areas to
examine and what questions to ask in
assessing how an organization is functioning.

Open System
 Diagnostic Models

• perceives organizations as
units that interact with their
external environment rather
than being closed and
Open independent units
System • It is open to exchanges with
Model the larger environment and is
influenced by external forces.
• organizations are
hierarchically ordered
 The Need for Diagnostic Models
diagnostic models point out what areas to
examine and what questions to ask in
assessing how an organization is functioning.

Open System Organization-level

 Diagnostic Models
• consists of environmental
inputs; a set of design
components called a
strategic orientation; and
• a variety of outputs, such
Organization-
as performance, level Diagnostic
productivity, and Model
stakeholder satisfaction.
• understanding each of the
parts in the model and
then assessing
 COLLECTING AND ANALYZING
DIAGNOSTIC INFORMATION
the process of collecting information that will be shared
with the client in jointly assessing how the organization is
functioning and determining the best change intervention

Methods of data collection Methods of analysis include

• questionnaires • qualitative techniques
• Interviews (content analysis and force-
• Observation field analysis)
• unobtrusive measures • quantitative techniques
(mean, SD, FD; scattergrams
and correlation coefficients;
COLLECTING AND ANALYZING
DIAGNOSTIC INFORMATION
 FEEDING BACK DIAGNOSTIC
INFORMATION
Properly analyzed and meaningful data can have an
impact on organizational change only if organization
members can use the information to devise appropriate
action plans.
Determining the Content of the Feedback

• Relevant
• Understandable
• Verifiable
• Timely
• Significant
• Comparative
• Unfinalized
 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
FEEDBACK PROCESS

• Motivation to work with the data

• Structure for the meeting
• Appropriate attendance
• Appropriate power
• Process help
 SURVEY FEEDBACK

• Members of the organization, including those at

the top, are involved in preliminary planning of the
survey.

• The survey instrument is administered to all

members of the organization or department.

• The OD consultant usually analyzes the survey

data, tabulates the results, suggests approaches to
diagnosis, and trains client members to lead the
feedback process.
 SURVEY FEEDBACK
• Data feedback usually begins at the top of the
organization and cascades downward to groups
reporting to managers at successively lower levels.

• Feedback meetings provide an opportunity to work

with the data.
 PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING
CHANGE
Organization members and practitioners jointly

• plan and implement OD interventions

• design interventions to achieve the organization’s

vision or goals

• make action plans to implement them

 PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING
CHANGE
organization’s readiness for
change
current change
capability
culture and power
distributions
change agent’s skills
and abilities
 intervention is a sequence of
activities, actions, and events
intended to help an organization
improve its performance and
effectiveness.