Organizational development (OD) is a process largely guided by science that in the long-term assist the organization to transform by establishing, changing and implementing its procedures, systems and structures. Improved skills, efficiency, productivity, communication, cooperation, and other important factors are beneficial to an individual or organization. Organization development mainly focuses on how individuals and teams relate to attain a level of understanding that will enable them achieve goals and objectives of the organization.
The description of organization development is diverse and varies among different experts on the subject. However, it is generally agreed upon that it is meant to achieve outcomes in an organization’s culture, competitiveness, relationships, productivity and effectiveness. Organizational development has to have three main aspects; guided by empirical evidence, designed to enhance effectiveness, centered on improving structures. The current complexity of globalization exposes organizations to risks that necessitates implementing organizational development process to harness their unique strengths and capacities to thrive in the global competition (Paolino & Aliberti, 2019).
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Characteristics of Organizational Development
OD as a process has several characteristics that are identifiable in any organization that it is implemented. Among these characteristics include:
Recognition of the importance of management and leadership in the organization. This extends to acknowledging the role of an organization’s management in its success.
It encompasses different fields of knowledge in it application in order to improve effectiveness for an organization wholesomely.
OD focuses on knowledge acquisition and training to establish appropriate traditions, values and culture for the organization. This ensures that a conducive environment for productivity is attained.
OD normally adopts an approach for long term vision for the organization, guiding all its processes.
OD uses empirical evidence to analyze, conceptualize and diagnose the organizations structures and strategies. This information is used to prescribe suitable interventions for different components of the organization.
The organizational development process also recognizes some important principles and concepts that influence the operations of an organization. Science-based requirement of the OD process mandates the consideration of these principles of an organization. Complexity in the composition of an organization warrants that these concepts be understood and applied in the OD process. They are outlines as follows:
Chaos; which refers to the behavior that influences processes in an organization but very little can be done to initiate control of such behavior. Chaos in an organization system demonstrates randomness and unpredictability.
Emergent features; refers to aspects of an organization that are unable to be defined and function independently but when combined make a useful part of the organization’s system.
Coherence; which is the quality of an organization to integrate all its individual elements and function as a unified whole. This aspect defines the harmonious connection between independent components of a system.
Structure; which refers to the model of composition within an organization in operations and design. Structure describes the static and dynamic nature of an organization system.
Substructures; these are the relationships between an organization and its external components.
Synergy; refers to the organizational feature that describes the total output of combined elements being greater than sum of each individual elements in the organization.
Self-emerging order; refers to the unpremeditated order that arises from the initial chaos within an organization.
Organizational Development Process
The process of organizational development is normally classified into seven distinct phases. OD starts when an opportunity that necessitates the process is identified in the organization. The factors leading to this process may be external changes influencing the operations of the organization or imminent problems and challenges emerging at the organization. The steps involved in OD include:
Initiating and Contracting
This is usually the initial stage of the OD process and it immediately follows the identification of needs that necessitate the organizational development. In this phase, the scope of aspects to be addressed by the OD process is defined and the means of achieving the end results determined (Al-Khouri, 2015). Responsibilities of all parties involved are also outlined with their expected deliverables. A formal contract agreement between the OD consultant and the client organization expressing all aspects of their relationship and expectation is developed in this phase.
Organizational Diagnosis
This stage mainly involves interpretating the present functioning and operations of the organization. Critical aspect of the phase is identifying the root cause of the problem which can be done by in-depth scrutiny of the information from available records of various elements of the organization. The OD practitioners use framework models to assist in the process of diagnosis for an organization. Diagnosis helps the OD practitioner acquire knowledge and understanding of the organization system that will be required to develop suitable interventions.
Collection and Analysis of Data
Another essential stage in OD is the data collection process which is a delicate activity that formulates the evidence to guide the interventions to be taken. It is important that proper scientific research methodologies are applied in the data collection and analysis to guarantee accuracy, reliability and relevancy of the data acquired. Structured interviews and questionnaires are common data collection mechanisms that assist in gathering the quantitative and qualitative data in this stage. The analysis part should provide well processed information on issues identified in the diagnosis phase that will be used in subsequent stages.
Diagnosis Feedback
In this phase the outcome of the analysis process is transferred to the client organization as processed information. The client has to be able to make implications from the feedback information given by the OD practitioner. Feedback data has to be understandable, verifiable, relevant and limited. The information has to be presented alongside a comparable benchmark to eliminate vagueness. Also, this phase has to be timely to ensure that the significance of the information remains valid since operations within an organization are dynamic.
Designing and Formulating Interventions
Intervention of an OD process are a series of tasks that meant to assist the organization enhance effectiveness and productivity. The interventions are usually a result of thorough analysis of the needs of the organization. This phase entails the systemic developing of such interventions tailored to address specific issues about the organizations. Interventions can either be standard in nature or customized for the needs of a particular organization. It is important that the interventions are designed to be coherent such that implementing them to address a particular aspect of the organization does not lead to negative impact on other aspects.
Implementing the Interventions
Implementing the designed interventions is arguably the most essential stage of organizational development. The procedure requires careful application of change management to ensure a desired success rate in the transformation of the organization. This change management to be effective, should adhere to a specific procedure with attention given to each step of the transition. Before initiating the change, a conducive environment should be established in the organization to motivate the process.
Evaluation of the Interventions
As the final phase of the OD process, evaluation focuses on revieing the impact and outcomes of the intervention implanted. The successes of these interventions are determined in relation to the desired goal identified at the start of OD process (Achterbergh & Vriens, 2019). Appropriates metrices should be applied to measure this success. A progress report is prepared with recommendation on steps to take to institutionalize the changes in the long term.
Organizational Development Interventions
The interventions in organizational development can be categorized into four broad classes; human process interventions, technostructural interventions, human resource interventions and strategic change interventions (Madasamy, 2017). These classes each handle different aspects of organizational development. The interventions can be described as follows;
Human Process Interventions
These types of intervention focus on the personnel within an organization. They mainly refer to the aspect of human relationships in the organization (Singh & Ramdeo, 2020). Human process interventions can handle individual behavior or group dynamics. Other features that are handled with these interventions are conflicts, content and communication.
Technostructural Interventions
Technostructural interventions are very common in the complex business environment and target the organizational systemic design and structure. These interventions strategize the operations and functional structure of organizations. Management and work design are key features that are handled by this OD interventions.
Human Resource Management Interventions
This class of interventions is directly related to activities of the HR department and involve management of personal within the organization. Most of the interventions in this category focus of productivity and welfare of the employees. Particular areas handled by these interventions include training, performance, diversity and quality-work-life balance of employees.
Strategic Change Interventions
Strategic change interventions guide the entire implementation of organizational development. They can be described as interventions that manage how change is instated in the organization. The interventions are responsible for the remodification of an organization’s strategy and its relationship with the business environment (Singh & Ramdeo, 2020). Aspects of an organization technological framework, culture and internal operations are other components that are handled by these interventions.
Conclusion
Organizational development is an important aspect that enhances the competitiveness of an organization. Particularly the HR department of an organization uses OD to transform components of talent, diversity and performance of staff. Though similar in many aspects, OD differs from HR in that the interventions do not just involve management the people aspect of an organization but the system in its entirety. It is evident that organizational development is critical to the growth and development of an organization and emphasize on the concept of planned change for the organization system.
References
Achterbergh, J., & Vriens, D. (2019). Organizational Development. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315695228
Madasamy, V. (2017). Impact of Organizational Development Interventions. International Journal of Human Resource Management and Research , 7 (6), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.24247/ijhrmrdec20171
Singh, R., & Ramdeo, S. (2020). Case Studies on Strategic Interventions. Leading Organizational Development and Change , 499–517. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39123-2_23
Singh, R., & Ramdeo, S. (2020). Strategic Interventions: Trans-Organizational Change. Leading Organizational Development and Change , 343–371. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39123-2_16
Al-Khouri, A. M. (2015). Organizational Development within the Government Sector: An Innovative Strategic Framework. Management and Organizational Studies , 2 (3). https://doi.org/10.5430/mos.v2n3p40
Paolino, C., & Aliberti, D. (2019). Artistic interventions for organizational development. The Routledge Companion to Arts Management , 378–394. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351030861-25
