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and other desired outcomes, whether for personal or group/team gain, or for the benefit of an organization, community, nation, region, or, ultimately, the whole of humanity (McLean, 2006). Now that we have the definition of OD, question is how an organization is going to channel the change into organizational development process. According to McLean (2006) organization development process need to be; Aligned with organizational objectives. System oriented. Based on behavior science. Long-time oriented. Focus on process orientation for goal attainment. Based on teamwork.
The OD has progressed into many different approaches all aimed at enabling great improvements in organizational performance through specific and planned interventions. There are four major OD interventions that are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Action Search Appreciative Inquiry Future Search Whole System Intervention
Action Search
Most of organizations tank some OD initiatives because they are not happy with the working and how things are being run at the time. There would be any stronger desire for change if the current track on which organization is running the everyday activities is meeting goals. The Action Search approach focuses to determine what is wrong and then fixing it swiftly. The first stage of the approach is to gather data about what is going wrong in the business and how it can be improved? Using this approach management should be careful that the process should not become useless witch hunt and should not be used against others. Interventions of this approach take place regularly in most of organizations. However this technique should be used only under very tight constraints and rules supporting moral values. But most of time organizations just use some intervention without any careful evaluation. So action research can go really bad if it is not managed effectively.
Appreciative Inquiry
This approach is the reflection of action research technique. Appreciative Inquiry starts with deciding what is working well and what the positive and strong aspects of organizational culture are? The OD professionals focus on what is going right instead of what is going wrong. The process is to focus on doing more things the correct way avoiding to correct the wrongs.
However this approach can lead to problem of gloating over positive things and ignoring the huge failures. For example once in an organization a business unit was failing very miserably and was on the threshold of elimination. Management forced them to do a three day appreciative inquiry. At the end of inquiry they were celebrating about their wonderful opportunities and the things they can do while they were actually failing. Six months after vigorous celebrations they were all looking for new jobs. However appreciative inquiry can be a very successful approach than action research if it is traded very carefully avoiding overly sanguine approach toward bitter reality.
Future Search
Future search process concentrates on the vision rather than the current position. In this approach change group and OD professionals focus in defining an enthralling picture of future. It helps identifying the gaps between current situation and the desired future position. An exceptional vision is a powerful driving force for organizations and individuals. According to (Whipple, 2003), without a well-defined vision organization is just like a ship without a rudder completely on the powerful wind looking to anchor somewhere safely, but failing miserably to do so. This approach can also do wonders but also needs be handled carefully.
Act
Plan
Check
Do
The PDCA cycle can be used when there is need for a model for continuous development, when carrying out some change, starting a project, introducing new product, improving product, highlighting continuous work flow.
According to Lelwin, Motivation for change must be generated before change can occur. One must be helped to re-examine many cherished assumptions about oneself and ones relations to others. From here starts the first stage of unfreezing. Unfreeze: - In this stage organization is prepared to accept the necessary change. This stage means breaking down existing status quo before starting up the change process. While preparing organization for the change process the OD professional need to test the values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that makes the organization. Unfreezing process is a kind of crisis creation, but controlled one. While unfreezing OD professionals need to; Decide what needs to be changed. Make sure change is supported by the organization management. Formulate a need for change. Understand and manage the concerns from change.
Change: - After the creation of an uncertainty crisis in previous stage people here start to solve their problems by looking for new processes and organizational directions. Change process is a time taking stage. Here people will need to understand the benefits and costs of the change before accepting it. While change process OD professionals need to communicate effectively with others, dismiss and repel rumors and involve other people in the change. Refreeze: - When the change is taking shape and people have accepted the changed processes and ways of working, the organization shows its readiness for refreeze. Refreeze shows stable
organization hierarchy and stable job tasks. In refreeze stage the change is institutionalized, means change is incorporated in to everyday tasks of organization and way the things are handled in the organization. While refreezing OD professionals must transfer and lead the change into the culture, develop ways of sustaining change, provide support and necessary training and must not forget to celebrate the success.
Appreciative Inquiry
Cooperrider and Srivastva (1987) presented appreciative inquiry model. This model essentially uses the all same steps as ODP model, but instead of doing complete analysis of organizations strengths and weaknesses in assessment and feedback stage, it only focuses on positive part of cultural aspects.
Dissatisfaction: First the organization management needs to feel dissatisfied with the current situation in order to bring about some change. No one will be willing for the change if everything is going according to their desire and they are not remotely dissatisfied about process. Desirability: If the people are dissatisfied with the current system and process than the proposed change must need to be appealing. The envisioned change should be attractive that it develops the desirability of people for change. Practicality: Most importantly the change should be practical and realistic and it needs to be convincing. Resistance to Change: Its in human nature to be reluctant to change the habits. Especially old experienced people will be reluctant to accept any technological change in processes. People may feel reluctant to change when they;
OD and Change Management Feel they will lose something valuable like status, competence and possessions. Lacking trust in change agents. Lack of knowledge about change implications. Feel they might not fit into organization after change. Dont see change good for organization. They are provided little time.
Leavitt's Diamond
Leavitts diamond is widely used, organizational change model that consists of four interlinked components.
People
In Leavitts model of OD, people are the employees of the organization. When using this approach OD professionals look at their skills, efficiency, knowledge and productivity. According to this model change in tasks, structure and use of technology must be made keeping people in mind. This may involve hiring new employees.
Tasks
This component focuses on tasks and organizational goals. This component includes looking firstly how things are being done and secondly what are the achievements. According to Leavitt OD professional should focus on qualitative aspects of the tasks and goals. When looking at tasks they need think about relevance and benefits, and about yield and productivity when looking at goals. According to him tasks and goals can be affected by other factors in following ways;
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Changing of manpower will make organization to make changes in tasks or goals to effectively utilize their skills and knowledge. For instance organization will have to adopt new computerized database system if they are employing new computer skilled accountant. Change in Structure will also force organization to change the processes of doing tasks and then they will have to change the goals too accordingly. Technology Change: Usage of newer technology would also require organization to make changes. Tasks and goals should be changed and raised so the maximum benefits could be taken out of new technology.
Structure
The structure component includes not only the hierarchical structure, but also the relationships, communication patterns and coordination between different management levels, departments and employees. It also includes the flow of authority and responsibility in organization. According to Leavitt organizational structure must also be changed when making changes to any other component of the diamond. The style of supervision, empowerment, customer relations, communication and technology must also be changed.
Technology
Technology plays a very important role in todays business. It facilitates the employees in performing their job tasks. According to the model technology as a facilitator will be required to be changed in case of change in any other factor of diamond.
People enter this initial stage of transition when management or OD professionals first present them with change. At this stage people usually feel uncomfortable and resist to it because people are asked to leave their comfort zone.
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People who underwent the change remain unfocused and confused in this stage. In this stage people might feel resentment toward change initiatives, might have low morale and productivity, and might not feel comfortable with their role. However these problems can be overcome by carefully planning and executing the change initiatives.
Stage 3: The New Beginning
At this stage people accept the change initiatives. At this stage people will show high level of energy, openness to learning and show commitment to their job role.
Conclusion
After going through all the models above, I cant say these are the all models that can be used while facilitating change in the organization while keeping OD in view. There are still a lot of OD and change models that can help organization for development and change management. However I can say these are the most commonly known and used OD models that can help managing change in organization. The objective of this paper was to look at ways and methods that as a HR professional I can use to facilitate the OD and Change in my organization. Know answering to this challenge I as a HR professional can select and incorporate any of above review models to facilitate OD and change management according to my organization. Above discussed models can be modified and used according to different situations in different organizations.
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Bibliography
Beckhard, R. (1969). Organization Development: Strategies and Models. Addison-Wesley Longman, Inc. Beckhard, R., & Harris, R. (1977). Orgnizational Transition: Managing Complex Change. Bennis, W. G. (1969). Organizational Development: Its nature, origins, and prospects. California: Addison-Wesley Pub.Co. Bridges, W. (1991). Managing Transitions. Bruke, & Litwin. (1992). A Causal Model of Organization Performance and Change. Journal of Management, 18(3), 523-545. Church, A. H., Gilbert, M., Oliver, D. H., Paquet, K., & Surface, C. (2002, November). The Role of Technology in Organization Development and Change. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 4(4), 493-511. McLean, G. N. (2006). Organization Development. California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Schein, E. H. (1980). Organizational Psychology (3rd ed.). Prentice Hall. The Jossy-Bass Business & Management Series. (2006). Organization Development. (J. V. Gallos, Ed.) San Francisco, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Waclawski, J., & Church, A. H. (2001). Organization Development: A Data-Driven Approach to Organizational Change. Wiley,2001.