HR13: Organisational development

Assignment - Book Review

Career Dynamics
Addison Wesley Series on Organization Development

By Edgar H.Schein

Submitted by Pankaj Gite (2012HR0) Piyush Thakur (2012HR061)

Midcareers : Making a mid-life career change is a lot harder than making a career
change when we are young. We have got a lot more to lose because we have already worked our way a good bit up the ladder of success at the career we are in today. The period occurring between the mid-thirties and mid-forties during which people often make a major reassessment of their progress relative to their original career ambitions and goals. The mid-career stage, which occurs roughly between the ages 45 and 64, has also been referred to as the maintenance stage. This stage is typified by a continuation of established patterns of work behavior. The person is no longer trying to establish a place for himself or herself in the organization, but seeks to maintain his or her position. This stage is viewed as a mid-career plateau in which little new ground is broken. The individual in this stage may need some technical updating in his or her field. The employee should be encouraged to develop new job skills in order to avoid early stagnation and decline. For many people, maturity is a tough life stage, hence the midlife crisis. The thrills and excitement of youth have passed. Only the aches and decline of old age lie ahead. Maturity can be tough for businesses as well. The opportunities for product innovation seem few and far between, and the organization focuses on the relentless pursuit of process efficiencies, which at best stave off the inevitable decline. Related to the insight about opportunity life cycles is the following crucial corollary: There are no mature companies, only mature portfolios. That is, executives should view their organization as an array of opportunities at various life cycle stages. They can then anticipate how that overall portfolio might evolve, paying particular attention to any imbalances or other trouble spots. And to avoid a corporate midlife crisis, they should recognize common portfolio pathologies, such as the use of the same metrics to assess opportunities at different life cycle stages or the systematic failure to exit unsuccessful initiatives.

The midlife crisis as famously called, can be viewed as both opportunities and problems. The process be smooth and defense mechanisms like denial be avoided. Conscious awareness of what is happening is more important than the event of what is happening itself. HR Planning and development: The major problem with existing human resource systems is that they are fragmented, incomplete, and sometimes built on faulty assumptions about human growth. Human growth takes place through successive encounters with one's environment. As the person encounters a new situation, he or she is forced to try new responses to deal with that situation. Learning takes place as a function of how those responses work out, the results they achieve. If they are successful in coping with the situation, the person enlarges his repertory of responses; if they are not successful the person must try alternate responses until the situation has been dealt with.

It is important that all components of HRP system should exist together. Career stages should be such that there should be less disengagement (older employees and younger employees) to integrate HR practices into overall organisation initiatives in order to ensure the successful implementation of strategies. The likelihood of successful implementation of most strategic plans is greatly reduced when strategic initiatives for growth, mergers or customer service do not adequately consider whether HR practices such as staffing, developing, appraising, rewarding, organising and communicating with employees are consistent with the organisations objectives or the future capability of the organisation to meet those objectives. Planning is critical to strategy because it identifies gaps in capabilities which would prevent successful implementation. Thus it is not surprising that linking HR planning to strategy has become a popular topic among members of the HR profession, who have sought better ways to align objectives and practices with the organizational development. Job/Role planning Edgar Schein categorizes Job/Role Planning as one of the most important Organizational Planning components. Apart from strategic planning and Manpower planning, Job/Role planning is an important component to enhance organizational effectiveness. Based on the strategic plan, it covers what are the predictable consequences for managerial jobs, specialist roles and skill mixes which will be needed to get the mission accomplished; the focus here is on types of skills needed and how existing jobs will evolve and change. Many organizations are faced with the problem of retaining employees. It is expensive to replace employees who leave for greener pastures or are lured away by other organizations. New employees have to be recruited, selected, oriented and trained. In fact, it is estimated that it costs an organization approximately 1 times the salary of the vacated position to replace an employee. Employee turnover can have a demoralizing effect on an organization, and it may also severely impact the overall efficiency of the organization. This becomes even more critical in organizations which are service-oriented, i.e. law enforcement, firefighters, etc., and require highly developed skills and competencies.