CONSULTANT - CLIENT RELTIONSHIP

Issues
Defining the client System
The Trust Issue The Nature of Consultants expertise Diagnosis and appropriate interventions Being Absorbed by the Culture The dependency issue and terminating the

relationship

Someone who has the expertise and experience to work with members on organizational issues.
Though no systematic information is available on how to choose a competent OD practitioner (whether from inside or outside the organization). To counter this organizations may request the consultancies and OD Practitioners to submit a detailed proposal.

Key elements of a Proposal may include: Project goals or Goals of proposed effort. Outlines of Recommended Action Plans or Implementation Plans. A list of Roles and Responsibilities or Specifications of Responsibilities. Recommended Interventions or Strategies for achieving the desired state

Proposed Fees, Expenses, Terms and Conditions

Certainly, OD Consulting is as much a person specialization as it is a task specialization. An OD Practitioner Needs not only a collection of technical skills. But also the personality and interpersonal competence to use him/herself as an instrument of change.

An OD Practitioner must be able to: Maintain boundary position. Co-ordinate among various units, departments . Mix disciplines, theories, technology and Research finding in a systematic way.

The OD Practitioner is potentially the most important OD technology available.

Diagnosis is the process of understanding a systems current functioning. Diagnosis provides the systematic knowledge of the organization needed to design appropriate interventions. Thus, OD derives from Diagnosis and includes specific actions intended to improve organizational functioning.

In other words, Diagnosis involves: Collecting pertinent information about current operations. Analyze those data and Drawing conclusions for potential change and improvement.

Diagnosis helps OD practitioners and client members jointly determine: Organizational issues to focus on How to collect and analyze data to understand them & How to work together to develop action step from the diagnosis.

Diagnosis in OD does not accept the implicit assumption that something is wrong with the organization. The value and ethical beliefs that underlie OD suggests that both organization members and change agents should be involved in discovering the determinants of current organizational effectiveness. It is a collaborative process between members and the OD consultant to collect pertinent information, analyze it and draw conclusions for action planning and intervention.

Collection of Diagnostic Information

Questionnaires Closed ended questionnaire Open ended questionnaire Interview Individual or Group Structured (closed): specific questions on major components of diagnostic models. Unstructured (open-ended): includes general and broad questions about organization functioning.

Collection of Diagnostic Information

Observation Method observing organizational behaviour in their functional settings can be done casually, looking around, number of times one behaves similarly. Participant: OD practitioner becomes someone like them and operates Non-Participant: OD Practitioner is out but uses recordings of behaviour, films, video footage and other methods etc.

Collection of Diagnostic Information Other Measures data not collected directly from respondents but from secondary sources such as company records, archives. These data are generally available in organizations and includes: Records of Absenteeism or Tardiness Grievances Quantity and Quality of Production or Service Financial Performance Meeting Minutes Correspondence with key customers, suppliers or governmental agencies

The activities of entering an OD relationship are a necessary prelude to developing an OD contract. Contracting is a natural extension of the entering process and clarifies how the OD process will proceed Contracting typically establishes: The expectations of the parties; The time and resources that will be expended and The ground rules under which the parties will operate.

An OD intervention is a sequence of activities, actions and events intended to help an organization improve its performance and effectiveness. Intervention design, or action planning, derives from careful diagnosis and is meant to resolve specific problems and to improve particular areas of organizational functioning identified in the diagnosis.

Take care of the contingencies of change

Readiness for change Capability to Change Cultural Context Capabilities of the Change Agent