HANDOUT 4 IN ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Prepared by: Fevirose Torres, Ivy Jeanneth Pajartin, Jacquiline Mirafuentes, Avegail
Hermosisima, Angel Mae Carreon, Daisy Mae Catane, Jelian Bañoc and Cerilyn Carriaga

5. Feeding Back Diagnostic Information

Perhaps the most important step in the diagnostic process is feeding back diagnostic
information to the client organization. Although the data may have been collected with
the client’s help, the OD practitioner often organizes and presents them to the client.
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. A key objective of the feedback process is to be sure that the client has ownership
of the data.

DETERMINING THE
CONTENT OF THE
FEEDBACK
In the course of diagnosing the
organization, a large amount of
data is collected. In
fact, there is often more
information than the client needs
or can interpret in a realistic
period of time. If too many data
are fed back, the client may
decide that changing
is impossible. Therefore, OD
practitioners need to summarize
the data in ways that
enable clients to understand the
information and draw action
implications from it. The
techniques for data analysis
described in Chapter 7 can inform
this task. Additional
criteria for determining the
content of diagnostic feedback are
described below.
Several characteristics of
effective feedback data have been
described in the
literature.1 They include the
following nine properties:
DETERMINING THE
CONTENT OF THE
FEEDBACK
In the course of diagnosing the
organization, a large amount of
data is collected. In
fact, there is often more
information than the client needs
or can interpret in a realistic
period of time. If too many data
are fed back, the client may
decide that changing
is impossible. Therefore, OD
practitioners need to summarize
the data in ways that
enable clients to understand the
information and draw action
implications from it. The
techniques for data analysis
described in Chapter 7 can inform
this task. Additional
criteria for determining the
content of diagnostic feedback are
described below.
Several characteristics of
effective feedback data have been
described in the
literature.1 They include the
following nine properties:
Several characteristics of effective feedback data have been described in the literature
include:

Relevant Understandable Descriptive

Verifiable Timely Limited

Significant Comparative Unfinalized

Characteristics of feedback process

Ownership of the feedback data is facilitated by the following 5 features of successful

feedback process:

1. Motivation to work with the data. People need to feel that working with the
feedback data will have beneficial outcomes.
2. Structure for the meeting. Feedback meetings need some structure or they may
degenerate into chaos or aimless discussion.
3. Appropriate attendance. Generally, people who have common problems and can
benefit from working together should be included in the feedback meeting.
4. Appropriate power. It is important to clarify the power possessed by the group.
Members need to know on which issues they can make necessary changes, on
which they can only recommend changes, and over which they have no control.
5. Process help. People in feedback meetings require assistance in working together
as a group. When the data are negative, there is a natural tendency to resist the
implications, deflect the conversation onto safer subjects and the like.

SURVEY FEEDBACK is a process of collecting and feeding back data from an

organization or department through the use of a questionnaire or survey. The data are
analyzed, fed back to organization members, and used by them to diagnose the
organization and to develop interventions to improve it. Survey feedback generally
involves the following five steps:

1. Members of the organization, including those at the top, are involved in

preliminary planning of the survey.
2. The survey instrument is administered to all members of the organization or
department.
3. The OD consultant usually analyzes the survey data, tabulates the results,
suggest approaches to diagnosis, and train client members to lead the feedback
process.
4. Data feedback usually begins at the top of the organization and cascades
downward to groups reporting to managers at successively lower levels.
5. Feedback meetings provide an opportunity to work with the data.

Training OD Practitioners in Data Feedback

As part of a large-scale, employee involvement (EI) program, they are working to build
an internal organization development consulting capability. This involved the hiring
and development of several union and management employees to work with managers,
facilitate EI problem-solving team meetings, and assist in the implementation of
recommended changes. The implementation process included an evaluation component
and the EI facilitators were expected to collect and feedback data to the organization.
The data collected included observation of various work processes and problem-solving
meetings; unobtrusive measures such as minutes from all meetings, quarterly income
statements, operational reports, and communications; and questionnaire and interview
data.

A three-page questionnaire was administered every three months and it asked

participants on EI problem-solving teams for their perceptions of team functioning and
performance. Internal EI facilitators were appointed from both management and union
employees, and part of their work required them to feed back the results of the
quarterly surveys. To provide timely feedback to the problem-solving teams, the EI
facilitators were trained to deliver survey feedback. Some of the material developed for
that training is summarized below.

I. Planning for a Survey-Feedback Session.

The success of a survey-feedback meeting often has more to do with the level of
preparation for the meeting than with anything else. There are several things to
do in preparing for a survey-feedback meeting.

A. Distribute copies of the feedback report in advance. This enables people to devote
more time at the meeting to problem solving and less to just digesting the data.
This is especially important when a large quantity of data is being presented.

B. Think about substantive issues in advance. Formulate your own view of what the
data suggest about the strengths and weaknesses of the group. Does the general
picture appear to be positive or problematic?

C. Make sure you can answer likely technical questions about the data. Survey data
have particular strengths and weaknesses. Be able to acknowledge that the data
are not perfect, but that a lot of effort has gone into ensuring that they are reliable
and valid.

D. Plan your introduction to the survey-feedback portion of the meeting. Make the
introduction brief and to the point. Remind the group of why it is considering
the data, set the stage for problem solving by pointing out that many groups find
such data helpful in tracking their progress, and be prepared to run through an
example that shows how to understand the feedback data.

II. Problem Solving with Survey-Feedback Data

A. Chunk the feedback. If a lot of data are being fed back, use your knowledge of the
group and the data to present small portions of data. Stop periodically to see if there are
questions or comments about each section or “chunk” of data.

B. Stimulate discussion on the data. What follows are various ways to help get the
discussion going.

1. Help clarify the meaning of the data by asking

 What questions do you have about what the data mean?

 What does [a specific number] mean?
 Does anything in the data surprise you?
 What do the data tell you about how we’re doing as a group?

2. Help develop a shared diagnosis about the meaning of the data by commenting

 What I hear people saying is . . . Does everyone agrees with that?

  Several people are saying that . . . is a problem. Do we agree that this is something the
group needs to address?
 The group has really been struggling with [specific issue that the facilitator is familiar
with], but the data say that we are strong on this. Can someone explain this?

3. Help generate action alternatives by asking

 What are some of the things we can do to resolve . . . ?

 Do we want to brainstorm some action steps to deal with . . . ?

C. Focus the group on its own data. The major benefit of survey feedback for EI teams will
be in learning about the group’s own behavior and outcomes. Often, however, groups
will avoid dealing with issues concerning their own group in favor of broader and less
helpful discussions about what other groups are doing right and wrong. Comments you
might use to help get the group on track include:

 What do the data say about how we are doing as a group?

 There isn’t a lot we can do about what other groups are doing. What can we do about
the things that are under our control?
 The problem you are mentioning sounds like one this group also is facing. Is that so?

D. Be prepared for problem-solving discussions that are only loosely connected to the data. It is
more important for the group to use the data to understand itself better and to solve
problems than it is to follow any particular steps in analyzing the data.

E. Hot issues and how to deal with them. Survey data can be particularly helpful in
addressing some hot issues within the group that might otherwise be over-looked.

LIMITATIONS OF SURVEY FEEDBACK

1. Ambiguity of purpose. Mangers and staff groups responsible for the survey-
feedback process may have difficulty reaching sufficient consensus about the
purposes of the survey, its content, and how it will be fed back to participants.
2. Distrust. High levels of distrust in the organization can render the survey
feedback ineffective. Employees need to trust that their responses will remain
anonymous and that management is serious about sharing the data and solving
problems jointly.
3. Unacceptable topics. Most organizations have certain topics that they do not want
examined. This can severely constrain the scope of the survey process,
particularly if the neglected topics are important to employees.
4. Organizational Disturbances. The survey-feedback process can unduly disturb
organizational functioning. Data collection and feedback typically infringe on
employee work time.

6. Designing Intervention

An organization development 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. OD interventions vary from standardized programs that
have been developed and used in many organizations to relatively unique programs
tailored to a specific organization or department.

What are effective interventions?

The term “intervention" refers to a set of sequenced planned actions or events intended
to help an organization increase its effectiveness. Interventions purposely disrupt the
status quo; they are deliberate attempts to change an organization or subunit toward a
different and more effective state.

Three major criteria define an effective intervention

 Valid information
 Free and informed choice
 Internal commitment

THE DESIGN OF EFFECTIVE INTERVENTIONS

Contingencies Related to the Change Situation

1. Readiness for Change. Intervention success depends heavily on the organization

being ready for planned change. Indicators of readiness for change include sensitivity to
pressures for change, dissatisfaction with the status quo, availability of resources to
support change, and commitment of significant management time. When readiness for
change is low, however, interventions need to focus first on increasing the
organization’s willingness to change.

2. Capability to Change. An organization’s change capability is a function of the

change-related knowledge and skills present in the organization, the resources and
systems devoted to change, and the organization’s experience with change.

3. Cultural Context. The national culture within which the organization is embedded
can exert a powerful influence on members’ reactions to change, so intervention design
must account for the cultural values and assumptions held by organization members.
Interventions may have to be modified to fit the local culture, particularly when OD
practices developed in one culture are applied to organizations in another culture.

4. Capabilities of the Agent. Many failures in OD result when change agents apply
interventions beyond their competence. In designing interventions, OD practitioners
should assess their experience and expertise against the requirements needed to
implement the intervention effectively.

Contingencies Related to the Target of Change

1. Strategic issues. Organizations need to decide what products or services they will
provide and the markets in which they will compete, as well as how to relate to their
environments and how to transform themselves to keep pace with changing conditions.
These strategic issues are among the most critical ones facing organizations in today’s
changing and highly competitive environments. OD methods aimed at these issues are
called strategic interventions.

2. Technological and structural issues. Organizations must decide how to divide work
into departments and then how to coordinate among those departments to support
strategic directions. They also must make decisions about how to deliver products or
services and how to link people to tasks.

3. Human resources issues. These issues are concerned with attracting competent people
to the organization, setting goals for them, appraising and rewarding their
performance, and ensuring that they develop their careers and manage stress. OD
techniques aimed at these issues are called human resources management
interventions.
4. Human process issues. These issues have to do with social processes occurring among
organization members, such as communication, decision making, leadership, and group
dynamics. OD methods focusing on these kinds of issues are called human process
intervention.

Overview of Interventions

 Human Process Interventions - This type of intervention is deeply rooted in the

history of OD and represents the earliest change programs characterizing OD.
Human process interventions derive mainly from the disciplines of psychology
and social psychology and the applied fields of group dynamics and human
relations.
 Technostructural Interventions - These change methods are receiving increasing
attention in OD, especially in light of current concerns about productivity and
organizational effectiveness. They include approaches to employee involvement,
as well as methods for designing organizations, groups, and jobs.
 Human Resources Management Interventions - are rooted in labor relations and
in the applied practices of compensation and benefits, employee selection and
placement, performance appraisal, and career development. Practitioners in this
area typically focus on the people in organizations, believing that organizational
effectiveness results from improved practices for integrating employees into
organizations.
 Strategic Interventions - These change programs are among the newest additions
to OD. They are implemented organization-wide and bring about a fit between
business strategy, structure, culture, and the larger environment. The
interventions derive from the disciplines of strategic management, organization
theory, economics, and anthropology.

7. Leading and Managing Change

Change can vary in complexity from the introduction of relatively simple processes into
a small work group to transforming the strategies and design features of the whole
organization.

Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with the transition or

transformation of an organization's
goals, processes or technologies. The
purpose of change management is to
implement strategies for effecting
change, controlling change and
helping people to adapt to change.
Although change management
differs across situations, in this
chapter we discuss tasks that must
be performed in managing any kind
of organizational change.

Activities Contributing to Effective

Change Management:

1. MOTIVATING CHANGE

Organizational change involves

moving from the known to the
unknown. Because the future is
uncertain and may adversely affect people’s competencies, worth, and coping abilities,
organization members generally do not support change unless compelling reasons
convince them to do so. Similarly, organizations tend to be heavily invested in the
status quo, and they resist changing it in the face of uncertain future benefits.
Consequently, a key issue in planning for action is how to motivate commitment to
organizational change. This requires attention to two related tasks:

 Creating Readiness for Change. One of the more fundamental principles of OD is

that people’s readiness for change depends on creating a felt need for change.
 Overcoming Resistance to Change. Change can generate deep resistance in people
and in organizations, thus making it difficult, if not impossible, to implement
organizational improvements. At the organization level, resistance to change can
come from three sources:
o Technical resistance comes from the habit of following common procedures
and the consideration of sunk costs invested in the status quo.
o Political resistance can arise when organizational changes threaten
powerful stakeholders, such as top executive or staff personnel, or call
into question the past decisions of leaders.
o Cultural resistance takes the form of systems and procedures that reinforce
the status quo, promoting conformity to existing values, norms, and
assumptions about how things should operate. There are at least three
major strategies for dealing with resistance to change:
 Empathy and Support,
 Communication,
 Participation and Involvement

2. CREATING A VISION

The second activity in leading and managing change involves creating a vision of what
members want the organization to look like or become. It is one of the most popular yet
least understood practices in management. Generally, a vision describes the core values
and purpose that guide the organization as well as an envisioned future toward which
change is directed. It provides a valued direction for designing, implementing, and
assessing organizational changes. The vision also can energize commitment to change
by providing members with a common goal and a compelling rationale for why change
is necessary and worth the effort. However, if the vision is seen as impossible or
promotes changes that the organization cannot implement, it actually can depress
member motivation.

Research suggests that compelling visions are composed of two parts:

 Describing the Core Ideology. The fundamental basis of a vision for change is the
organization’s core ideology. It describes the organization’s core values and
purpose and is relatively stable over time. Core values typically include three to
five basic principles or beliefs that have stood the test of time and best represent
what the organization stands for.
 Constructing the Envisioned Future. The core ideology provides the context for the
envisioned future. Unlike core values and purpose, which are stable aspects of
the organization and must be discovered, the envisioned future is specific to the
change project at hand and must be created.
o The envisioned future typically includes the following two elements that
can be communicated to organization members:
  Bold and valued outcomes - often include specific performance and
human outcomes that the organization or unit would like to
achieve.
 Desired future state – specifies in vivid detail, what the
organization should look like to achieve bold and valued outcomes.

3. DEVELOPING POLITICAL SUPPORT

The third task for change agents is to develop political support for the changes.
Managing the political dynamics of change includes the following activities:

 Assessing Change Agent Power. The first task is to evaluate the change agent’s own
sources of power. This agent may be the leader of the organization or
department undergoing change, or he or she may be the OD consultant if
professional help is being used. By assessing their own power base, change
agents can determine how to use it to influence others to support changes. They
also can identify areas in which they need to enhance their sources of power.
o Greiner and Schein identified three key sources of personal power in
organizations:
 Knowledge bases of power include having expertise that is valued
by others and controlling important information. OD professionals
typically gain power through their expertise in organizational
change.
 Personality sources of power can derive from change agents’
charisma, reputation, and professional credibility.
 Others’ support can contribute to individual power by providing
access to information and resource networks.

 Identifying Key Stakeholders. Having assessed their own power bases, change
agents should identify powerful individuals and groups with an interest in the
changes, such as staff groups, unions, departmental managers, and top-level
executives. These key stakeholders can thwart or support change, and it is
important to gain broad-based support to minimize the risk that a single interest
group will block the changes.
 Influencing Stakeholders. This activity involves gaining the support of key
stakeholders to motivate a critical mass for change. There are at least three major
strategies for using power to influence others in OD: playing it straight, using
social networks, and going around the formal system.

MANAGING THE TRANSITION

Implementing organization change involves moving from an existing organization

state to a desired future state. Beckhard and Harris identified three major activities
and structures to facilitate organizational transition:

 Activity Planning involves making a road map for change, citing specific
activities and events that must occur if the transition is to be successful. It
should clearly identify, temporally orient, and integrate discrete change tasks,
and it should explicitly link these tasks to the organization’s change goals and
priorities. Activity planning also should gain top-management approval, be
cost effective, and remain adaptable as feedback is received during the
change process.
  Commitment Planning. This activity involves identifying key people and
groups whose commitment is needed for change to occur and formulating a
strategy for gaining their support. Although commitment planning is
generally a part of developing political support, discussed above, specific
plans for identifying key stakeholders and obtaining their commitment to
change need to be made early in the change process.
 Change-Management Structures. Because organizational transitions tend to be
ambiguous and to need direction, special structures for managing the change
process need to be created. These management structures should include
people who have the power to mobilize resources to promote change, the
respect of the existing leadership and change advocates, and the interpersonal
and political skills to guide the change process.

SUSTAINING MOMENTUM

Once organizational changes are under way, explicit attention must be directed to
sustaining energy and commitment for implementing them.

 Providing Resources for Change. Implementing organization change generally

requires additional financial and human resources, particularly if the
organization continues day-to-day operations while trying to change it. These
extra resources are needed for such change activities as training, consultation,
data collection and feedback, and special meetings. Extra resources also are
helpful to provide a buffer as performance drops during the transition period.
 Building a Support System for Change Agents. Organization change can be
difficult and filled with tension, not only for participants but for change
agents as well. They often must often give members emotional support, but
they may receive little support themselves. They often must maintain
“psychological distance” from others to gain the perspective needed to lead
the change process.
 Developing New Competencies and Skills. Organizational changes frequently
demand new knowledge, skills, and behaviors from organization members.
In many cases, the changes cannot be implemented unless members gain new
competencies.
 Reinforcing New Behaviors. In organizations, people generally do those things
that bring them rewards. Consequently, one of the most effective ways to
sustain momentum for change is to reinforce the kinds of behaviors needed to
implement the changes. This can be accomplished by linking formal rewards
directly to the desired behaviors.
 Staying the Course. Change requires time, and many of the expected financial
and organizational benefits from change lag behind its implementation. If the
organization changes again too quickly or abandons the change before it is
fully implemented, the desired results may never materialize.

8. Evaluating Organization Development Intervention

Evaluation – is concerned with providing feed-back to practitioners and organization

members about the progress and impact of interventions. It considers both the
implementation success of the intended intervention and the long-term results it
produces.

Evaluating Organization Development Intervention

 - Assessing organization development interventions involves judgments about
whether an intervention has been implemented as intended and, if so,
whether it is having desired results.

There are two distinct types of OD evaluation:

1. Intended to guide the implementation of interventions

2. To assess their overall impact

Two key aspects of effective evaluation are

•Measurement •Research design

Implementation and Evaluation Feedback

1. Implementation Feedback – informs organization members that the intervention

is sufficiently in place, evaluation feedback begins, in contrast to implementation
feedback, it is concerned with the overall impact of the intervention and with
whether resources should continue to be allocated to it or to other possible
interventions.
2. Evaluation feedback takes longer to gather and interpret than does
implementation feedback. It typically includes a broad array of outcome
measures, such as performance job satisfaction, absenteeism, and turnover.

Implementation and Evaluation feedback involves two activities:

1. Selecting variables - choosing among many variables which to include in a particular

model or to select appropriate variables from a complete list of variables by removing
those that are irrelevant or redundant.

2. Designing good measures - would likely be included in the initial diagnosis, when the
company’s problems or areas for improvement are discovered.

The 4 main models in the evaluation are:

1. Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation – the four levels focus heavily on making
sure that any intervention that is used is effective.

a) How are the employees reacting to the intervention?

b) Are they learning anything from the intervention?

c) Are they behaving differently within the organization and changing due to the intervention?

d) What are the results and the ROI?

2. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) – This model focuses on a set of measures that determine
the score of how the organization is doing when it comes to their goals for time, quality,
and performance.

3. Holton Evaluation Model (HRD) – Building off the Kirkpatrick Model – HRD took
into account where the Kirkpatrick Model was weak and focused on only three (3) main
elements that they deem are more important, which are:

a) learning

b) individual performance, and

c) organizational results putting more focus on motivating the employees to perform

and show results from their learning.
4. Appreciative Inquiry Approach (AI) – This approach is not for all companies, but
definitely those with high aspirations should consider this model. It is built on the
principle of these five (5) phases;

a) definition

b) discovery

c) dream

d) design, and

e) destiny

A good intervention is made up of these eight (8) steps. In this article we will only
discuss which of these 8 are the most important:

Step 1: Planning the OD evaluation

Step 2: Identifying key stakeholders and decision-makers.

Step 3: Determining evaluators and evaluation criteria.

Step 4: Scanning for internal and external relevant information.

Step 5: Selecting data collection methods.

Step 6: Collecting data.

Step 7: Analyzing data.

Step 8: Reporting the evaluation findings