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Running Head: Organizational Development

Organizational Development

Ayesha Kaukab (720), Fabiha Arif (733), Insha Noor (717),

Amara Ashraf (721), Sajal Murtaza (734), BS Psychology 5th Semester.

Government Municipal Graduate College.

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Content

Definition.......................................................................................................................................2

Managing Change..........................................................................................................................2

Scared Cow Hunts.........................................................................................................................2

Employee Acceptance of Change.................................................................................................4

Stages of Change Process.............................................................................................................5

Types of Change...........................................................................................................................6

Organizational Culture.................................................................................................................7

Changing the Culture...................................................................................................................7

Assessing the New Culture..........................................................................................................7

Creating Dissatisfaction with Existing Culture............................................................................8

Flexible Work Hours....................................................................................................................9

Empowerment.............................................................................................................................10

Factors in Making the Decision to Empower..............................................................................10

Empowerment Charts..................................................................................................................12

Consequences of Empowerment.................................................................................................12
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Organizational Development

Organization Development is an objectives-based approach to systems change within an

organization. Organization Development enables organizations to build and sustain a new

desired state for the entire organization. Organization development (OD) is an effort that focuses

on improving an organization's capability through the alignment of strategy, structure, people,

rewards, metrics, and management processes.

Managing Change

In organizations, change occurs for many reasons and takes on many forms. Some

changes are due to such organization development efforts as downsizing, reorganization, or the

introduction of teams. Some changes are the result of external mandates like managed care or

new government regulations. Still other changes occur due to new leadership or new personnel.

Sacred Cow Hunts

Perhaps the first step toward organizational change is what Kriegel and Brandr (1996)

called a sacred cow hunt. Organizational sacred cows are practices that have been around for a

long time and invisibly reduce productivity.

Types of sacred cows

According to Kriegel and Brandt, common types of sacred cows include:

• The paper cows

• The meeting cows

• The speed cows

The Paper Cow:

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Paper cows are unnecessary paperwork-usually forms and reports that cost organizations

money to prepare, distribute, and read. To determine if something is a paper cow, consider the

extent to which the paperwork increases efficiency, productivity, or quality. Ask if anyone

actually reads the paperwork. A unique strategy tried by employees at one company was to stop

sending a monthly report that had been distributed for years.

The Meeting Cows:

Another area ripe for change is the number and length of meetings. How much meeting

time was spent doing business as opposed to socializing? Was the meeting really necessary? To

reduce the number and length of meetings, some organizations ask the person calling the meeting

to determine the cost of the meeting.

The Speed Cows:

Unnecessary deadlines are another source for potential change: Requiring work to be

done "by tomorrow" is sometimes necessary. However, unnecessary deadlines cause employees

to work at a faster than optimal pace, resulting in decreased quality, increased stress, and

increased health problems.

Employee Acceptance of Change:

Though change can be beneficial to organizations, employees are often initially reluctant

to change. This reluctance is understandable, as employees are comfortable doing things the old

way. They may fear that change will result in less favorable working conditions and economic

outcomes than what they are used to. According to consultant William Bridges (1985), it is

common for employees undergoing change to feel out of control and as if they are losing their

identity, meaning and belonging.

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Stages:

In the past 70 years, there have been many theories regarding the change process. Most of

these theories postulate that the change process occurs in between three (Lewin, 1958) and seven

(Lippitt, Watson, & Westley, 1958) stages or phases, depending on whether the focus of the

theory is the organization (Lewin, 1958), the change agent (Lippitt et al., 1958), or the employee

(Carnall, 2008). The difference between a stage and a phase is that stages are distinct time

periods whereas phases can overlap with one another (Burke, 2008).

Lewin (1958) theorized that organizations go through three stages: unfreezing, moving,

and refreezing. In the unfreezing stage, the organization must convince employees and other

stakeholders that the current state of affairs is unacceptable and that change is necessary. In the

moving stage, the organization takes steps to move the organization to the desired state. In the

refreezing stage, the organization develops ways to keep the new changes in place, such as

formalizing new policy and rewarding employees for behaving in a manner consistent with the

new change.

Carnall (2008) suggests that employees typically go through five stages during major

organizational changes: Denial, defense, discarding, adaptation, and internalization.

Stage 1: Denial. During this initial stage, employees deny that any changes will actu ally

take place, try to convince themselves that the old way is working, and create reasons why the

proposed changes will never work.

Stage 2: Defense. When employees begin to believe that change will actually occur,

they become defensive and try to justify their positions and ways of doing things.
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Stage 3: Discarding. At some point, employees begin to realize not only that the

organization is going to change but that the employees are going to have to change as well. That

is, change is inevitable, and it is in the best interest of the employee to discard the old ways and

start to accept the change as the new reality.

Stage 4: Adaptation. At this stage, employees test the new system, learn how it

functions, and begin to make adjustments in the way they perform. Employees spend tremendous

energy at this stage and can often become frustrated and angry.

Stage 5: Internalization. In this final stage, employees have become immersed in the

new culture, become comfortable with the new system, and accepted their new coworkers and

work environment.

Type of Change:

Organization change expert Warner Burke (2008) distinguishes two types of change:

• Evolutionary Change

• Revolutionary Change

Evolutionary Change:

The vast majority of change is evolutionary, that is the continual process of upgrading or

improving processes; for example, the dreaded change from Windows XP to Vista, a change in

the supervisor to whom one reports, or a change in how to submit travel receipts for

reimbursement.

Revolutionary Change:

Burke defines revolutionary change as a "real jolt to the system" that drastically changes

the way things are done. Examples might include developing a brand-new product line that
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requires a vastly different skill set. completely changing the organizational structure, or

organizational misconduct (e.g., Enron, Adelphia, Arthur Anderson) that causes an organization

to completely change its ethical policies and behavior. Clearly, revolutionary change is more

difficult than is evolutionary change.

Organizational Culture:

Another important consideration in organizational change is organizational culture. Often

referred to as corporate culture or corporate climate, organizational culture comprises the shared

values, beliefs, and traditions that exist among individuals in organizations. It is this culture that

establishes workplace norms of appropriate behavior (what's wrong or right) and defines roles

and expectations that employees and management have of each other.

.Changing Culture:

Making organizational changes doesn't necessarily mean that everything about the

existing culture must change. According to one manager. "The change process includes holding

on to the successful elements of the present culture and adding new elements that are important".

Consequently, the first step in changing culture is assessing the desired culture and comparing it

with the existing one to determine what needs to change.

Assessing the New Culture:

Assessment of the new culture involves a great deal of discussion and analysis and should

include the following steps:

Step 1: Needs Assessment.

The current culture must be analyzed and compared with the desired culture to determine

what might need to change. For example, if an organization wants to move from a traditional
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hierarchical management philosophy to a more empowering one where employees share more

decision-making responsibilities, there will have to be a change in systems, procedures, and

policies to fully support the new culture.

Step 2: Determining Executive Direction.

Management must then analyze the needs assessment to determine the decisions or

actions that will reinforce the culture and to assess the feasibility of certain changes. Using the

previous example, if most of the supervisors and managers in an organization are unwilling to

share their decision-making authority, a true "empowering" culture cannot be maintained.

Step 3: Implementation Considerations

This area addresses how the new culture will be implemented. Will committees' groups

be set up to carry out changes or will management execute the changes? If the organization's

desired culture includes encouragement of more input by employees, they should be allowed to

participate in implementing the empowering organization in order to support the new culture.

Step 4: Training

Culture change means a change of philosophy, and that ultimately means different role

expectations. As with any new skill, all organizational members must be trained in a new

philosophy for the new culture to thrive and be long-lasting.

Creating Dissatisfaction with Existing Culture:

For employees to accept a new culture, the existing culture and status quo must be

"upset." This might mean communicating to employees the future impact of continuing to "do

business as usual." For example, many organizations share data that show technological trends

and the financial performance of the company. If employees see this information as negatively
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affecting either them or the organization as a whole, this can create the necessary dis pleasure

with the status quo and be the catalyst for developing a new business strategy.

Flexible Work Hours:

To accommodate the family lives and personal preferences of employees, 59% of US

organizations provide flextime, a work schedule in which employees have some flexibility in the

hours they work (SHRM 2008). In the United Kingdom employees with children under six or a

disabled child under the age of 18 have the legal right to request flexible work hours and the

organizations seriously consider the request.

Flextime can be arranged in many ways, but all share the same three basic components

bandwidth, core hours, and flexible hours.

The bandwidth is the total number of potential hours available for works each day. For

example, employees can work their eight hours anytime in the 12-hour band width between 6 am

and 6 pm.

Core hours are those that everyone must work and typically consist of the hours during

which an organization is busiest with its outside contacts. For example, a restaurant might have

core hours between 11 am and 1pm to cover its lunchtime business, whereas a bank might have

one hours from 12 noon to 1pm and from 5pm to 6 pm, to cover the periods of highest costumer

volume.

Finally, flexible hours are those that remain in the bandwidth and in which the employee

has a choice of working. For example, if the bandwidth is the 12-hour period from 6am to 6pm

and the core hours are from 11 am to 1am, the employee can schedule the remaining six hours

anywhere from 6am to 10 am and from 2 pm to 6pm.

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The most flexible of the schedules is called gliding time. With these systems an

employee can choose her own hours without advance notice or scheduling Employees can come

and go as they please as long as they work eight hours each day and 40 hours each week. With

gliding time, there are no core hours. Such a flexible schedule, however will work only where it

is not necessary to always have an employee working as in typing or accounting.

Most flexible working schedules are categorized as flexitour & modified flexitour. With

a flexitour system the employee must submit a schedule a weekly, biweekly, monthly basic

depending on the organization. In a modified flexitour, the employee must schedule her hours

in advance but can change these hours on a daily basis with some advance notice.

Empowerment:

Many organizations are "empowering" employees to participate in and make decisions.

As you will see in the following pages, empowering employees can range from asking them for

their opinions to giving them complete decision-making control. However, before discussing

ways to empower employees-which I will refer to as ways to increase "levels of employee input

it might be best to first discuss why and when employees should be involved in decision making.

Making the Decision to Empower

• Factors in Making the Decision to Empower

The flowchart uses the seven factors discussed next.

1. Importance of Decision Quality.

The first factor to be considered in making a decision is whether one decision will be better than

another. For example, if a supervisor is trying to decide whether to sign a letter with blue ink or

black ink, his decision probably will not make any difference to the organization.

2. Leader Knowledge of the Problem Area

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The second factor in decision making involves the extent to which leaders have sufficient

information to make the decision alone. If they do, then consultation with others is desired only

if leaders want their subordinates to feel involved. If leaders lack sufficient knowledge to make a

decision, consultation is essential.

3. Structure of the Problem.

The third factor of concern in decision making is the extent to which a leader knows what

information is needed and how it can be obtained that is, the problem's structure.

4. Importance of Decision Acceptance.

The fourth decision-making factor involves the degree to which it is important that the decision

be accepted by others. For example, for a supervisor to decide what hours each employee will

work, it is important that the employees agree with and have input into the decision-making

process.

5. Probability of Decision Acceptance

The fifth decision-making factor is subordinate acceptance. If the leader feels that he can make

the decision himself but that acceptance of the decision is important, he must determine whether

his subordinates will accept it. If the leader is popular and viewed as being competent, his

subordinates will probably accept and follow the decision. But if the leader is not popular,

powerful, and competent, he will probably want help from his subordinates and colleagues in

making the decision, even though he has the ability to make the decision himself.

6. Subordinate Trust and Motivation.

The sixth factor in the decision-making process is the extent to which subordinates are motivated

to achieve the organizational goals and thus can be trusted to make decisions that will help the

organization.
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7. Probability of Subordinate Conflict.

The final factor for our consideration in the decision-making process involves the amount of

conflict that is likely among the subordinates when various solutions to the problem are

considered. If there are many possible solutions and the employees are likely to disagree about

which is best, the leader will be best served by gathering information from employees and then,

as in the previous situation, making the decision herself.

• Empowerment Charts

Organizations never have just one level of employee input and control that applies to every

employee. Instead, levels will differ by employee as well as by task. To reduce confusion, it is a

good idea for organizations to develop what I call individual employee empowerment charts.

• Consequences of Empowerment

Personal

• Increased job satisfaction for most

• Stress
a. Decreased stress due to greater control

b. Increased stress due to greater responsibility

Financial

• Bonuses

• Pay increases

Career

• Increased job security

• Promotions Increased marketability

• Increased chance of being terminated

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References

Michael G. Aamodt (Sixth Edition). Industrial/Organizationl Psychology,

Organization Development. Pages 513 - 554