ORGANIZATIONAL INTERVENTIONS

Organizational development (OD) interventions are programs and processes designed to improve the
organization’s functioning. These interventions aim to create activities that change leadership styles,
organizational structures, or behavioral patterns. Successful development projects require specific
planning to maximize the effectiveness and potential of both people and businesses. Organizational
development interventions are not the same as ad hoc transformation efforts, for example, when a
company makes change decisions once a problem arises and on the go.

Types of OD Interventions

Human process organization development interventions related to interpersonal

interventions relations, group, and organizational dynamics. These were the
earliest form of interventions and are often aimed at improving
communication within the workplace

Techno-structural targeted toward structural and technological issues such as

interventions organizational design, work redesign, and employee engagement.

Human Resource impact areas such as performance management, talent development,

Management Interventions DEIB, and wellbeing in the workplace.

Strategic Change revolve around transformational change, restructuring, and uniting

Interventions two or more organizations together during a merger

There are different types of OD interventions that target various aspects of the organization on different
levels.
This will depend enormously on:
1. issues being addressed
● OD interventions help companies solve a problem related to a root cause.
● An example is a high number of employees leaving a company.
● The present issue is a high employee turnover rate, but OD interventions look to solve
the cause of high turnover.
● In the case of employees leaving, you can expect that in a small organization to be
impacted entirely, on all levels by this issue.
● In contrast, a multi-national company will only be affected in the locations where turnover
is high.
2. the number of people who need to be involved in the change
● The number of people who need to be involved in the OD intervention is an essential
question to ask.
● The more people involved, the longer it takes to make a change.
○ For example, a human process intervention with a small team will go through
quicker than techno-structural interventions in a tech organization.
3. The solution being used
 ● Solutions are created to address the root cause of an issue.
● But they might not be immediate.
● A solution can also refer to change efforts intended to create an ideal future for the
organization.
● In the latter case, upper management and decision-makers are generally impacted more
than the staff until the change has happened.

However, an OD intervention strategy needs collaborative management and employees at different levels
of the hierarchy to cooperate for the change to be successful.

EXAMPLES OF
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS

Human Process Interventions

Individual Interventions
● These interventions are targeted at the individual
employee, often around improving communication with
others.
● During this intervention, the individual will be given direction
to better understand their own and others’ emotions,
motivations, and behaviors.
● The employee may also have support to identify their
career needs, set complementary career goals, and resolve
conflict.

Group Interventions ● OD group interventions help teams and groups within a

company become more effective.
● These interventions are usually aimed at the group’s
content, structure, or processes.
● For example, to understand more about the group, the
department responsible for OD will ask team members to
analyze their group’s performance, what the team needs to
do to improve, and discuss possible solutions to any
challenges they have.

Team Building ● one of the best-known organizational development

interventions.
● refers to activities that help teams improve productivity,
communication, performance, and employee engagement.

Intergroup Relations ● incorporated into OD strategy to facilitate collaboration and

Interventions efficiency between different teams within a business
towards a common goal.
● You can generally see these interventions in larger
companies when departments need to fight for limited
resources or are unaware of each other’s needs.
●

Techno Structural Interventions

Organizational (Structural) ● Organizational design refers to how an organization is
Design structured to achieve its strategic plan and goals.
● This structure is essential to how the company will operate.
There are many different classifications of organizational
structure, such as:
○ Hierarchical
○ Divisional
○ Matrix
○ Process
○ Customer-centric
○ network.
● Within OD strategy, organizational design is about
reengineering and rightsizing.
● Therefore, an organization needs to rethink how it works
and restructure it around the new business methods.

Total Quality Management
● also known as continuous process improvement, lean, and
six-sigma.
● It is an approach that seeks to improve quality and
performance by placing customer satisfaction at the
center.
● To achieve this, there is a strong focus on complete
employee involvement in the ongoing improvement of
products, processes, and workplace culture.

Work Design ● Work design impacts an organization’s outcomes, with

well-designed work contributing to improved productivity
and financial growth.
● It can also affect how an employee feels about their job,
such as if they feel motivated, engaged, bored, or stressed
at work.
● Sometimes, an organization needs work redesign to
achieve its goals.
● That’s where the techno-structural interventions come in.
● However, redesigning work doesn’t necessarily require
company-wide changes to the way things are done.
Instead, small changes to the way tasks are completed, or
the way employees communicate at work can have
substantial outcomes for both staff and the organization.

Job Enrichment ● According to American psychologist Frederick Herzberg,

job enrichment aims to enhance job efficiency and
employee satisfaction by creating a more significant
scope of more challenging work, greater autonomy,
better professional achievement, and recognition, as
well as more opportunities for advancement and growth.
● Examples of job enrichment that you can implement in
your business are:
● Variety of tasks. Give your employee new tasks or
ones that go beyond their everyday duties.
● Giving autonomy. Empower employees to make
decisions about their work.

Human Resource Management Interventions
Performance Management
Developing talent
Diversity Interventions
Wellness Interventions
● Employee feedback. Make sure your team receives
input regarding their performance, skills, and ability
to work within a group.
● Assigning meaningful work. Help employees make
sense of their work by showing them how it benefits
the company and how they contribute to overall
organizational goals.
● Creating incentive programs. Create recognition for a
job well done through incentive programs like bonuses
or extra days off.
● Companies use performance management (reviews) to
support employee training, career development,
compensation decisions, and promotions, among other
things.
● Generally, the performance management process includes
setting clear expectations for each employee and
providing frequent formal/informal feedback.
● According to a study by McKinsey and Company, 87% of
companies across the globe know that they have a skills
gap or expect to have one in the next few years.
● As a result, your organization needs strong talent
management practices to stay relevant and competitive in
the changing landscape.
● Some examples are as follows:
○ Individualized career planning
○ Internal or external coaching
○ Task/job rotations.
○ Educational budget
○ Mentorship programs
○ Internal or external workshops
○ Conferences
○ On-the-job training
○ Leadership training
● Diversity in the workplace refers to a company comprised
of people of different races, ethnicity, age, religion,
gender, physical ability, sexual orientation, and other
characteristics.
● Because diversity drives innovation, productivity, and
overall revenue, OD intervention strategies aim to increase
diversity in businesses.
● A wellness intervention combines strategies developed
to create behavior changes or improve health status
and wellbeing among individual employees or the
entire staff.

Strategic Change Interventions
Transformational Change
Continuous Change
Transorganizational Change
Source: https://www.aihr.com/blog/od-interventions/
● Organizations need to understand their teams’ specific
needs.
● It is vital to pinpoint which wellness interventions would best
serve their needs and allow the individual to learn to
manage their own health and wellbeing.
● Transformational changes are those you make to
thoroughly reshape your business strategy and
processes, which often results in a shift in work
culture.
● Some examples of transformational change are:
○ Restructuring: Changing your business’s
structural chart by adding, removing, or combining
departments.
○ Retrenchment: Decreasing employee headcount
by closing an office or division of the company.
○ Turnaround: Replacing all top management within
a failing business to turn things around.
○ Outsourcing: Hiring another company to complete
tasks for your own company. This is common in
customer service departments.
○ Spin-off: Breaking up a company into distinct,
smaller companies. Google is well-known for this
when it created its umbrella organization, Alphabet
Inc., and now owns many household name
companies such as Nest and YouTube.
● This intervention encourages companies to improve
gradually over time by making small changes.
● The best-known example of continuous change is a
learning organization.
● Businesses that shift from the top-down hierarchical
structure to a learning model have a higher chance of
collaboration, risk-taking, and growth and are more
competitive in the ever-changing work environment.
● In addition, this technique places importance on
experimentation and learning from mistakes and
failures rather than punishing them.
● involves interventions that include two or more
organizations.
● This can be in the form of mergers or acquisitions but
also businesses working together to achieve their
objectives.