OD: A Unique

Change Strategy
Activity # 02

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 OD: A Unique Change Strategy
• OD is an effort, which is planned
• OD is an effort, which is organization-wide
• OD is an effort, which is managed from the
top
• OD is an effort, which increases organization
effectiveness and health
• OD is an effort, which uses planned
interventions in the organization’s process
• OD is an effort, which use behavioral science
knowledge
(Richard Beckhard)2
 OD: A Unique Change Strategy
Types of consultation models:
• Purchase of Expertise Model
• Doctor-patient Model
• Process Consultation Model
Purchase of Expertise Model:
The leader hires a consultant (OD consultant) to obtain
the information and make a report.
• Surveying consumers or employees about some matter
• Finding out how best to organize the company after a
merger (whether its good or bad for org).
• Developing a marketing strategy for a new product .(make ur
own marketing strategy or hire a marketing expert for making a
marketing strategy) 3
 OD: A Unique Change Strategy

Doctor-patient Model:
A leader or group detects symptoms of ill health
in some parts of the organization, and calls in a
consultant who diagnoses the situation,
identifies the causes of problems and then, like
a physician, prescribes a cure.
Process Consultation Model (IN and Widely
Used) :
The consultant works with the leader and group
to diagnose strengths and weaknesses, identify
problems and opportunities, and develop action
plans and methods for reaching desired goals. 4
 OD: A Unique Change Strategy

Goals and targets of OD Practitioners:

• Planned change
• Collaborative approach
• Improve performance
• Humanistic values
• Systems approach
• Scientific approaches

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 OD: A Unique Change Strategy
Characteristics of OD:
1. An OD Program is a long-range, planned, and
sustained effort that unfolds according to a strategy.
2. The OD consultant establishes a unique relationship
with client system members.
3. The nature of the intervention differentiates OD from
other improvement strategies.
4. The targets of OD interventions differentiate OD from
other improvement strategies.
5. OD consultants utilize a behavioral science base.
6. The desired outcomes of OD are distinctive in nature.
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 Characteristics of OD
An OD Program is a long-range, planned, and
sustained effort that unfolds according to a strategy:
Long-range:
• Changing a system’s culture and processes is a difficult,
complicated, and long-term matter.
• Organizational problems are multifaceted (multi-dimensional-
multi-sided) and complex.
• One-shot interventions probably cannot solve such problems.
(you have to make multiple interventions)
Planned and Sustained effort:
• An organizational subsystem is created (OD
department).

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 Characteristics of OD
Strategy:
• A part of the planned nature of OD programs
almost always involves an overall strategy.
• Consultants and clients develop overall goals and
paths to goals on organization development
programs, and these guide the programmatic
activities.

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 Characteristics of OD
The OD consultant establishes a unique
relationship with client system members:
• The consultant seeks and maintains a collaborative
relationship of relative equality with the
organization members.
• Consultant-client relationship is that of relative
equality – the two parties come together as relative
equals, each possessing knowledge and skills
different from but needed by the other.

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 Characteristics of OD

OD consultant role rests on three beliefs:

• The first belief ‫ ت‬is simply‫ف‬ an affirmation of the
efficacy(‫ت ی ص دیق‬ ‫ )ا ا دی ک‬of division of labor and
responsibility.
• The second belief is derived from the question:
Where is the best solution to this problem likely to
be found?
• The third belief is that the responsibility for
changing something rests ultimately in the client
system members, not in the consultant.

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 Characteristics of OD
The nature of the intervention differentiates
OD from other improvement strategies:
• OD consultants fashion, conduct, or cause to
happen, interventions.
• OD consultants try to inculcate (produce)
diagnostic skills, self-analytical skills, and reflexive
skills in organization members.
• System Improvement: The emphasis of OD is on
the system, rather than the individual, as the target
of change.

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 Characteristics of OD
The targets of OD interventions differentiate
OD from other improvement strategies:
• The OD prescription calls for certain configurations
of people as targets of OD interventions.
• What goes on between units (means dep) is also of
vital importance in organizational effectiveness.
Thus, intergroup configurations are a second
major target of OD interventions.
• A third target of OD interventions is the
organization’s processes and culture.

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 Characteristics of OD
OD consultants utilize a behavioral science
base:
• OD is an applied field in which theories, concepts,
and practices from sociology, psychology,
psychiatry, education, economics and
management are brought to bear on real
organizational problems (through these theories
we make changes)

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 Characteristics of OD
The desired outcomes of OD are
distinctive in nature:
• Enhancing compatibility between organizational
structure, processes, strategy, people, and culture
(all these should support each other and support
one another).
• Developing new and creative organizational
solutions.
• Developing the organization’s self-renewing
(training employees) capacity.’ It is these self-
renewal outcomes that seem particularly distinctive
in the OD process.
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