Sree Narayanaguru Institute of Management Studies: Faculty Name: Course Name: Unit 3

Sree Narayanaguru Institute of
Management Studies
Faculty Name: Dr. G. Bhuvaneswari, Professor
Course Name: Organisational Development
Unit 3:Introduction to OD Interventions

OD INTERVENTIONS
OD interventions refer to various activities which a consultant
and client organization perform for improving organizational
performance through enabling organizational members better
manage their behaviour, their work group, and organizational
culture.
 OD interventions are also referred as OD techniques or OD
strategies as they are designed to accomplish specific objectives
Organization Development Interventions (ODI) techniques are
the methods created by OD professionals and others.
Single organization or consultant cannot use all the
interventions.
They use these interventions depending upon the need or
requirement.
Most important interventions
Survey feedback
Process Consultation
Sensitivity Training
The Managerial grid
Goal setting and Planning
Team Building and management by objectives
Job enrichment
 Changes in organizational structure
Participative management
Quality circles, ISO, TQM
Categories of OD interventions
The following interventions deal with interpersonal
relationships and group dynamics.
T Groups: The basic T Group brings ten to fifteen
strangers together with a professional trainer to examine
the social dynamics that emerge from their interactions.
Process Consultation: This intervention focuses on
interpersonal relations an social dynamics occurring in
work groups.
• Third party interventions: This change method is a
form of process consultation aimed at dysfunctional
interpersonal relations in organizations.
Team Building: This intervention helps work group
become more effective in accomplishing tasks.
Organization Confrontation Meeting: These
change methods mobilize organization members to
identify problems, set action targets, and begin
working on problems.
Intergroup relations: these interventions are
designed to improve interactions among different
groups or departments in organization.
Large-group Interventions: These interventions
involve getting abroad variety of stake holders into a
large meeting to clarify important values, to develop
new ways of working, to articulate a new vision for the
organization, or to solve pressing organizational
problems.
Grid Organization Development: This normative
intervention specifies a particular way to manage an
organization
Team Intervention
The purpose of this team is to help Employees/
Members of the team that are struggling in some way.
This usually refers to performance but can include
emotional/behavioral/social concerns.
Work teams exercise influence on individual work
behavior. In turn, individuals also influence.
OD is concerned with the different types of
techniques or interventions that contribute to “team
effectiveness”.
Team Intervention
Most important single group interventions on OD are
team-building activities, the goals of which are the
improvement and increased effectiveness of various
teams within the organization.
The interventions focus on different types of groups
those that are more enduring and more permanent
such as the role-set(superior-subordinate and
colleagues), the others which are created for a specific
purpose and hence are less enduring(such as specific
task teams constituted to facilitate mergers,
acquisitions or organizational restructuring).
Main Areas of Team Intervention
Diagnosis
Task Accomplishments
Team relationships
Team and organization processes
THE FORMAL GROUP DIAGNOSTIC MEETING
Its purpose is to conduct a general critique of the
performance of the group and to uncover and identify
problems on which they will work on
THE FORMAL GROUP TEAM-BUILDING MEETING
It has the goal of improving the team’s effectiveness
through better management of task demands,
relationship demands and group processes.
Steps in Team Intervention
Step 1 - Identify At-Risk Population
It must be determined which members are “at-risk”.
The lowest 10% in each level will be the target group.
Identify them by considering Previous year’s review or with various
assessment technique.
Step 2 - Initial Intervention Team Meeting
Review data with all personnel in attendance 
Brainstorm interventions (interventions must be research-validated).
Other interventions may have been agreed upon during the initial
Intervention Team meeting.
Step 3 - Interventions Begin
Step 4 - Second Intervention Team Meeting
Step 5 - Request for Further Testing
Focus of Team Interventions
Clarify Direction: Often facilitate teams, to clarify
their visions and goals, and their understanding of the
business environment, market and competitor forces
within their operation.
Inspiring Performance: This involves clarifying
individual and team roles, their interdependencies and
communication between them.
Building Relationships and Trust: Use techniques
such as sharing information, giving and receiving
feedback, as well as practical behavior frameworks such
as MBTI, Transactional Analysis and Learning Styles, to
help colleagues understand each other better.
Focus of Team Interventions
Conflict Management: Help clarify the rules of
engagement and, if necessary, use conflict
management techniques to help protagonists stand
back and take a fresh look at how they are behaving
and working together, and explore options for change.
Relating to the External World: Identify the key
external stakeholders of the team, how
communication occurs between them and individual
team members, and facilitate changes which simplify
and enhance effectiveness.
Varieties of team building interventions
Intergroup Intervention
Often two or more independently working groups
have to coordinate tasks, on either a temporary or
permanent basis, to achieve the required
organizational goals.
This could give rises to disagreement and conflict
among groups affecting group morale and
productivity.
Where there is competition among groups, It may give
rise to tension and conflict and each group may
perceive the other as an ‘enemy’.
Objectives of Intergroup Intervention
Activities designed to improve the effectiveness of
independent groups.
They focus on joint activities and output is considered
as a single system.
To increase communication and interactions between
work- related groups.
To reduce the amount of dysfunctional competition.
To replace a narrow-minded independent point of
view with an awareness of the necessity for
interdependence of action calling on the best efforts of
both the groups.
REASONS FOR INTER GROUP CONFLICTS
Differences in objectives, values, efforts, and interests
occur between groups.
Inaccurate communication and stoppage of feedback
and data input.
Intergroup Intervention for Managing Conflict
To resolve such intergroup conflicts many strategies are
adopted in organization:
Increasing the interaction and communication among
the groups(increased interaction under favorable
conditions enhances positive feelings and sentiments)
Identifying a ‘common enemy’ (another group that both
groups dislike, which brings the groups closer together).
Finding a super-ordinate goal(a goal that both groups
desire to achieve but that neither can achieve without
mutual support)
Rotating the members of the groups and instituting
some forms of training.
TECHNIQUES FOR INTER-GROUP INTERVENTION
OD techniques for dealing with intergroup problem
include
Third-party consultation
 The organization mirror
Intergroup team building.
Third – Party Consultation:
Use a third party, usually an outside, practitioner, to
help open communications, level power, and confront
problems between groups.
The third party provides diagnostic insight, is non-
evaluative, and is a source of emotional support and
skills.
Organizational Mirror:
Gives work units feedback on how other elements of the
organizational view them.
The units meet together to process the data with the
objective of identifying problems and formulating
solutions.
Intergroup Team Building:
Key members of conflicting groups meet to work on issue of interface.
The meeting usually involves the following steps:
Step 1. Working separately. Two work groups makes three lists:
 How we see ourselves
 How we think the other group sees us
 How we see the other person
Step 2. Meeting with the other group, a spokesperson from each group
presents their lists.
Step 3. Group meet separately to discuss the information
Step 4. Subgroups of five or six are formed by mixing members of the two
groups. Their objective is to develop problem solving alternatives with
action plans.
Step 5. A follow-up meeting is held to evaluate progress
Personal, interpersonal and group process intervention
The central theme of these interventions is learning through an
examination of underlying process.
The following Four interventions deal with interpersonal
relationships and group dynamics.
• T Groups: The basic T Group brings ten to fifteen strangers
together with a professional trainer to examine the social dynamics
that emerge from their interactions.
• Process Consultation: This intervention focuses on interpersonal
relations and social dynamics occurring in work groups.
• Third Party Interventions: This change method is a form of
process consultation aimed at dysfunctional interpersonal relations
in organizations.
Team Building: This intervention helps work groups become more
effective in accomplishing tasks.
 T-Group/ Sensitivity training :
 Sensitivity training involves such groupings as – T groups (T for
training), encounter groups, laboratory training groups, and human
awareness groups are all names usually associated with what is
known as sensitivity training.
 In one way Sensitivity training is the process of developing
emotional intelligence, which means “the mental ability an
individual possesses enabling him or her to be sensitive and
understanding to the emotions of others as well as being able to
manage their own emotions and impulses”
 Procedure of Sensitivity Training:
 Sensitivity Training Program requires three steps:
1. Unfreezing the old values
2. Development of new values
3. Refreezing the new ones
 Procedure of Sensitivity Training:
 1. Unfreezing the old values
 It requires that the trainees become aware of the inadequacy of the old
values.
 This can be done when the trainee faces dilemma in which his old values
in not able to provide proper guidance.
 The first step consists of a small procedure:
 An unstructured group of 10-15 people is formed.
 Unstructured group without any objective looks to the trainer for its
guidance
 But the trainer refuses to provide guidance and assume leadership
 Soon, the trainees are motivated to resolve the uncertainly
 Then they try to form some hierarchy. Some try assume leadership
role which may not be liked by other trainees
 Then they started realizing that what they desire to do and realize the
alternative ways of dealing with the situation.
Procedure of Sensitivity Training:
2. Development of new values
With the trainer’s support, trainees begin to examine
their interpersonal behavior and giving each other
feedback.
The reasoning of the feedbacks are discussed which
motivates trainees to experiment with range of new
behaviors and values.
3. Refreezing the new ones
This step depends upon how much opportunity the
trainees get to practice their new behaviors and values at
their work place.
Process consultation Intervention:
Process Consultation (PC) is a method for intervening in an
ongoing system.
In this approach, a skilled third party(consultant) works with
the individuals and groups to help them learn about human
and social processes and learn to solve problems that stems
from process events.
The process consultant helps our organization to solve its
problems by making it aware of organizational process, the
consequences of these processes and the mechanisms by
which they can be changed.
It is to enable the organization to address its problems by
itself.
Process consultation Intervention:
The organizational processes that are important to be
dealt with, include
Communications
 Clarifying the roles and functions of group members
 Group problem solving and decision making
 Group norms and group growth
 Leadership and authority
Inter group cooperation and competition
Team Building Intervention:
Team building is an organizational development
intervention that includes planned activities to enhance
functioning of existing and integrated teams.
The focus is primarily on tasks, but also deals with
interpersonal and affective components of group work.
Roles of group members group decision-making processes,
individual functions, intra group and intergroup
communication, and influence tactics used by team leaders
are analyzed
Team building is often used in conjunction with other
conflict management techniques
Three types of Team Building:
Focus on individual. An example would be helping a
newcomer adapt to the team environment and learn his/her role
in the overall group.
Focus on the relationship between the existing team and the
organization it is part of, often as a response to intergroup
conflict within the organization.
Focus on behavior of the group as a whole. This is the most
common, and it often involves changing task behavior,
diagnosis of group mood, and interpersonal inventions aimed
at improving communication processes.
When to Use Team Building:
 Groups are faced with complex, unstructured, and interdependent
tasks
 Group communication problems are interfering with group
effectiveness.
 Increased quality of work atmosphere (a more positive working
environment) and interpersonal interactions are desired.
 There is a need to build consensus for team decision making and
goal-setting.
 There is a need to accelerate group member socialization.
 Models of Team Building:
 Most of these models consider the context the team exists in, how long the team has been
together, establishment of ground rules and other structural components for the team building
intervention itself, and categorization of the team based on its primary functions (e.g. service
team, management team).
 Traditional Team Building Model involves 6 steps:
1. Background research and data collection. Involves establishment of goals, including
empowering the team.
2. Start-up. An outside consultant meets, with the team, established ground rules for future
interactions and a trusting atmosphere.
3. Group problem solving and process analysis. Involves exercises to improve decision-making
planning, and delegation skills.
4. Open feedback. Discussion of what has been inhibiting team performance based on the
exercises.
5. Action planning. Team develops an action plan and assigns tasks to its members in order to
complete the action plan.
6. Leader of the team ensures that group members are performing the actions. they
committed to during the team building exercises.
 Team Compilation Model
 Based on the type of interdependence of group members, which can be any of the following:
 People interdependence: no need to coordinate with other team members. Each person makes a
discrete, additive contribution.
 Sequential interdependence: each person makes a discrete contribution, but tasks must be done in
a fixed, serial order.
 Reciprocal interdependence: individual contributions are bidirectional. Intensive
interdependence: work is simultaneous and parallel, and can include all of the conditions for the 3
other types.
 Phases of the Team Compilations Model include:
 Team formation: addresses interpersonal uncertainty of a recently formed team or a newcomer
joining an established team.
 Task compilation: addresses task performance uncertainty.
 Role compilation: individuals become aware of how their tasks and interpersonal behaviors affect
other members of the team.
 Team compilation: the team is now a network where in each member knows his/her role and how it
links to all other team members. the group as a whole, and the organization.
 Integrated Model of Group Development has 5 stages:
1. Dependency, Inclusion, and Pseudo-work: social interaction, including simple chitchat,
which lays the foundation for an effective team.
2. Counter dependency and fight: first team interaction characterized by conflict.
3. Trust and structure.
4. Work
5. Impending termination: end of a temporary team.
 Woodman and Pasmore’s Model: Focuses on group decision-making in the
context of an organization, so it will only be briefly mentioned here. Its elements
include:
 Directioning: determining what needs to be accomplished.
 Organizing: agreeing on how to use group resources to complete a task.
 Exploring: exploring alternative ways to perform the work.
 Converging: deciding on the best approach or solution.
 Executing: completing the work.
Third party peace making Intervention:
 It should be undertaken only by professionals. It is used when two persons are in
conflict. The third party should have the potential to control/ contain the conflict or
resolve it. A basic feature is confrontation of the conflict.
 There are four basic elements in interpersonal conflicts:
 The conflict issue
 The precipitating circumstances
 The conflict-relevant acts of the principals.
 Consequences of conflict
Comprehensive Interventions
 OD comprehensive interventions are used to directly create change
throughout an entire organization, rather than focusing on organizational
change through subgroup interventions.
 Comprehensive interventions are those in which the total organization is
involved and depth of the cultural change is addressed.
 Common comprehensive Interventions
 Beckhard’s Confrontation Meeting
 Strategic Management Activities
 Stream Analysis
 Survey Feedback
 Grid Organizational Development
Beckhard’s Confrontation Meeting
The confrontation meeting is developed by Richard Beckhard,
is a one day meeting of the entire management of an
organization, in which they take a reading of their own
organizational health.
In a series of activities, the management group generates
information about its major problems, analyzes the underlying
causes, develops action plans to correct the problems, and sets
a schedule foe completed remedial work.
This intervention is an important one in OD. It is quick,
simple, and reliable way in which to generate data about an
organization and to set the action plans.
 The steps involved in confrontation meeting are as follows:
 1.Climate setting (45-60 min).
 The top manager introduces the session by stating his or her goals for the
meeting, citing the necessity for free and open discussion of issues and
problems, and making it clear that individuals will not be punished for what
they say.
 2. Information collecting (1 hour).
 Small groups of 7-8 members are formed on the basis of heterogeneity of
composition that is maximum mixture of people from different functional areas
and working situations compose each team.
 The only rule is that bosses and subordinates cannot be put together on the same
team.
 The steps involved in confrontation
 3. Information sharing (1 hour).
 Reporters from each small group reports the group’s complete findings to the total group, which
are placed on newsprint on the walls.
 The total list of items is characterized usually by the meeting leader, into few major categories
that may be based on type of problems (e.g.. Communication problems), type of relationships
(e.g.. Troubles with top management), or type of area (e.g. problems with the accounting deptt.)
 4. Priority setting & Goal Action Planning (1 hour and 15 min.).
 This step typically follows a break during which time the items from the lists are duplicated for
distribution to everyone.
 In a 15 min general session, the meeting leader goes to the list of items.
 The groups are asked to do three tasks.
 First they are to identify the problems they think should be the priority issues for top management.
 Second to find the solutions to the problems.
 Third, they are to determine how they will communicate the results of the confrontation meeting to their
subordinates .
 This activity completes the confrontation meeting for all the managers except for the top management group
Beckhard’s Confrontation Meeting
The steps involved in confrontation
5. Immediate follow up by top team (1 to 3 hours).
 The top management team meets the rest of the participants have left
to plan the first follow-up actions steps and to determine what actions
should be taken on the basis of what they have learned during the day.
 These follow up action plans are communicated to the rest of the mgt
group within several day
 6.Progress Review (2 hours).
 A follow up meeting with the total mgt group is held 4-6 weeks later
to the report progress and to review the actions resulting from the
confrontation meeting.
 Strategic Management Activities
 It is defined as the development and implementation of the
organization’s grand design or overall strategy for relating to its
current and future environmental demands.
 The concept is described by Schendel and Hofers as- It comprises of
six major tasks as:
 i. Goal Formulation- Defining Mission & purpose
 ii. Environmental analysis- SWOT Analysis
 iii. Strategy formulation
 iv. Strategy evaluation
 v. Strategy implementation
 vi. Strategic control Comprehensive Interventions
 Stream Analysis
 Developed by Jerry Porras is a valuable model for thinking about change
and for managing change.
 It is a system for graphically displaying the problems of an organization,
examining the interconnections between the problems, identifying core
problems and graphically tracking the corrective actions taken to solve the
problems.
 Porras categorized organization work in four classes-
 a) Organizing arrangements- goals, structure, policies etc.
 b) Social factors- Culture, management style, interaction process etc.
 c) Technology- tools, equipment, job design, technical systems.
 d) Physical Setting- space configuration, physical ambience, interior
design etc.
 Stream Analysis
 A thorough diagnosis of the organization’s problems and barriers to
effectiveness is performed via brainstorming sessions, interviews,
questionnaires and other methods.
 Each problem is categorized in one stream.
 The interconnections between the problems are noted.
 Problems that have many interconnections are identified as core problem.
 Action plans are developed to correct the core problems.
 In stream analysis, OD programs change the work setting, which leads to
organizational improvement.
 Survey Feedback
 Collecting data about the system and feeding back the data for individuals
and groups at all levels of the organization to analyze, interpret meanings,
and design corrective action steps.
 These are having two components- the use of Attitude Survey and the use
of Feedback workshops.
 Survey feedback has been shown to be an effective change technique in
OD.
 A well designed survey helps organization members to develop valid
models of how organizations work and also provide feedback about
progress towards goals.
 Survey Feedback
 Steps of Optimal survey
 Organization members at the top of the hierarchy are involved in the preliminary planning.
 Data are collected from all organizations.
 Data are fed back to the top executive team and then down through the hierarchy is functional teams.
 Each superior presides at a meeting with their subordinates in which the data are discussed.
 Most feedback meetings include a consultant who has helped prepare the superior for the meeting and who
serves as a resource person.
 Designed by Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Mouton.
 Six phase program lasting about 3-5 years.
 An organization can move systematically from the stage of examining managerial
behavior and style to the development and implementation of an ideal strategic
corporate model.
 It enable individuals and groups to assess their own strengths and weaknesses.
 Based on two dimension- a) Concern for people b) Concern for production
 Phases in Grid OD
 Phase 1: The Managerial Grid- Grid seminar is conducted by the company manager. Attention is given to
assessing an individual’s managerial styles; problem solving; and communication skills etc.
 Phase 2: Teamwork Development- The goal is perfecting teamwork in the organization through analysis
of team culture, traditions etc.. Feedback given to each manager about their individual team behavior .
 Phase 3: Intergroup Development- The goal is to move groups from their ineffective ways towards an
ideal model. The phase includes building operational plans for moving the two groups.
 Phase 4: Developing an ideal strategic corporate model- the focus shifts to corporate planning. Top
management design an ideal strategic corporate model that would define what the corporation would be
like.
 Phase 5: Implementing the Ideal Strategic Model- the organization implement the model developed in
phase 4. Each component appoints a planning team whose job is to examine every phase of the
component’s operation . After the planning and assessment steps are completed, conversion of the
organization to the ideal condition is implemented.
 Phase 6: Systematic Critique- Systematic critiquing, measuring, and evaluating lead to knowledge of what
progress has been made, what barriers still exist and must be overcome.
Structural Intervention
This refers to invention or change efforts aimed at
improving organization effectiveness through changes
in the task and structural and technological
subsystems.
This class of interventions includes changes in the
division of overall work of the organization into units,
reporting relationships, work flow and procedures,
and role definitions, methods of control, and spatial
arrangements of equipment and people, etc
It is also called as Techno structural Intervention.
Types of Structural Interventions
 Socio Technical Systems (STS)
 Self managed Teams
Work Redesign
Management by Objectives (MBO)
Quality Circles
Quality of work life projects (QWL)
 Total Quality Management (TQM)
Socio technical Systems
Sociotechnical systems (STS) in organizational development is an
approach to complex organizational work design that recognizes
the interaction,between people and technology in workplaces.
The term also refers to the interaction between society's complex
infrastructures and human behaviour.
It is based on joint optimization of the social and technological
systems of organization.
 The boundary between the organization & its environment
should be managed to allow effective exchanges but protection
from external disruptions.
 The implementation of STS should be highly participative.
Self managed teams/ autonomous work teams
Alternative to traditional assembly line methods.
Rather than having a large number of employees each do a small
operation to assemble a product, the employees are organized into small
teams, each of which is responsible for assembling an entire product.
These teams are self-managed, and are independent of one another.
 Providing teams with a grouping of tasks that comprises a major unit of
the total work to be performed.
Training group members in multiple skills, including team effectiveness
skills.
Delegating to the team many aspects of how the work gets done.
Providing a great deal of information and feedback for self regulation of
quality & productivity.
Work Redesign
Job design (also referred to as work design or task design) is a core function of
human resource management
It is related to the specification of contents, methods and relationship of jobs in order
to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as the social and
personal requirements of the job holder.
Its principles are geared towards how the nature of a person's job affects their
attitudes and behavior at work, particularly relating to characteristics such as skill
variety and autonomy.
The aim of a job design is to improve job satisfaction, to improve through-put, to
improve quality and to reduce employee problems (e.g., grievances, absenteeism).
Richard Hackman & Greg Oldham have provided an OD approach to work design
based on theoretical model of what job characteristics lead to psychological states
that produce high internal work motivation.
 It is based on five job characteristics- Skill variety, task identity, task significance,
autonomy and feedback from the job.
MBO
MBO may be described as a process consisting of series of inter related
steps-
The subordinate proposes a set of goals for the upcoming time period.
The subordinate and supervisor jointly developed specific goals and
targets.
These goals must be specific and measurable.
The actual performance of the individual is measured against his goals.
The feedback of results to the individual and appropriate rewards for
performance.
The outcome of the performance review provides the basis for setting new
performance goals.
Quality Circles
It is a form of group problem solving and goal setting
with a primary focus on maintaining and enhancing
product quality.
Quality circles consists of 7-10 employees from a unit
who meet together regularly to analyze and make
proposals about product quality.
Leaders are encouraged to create a high degree of
participation within the group.
Quality of Work Life (QWL)
 It includes restructuring of several dimensions of the
organization.
Increased problem solving between management and the
union.
Increased participation by teams of employees in shop
floor decisions pertaining to production flow, quality
control and safety.
Skill development through skill training, job rotation, and
training in team problem solving.
Total Quality Management(TQM)
Total Quality Management is a combination of a number of organization
improvement techniques and approaches including the use of quality circles,
statistical quality control and extensive use of employee participation.
A core definition of total quality management (TQM) describes a management
approach to long–term success through customer satisfaction.
In a TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in improving
processes, products, services, and the culture in which they work
Characteristics of TQM
 Primary emphasis on customers
It is based on measurement using SQC
Continuous search for sources of defects with a goal of eliminating them entirely.
Participative Management
Emphasis on teams & team work
Continuous training

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Faculty Name: Dr. G. Bhuvaneswari, Professor

Course Name: Organisational Development

Unit 3:Introduction to OD Interventions

 How we see the other person

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