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Integrated Organizational Development

Integrated Organizational Development
Integrated Organizational Development Organizational Development : in short OD, is a systematic, integrated and planned approach to improving enterprise effectiveness. Corporate firms can achieve success only when the available #resources are put to optimal use. Optimisation implies, deriving the best out of the limited or scarce resources. A firm is comprised of many departments, all of which compete for the same kind of resources and it becomes a tough proposition for the #management to allocate the resources suitably to different cost and #responsibility centers. The point is, changing needs of an organization has to be keenly observed by the management and if it senses a need for organizational development in any one of the disciplines, it should immediately employ appropriate #interventions to improve the #performance and #productivity. Culture – The Fundamental Aspect: Organizational development involves a paradigm shift in its culture, which is the fundamental aspect. It does not just mean finding solutions to problems. It is a process of managing change in an organization, resulting in behavioral changes in #employees for the good of the organization. Firms adopt different interventions to bring in changes in the behavior of employees through learning. The aim of introducing interventions would be to meet the short term and long term #objectives of the firm in an integrated fashion. Only when the employees are suitably appraised about the objectives and trained accordingly, their mindset gets tuned in to perform as per the expected standards. Intervention Techniques: Intervention techniques focus on shifting the individual’s focus from “me” to “us.” Before delving into the types of interventions, one might wonder why an organization needs to incorporate such interventions at the first place. The reasons may be attributed to the following: Some kinds of problems keep recurring to the surface. Even after solving a particular problem, another one of similar nature erupts. Productivity improvement techniques are not effective. Any amount of effort fails to yield the desired result. Employee morale is low and the top management is unable to pinpoint any particular reason for the undesired development. How to Overcome #Resistance from Employees’ End? Intervention techniques encourage employees to come out with suggestions and take part in decision making as well for the betterment of the organization. Though initially there might be a resistance to change, as it is natural for humans to resist change, gradually the workforce understands the importance of initializing the change that might have a direct bearing on them and their working environment. A holistic change is what is needed for an organization to rise as a whole to greater heights. #Group Training: Group training is a vehicle for individual change. It improves the listening skills, empathy, capability of being sensitive to fellow workers’ needs, interpersonal skills, and desired behavior in a social setup etc., Trainees selects the problem issues that are of interest to them, the setting being informal and unstructured and most interestingly there is no external force to structure the discussion. But it may be noted that the trainer interferes in extreme cases where the discussions turns out to be #counterproductive and destructive. #Survey Feedback: Survey feedback is another kind of intervention that gathers data from employees at different levels regarding the problem issues, through questionnaires and the feedback of the survey is analyzed by the top management to find the loopholes or bottlenecks hindering the development. This has been a popular organization development technique since time immemorial and still followed suit. These programs are useful in improving the #quality of work life and employee productivity. Analysis of the effectiveness of intervention programmes and evolving right research designs to measure the variables before and after the change, shall reveal the...
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Organizational Development Techniques

Organizational Development Techniques
Organisational development is not an overnight transformation; it is indeed a gradual process that has to be implemented systematically and in tandem with the external environment. Listed here are some of the relevant organizational development techiniques or interventions that help employees to become more productive.  A. Sensitivity Training The notion is to change the attitude and behaviour of individuals involved in the group rather than the technical skill or knowledge. The term sensitivity refers to the psychological aspect of human mind that has to be shaped to act in accordance with the expectations of the group. One’s own weakness is exposed and members understand how others react  towards them. Stress is on Group Dynamics and tackling inter-relationship problems. The idea is to improve the behaviour of people in order to maintain smooth inter-personal relationship without anybody’s  power or influence. Members are encouraged to have an open, heart to heart talk to develop mature relationship. Employee Engagement & Retention The Process: Sensitivity  group is a small discussion group without any leader. The trainer raises a question and allows the members to proceed with the discussion, the focus being feelings and mutual respect. There is no set task or agenda and members try to analyse the immediate problem by having open discussion instead of applying logic and rationale. Free and frank discussions lead the members through periods of shock, anger, frustration, hostility, all for the better understanding of one another. Improve People Management and Build Employee Engagement Feedback includes videotape of the proceedings and guidance from the trainers. Members unlearn old things through shock and change the present behaviour to improve their behaviour pattern. Individual emotions and inter-relationship pattern are primarily focused upon in sensitivity training. Sensitivity training borders on psychotherapy where the emotions as well as body language are taken into consideration. The expressions may be any one of the following: 1. Gestures 2. Screaming 3. Physical contact B. Survey Feedback Here the discrepancies among a group are weeded out using questionnaires, which identify the difference in perceptions amongst the same working family, group or department.  The data collected is tabulated and distributed for taking part in the deliberations. This forms the basis for further discussions. Discrepancies if any can be sorted out by open discussions with all concerned, defending  and opposing till a consensus is arrived at. Here the focus is on ideas and not on persons who put up those ideas. C. Process Consultation A firm may either seek the support of  1. Expert from within the organisation: Though he might be knowing the crux of the problem, his emotional involvement might block him from seeing the problem in the right perspective. Moreover the outcome of the result might be a ‘biased one’ due to internal politics.  2. An outside expert: This person with his vast knowledge, experience and similar problem encounters may have the know-how of resolving the problem but may lack the necessary insight of that particular problem.  The organisation must see to that process consultation is done through an external expert with the needed support provided by the authorities from within the organisation.  D. Team Building Team building is attempted at the group or inter-group level. The objective is to improve co-ordination thereby improving the performance as a group.  1. Goal setting 2. Development of inter-personal relations 3. Role analysis to identify roles and responsibilities 4. Team process analysis are the key features of team building.  E. Inter Group Development One of the major challenges for firms involved in development is tackling inter departmental conflicts. Such dysfunctional conflicts may exist between a. Line and staff b. Production  and materials c. Finance and production What is Group Dynamics? As sensitivity...
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