Organization Development and Change
According to Beckhard (1969), organization development is an effort, planned, organization-wide, and managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organization’s processes, using behavioral-science knowledge; it is a planned system of change.
As the definition suggests, OD is planned, which means it is a long-range approach to improving organizational performance and efficiency (Rouda & Kusy, Jr. 1995). Improving performance includes improving competency among employees. It is also organization-wide; it focuses on not just few level of the organization but on the total system and is supported by the top management. OD’s goal is to improve the organization, to make it more efficient and more competitive by aligning the organization’s systems with its people; its uses a discipline that combines research and experience to understand people, business systems, and their interactions (Rouda & Kusy, Jr. 1995).
In other words, OD is an approach to changing the organization for the advantage of the company, its customers, its employees and the stakeholders. The problems identified above can be addressed by changing the human resources, that is, the individuals, who comprise the organization and can be the cause for the company’s success or failure, are developed, their behavior towards work be changed through proper motivation.
It is very important that organizational change takes place in a firm to be able to adapt to the changing environment and to adopt techniques or models in order to solve problems.
The basic approach to OD is organizational diagnosis, which is used to address the problems in a company. Organizational diagnosis is the process of understanding a system’s current functioning and provides the information necessary to design change interventions. (Jaricha et al, 2005). It therefore involves identification of a model for understanding the organization. There are common steps in diagnosing an organization (Jariche ety al, 2005). First is to develop a sense of how organization should ideally function, requiring a common vision to guide the organization in change. Second is to choose an organizational model that reflects the organization. Aside from organizational model, there are also other techniques used by other successful companies that helped them in identifying and preventing problems. The third step is to compare the actual process of the organization to the model used. This can be done by collecting information about how the organization functions (Jaricha et al, 2005). With the collected information, the problem areas or functions can now be identified and the strategies for bringing about changes can be developed.
Moreover, it is a common problem of most companies that their organizational structures are not appropriate for their goals. As with FumeGo, it seems that the goals of the individuals and the organization as a whole are not compatible, making its employees uncommitted. Also, the needs of the individuals are not met by its current organizational structure.
When the problems have been diagnosed carefully, the company can proceed in developing the skills of its employees. Companies that developed and educate their employees encounter fewer problems, such as the Ford Motor Co., an automotive manufacturer that underwent changes under the Ford 2000 program. Ford 2000 is basically a change program of the company which involved changing the company’s organizational structure from being very hierarchical to matrix type of organization. It also involves improving the operations efficiency, responsiveness and flexibility through it employees. Under Ford 2000 are the formal and informal teaching and learning programs such as the Executive Partnering for young executives of the company; the Capstone which involves the senior team of managers including the CEO; and the Business Leadership Initiatives which involve a number of participants and helps improve participants knowledge on cost cutting, enhancing growth and improving customer satisfaction (Ford, 1999). These teaching programs provide the communication and interaction necessary to facilitate cross-functional and cross-cultural working relationships (Ford, 1999). Ford also facilitated what they called worldwide learning which is the extensive study of operations and benchmarking of other companies, implementing the best practices that are applicable to Ford (Penman, 1999).
Moreover, the customers are also participatory in the development of the people and the entire organization. Their feedbacks and comments are important for the company to realize what went wrong and what aspects of the company needs improvement. It is the role of management to communicate with the customers, interpret their perceptions and formulate strategies on how to satisfy them. Through customers, a company can also diagnose the problems and through them, strategies can be formulated.
Organization development and change, according to Chapman (2005), not impose on people but must involve the people, making them participate and communicate. People and teams need to be empowered to find their own solutions and responses with the support and motivation from managers and the company’s leaders.
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