MGMT628 — Midterm Summary (Lectures 1–22)

📘 Lecture 01 — The Challenge for Organizations

📖 Overview: This lecture introduces the fundamental need for organizational change in today's rapidly evolving world, explaining why traditional management approaches are no longer sufficient. It establishes the foundation for Organization Development (OD) by examining the external forces driving change and defining what OD actually means as a discipline.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers the chaotic and rapidly changing business environment, the external forces affecting organizations, the three major trends shaping organizational change (globalization, information technology, and managerial innovation), the growing relevance of Organization Development, and a detailed definition and analysis of what OD is and what it aims to achieve.

📝 Lecture Summary

The Challenge for Organizations

We live in a world that has been turned upside down. Companies are pouring money, technology, and management expertise into regions that were once off limits, acquiring new enterprises, forming joint ventures, and creating new global businesses from the ground up. Many major companies are going through significant changes, including outsourcing, downsizing, reengineering, self-managed work teams, flattening organizations, and doing routine jobs with automation and computers. Some experts contend that if you can describe a job precisely or write rules for doing it, the job will probably not survive.

Change is avalanching down upon our heads and most people are utterly unprepared to cope with it. Tomorrow’s world will be different from today's, calling for new organizational approaches. Organizations will need to be adapting to these changes in market conditions and at the same time coping with the need for a renewing rather than reactive workforce. Every day managers are confronting massive and accelerating change. As one writer comments, "Call it whatever you like – reengineering, restructuring, transformation, flattening, downsizing, rightsizing, a quest for global competitiveness – it’s real, it’s radical and it’s arriving every day at a company near you."

Global competition and economic downturns have exposed a glaring weakness in American organizations: the fact that many organizations have become overstaffed, cumbersome, slow and inefficient. To increase productivity, enhance competitiveness and contain costs, organizations are changing the way they are organized and managed. The successful twenty-first century manager must deal with a chaotic world of new competitors and constant innovation. In the future, the only winning companies will be the ones that respond quickly to change. Preparing managers to cope with today's accelerating role of change is the central theme and purpose of these lectures. The modern manager must not only be flexible and adaptive in a changing environment but must also be able to diagnose problems and implement change programs.

Tom Peters suggests that "the time for 10 percent staff cuts and 20 percent quality improvement is past."

Organizations are never completely static. They are in continuous interaction with external forces. Changing consumer lifestyles and technological breakthroughs all act on the organization to cause it to change. The degree of change may vary from one organization to another, but all face the need for adaptation to external forces. Many of these changes are forced upon the organization, whereas others are generated internally. Because change is occurring so rapidly, there is a need for new ways to manage it.

The Growth and Relevance of OD

Organizations must adapt to increasingly complex and uncertain technological, economic, political, and cultural changes. The rapidly changing conditions of the past few years have shown that organizations are in the midst of unprecedented uncertainty and chaos, and nothing short of a management revolution will save them. Three major trends are shaping change in organizations: globalization, information technology, and managerial innovation.

First: globalization is changing the markets and environments in which organizations operate, as well as the way they function. New governments, new leadership, new markets, and new countries are emerging and creating a new global economy. The toppling of the Berlin Wall symbolized and energized the reunification of Germany; entrepreneurs appeared in Russia, the Balkans, and Siberia as the former Soviet Union evolves into separate, market-oriented states; and China emerged as an open market, representing a powerful shift in global economic influence.

Second: information technology is redefining the traditional business model by changing how work is performed, how knowledge is used, and how the cost of doing business is calculated. The way an organization collects, stores, manipulates, uses, and transmits information can lower costs or increase the value and quality of products and services. Information technology is at the heart of emerging e-commerce strategies and organizations like Amazon.com and E-Trade. Electronic data interchange, a state-of-the-art technology application a few years ago, is now considered routine business practice. The ability to move information easily and inexpensively throughout and among organizations has fueled the downsizing, delayering, and restructuring of firms. The Internet and the World Wide Web have enabled telecommuting, where organization members can work from their homes or cars without ever going to the office. Information technology is also changing how knowledge is used; information that is widely shared reduces the concentration of power at the top of the organization.

Third: managerial innovation has responded to the globalization and information technology trends and has accelerated their impact on organizations. New organizational forms, such as networks, strategic alliances, and virtual corporations, provide organizations with new ways of thinking about how to manufacture goods and deliver services. The strategic alliance has emerged as one of the indispensable tools in strategy implementation. No single organization, not even IBM, Mitsubishi, or General Electric, can control the environmental and market uncertainty it faces. New methods of change, such as downsizing and reengineering, have radically reduced the size of organizations and increased their flexibility. New large-group interventions, such as the search conference and open space, have increased the speed with which organizational change can take place.

💡 Why this matters: These three forces (globalization, information technology, and managerial innovation) are not only powerful individually but are interrelated. Their interaction creates a highly uncertain and chaotic environment for all kinds of organizations, making OD increasingly relevant.

Fortunately, a growing number of organizations are undertaking the kinds of organizational changes needed to survive and prosper. They are making themselves more streamlined, nimble, and more responsive to external demands. They are involving employees in key decisions and paying for performance rather than for time. Organization Development is playing an increasingly key role in helping organizations change themselves. It is helping organizations assess themselves and their environments, and revitalize and rebuild their strategies, structures, and processes. OD is helping organization members go beyond surface changes to transform the underlying assumptions and values governing their behaviors. Perhaps at no other time has OD been more responsive and practically relevant to organizations' needs to operate effectively in a highly complex and changing world.

What is Organization Development (OD)?

What makes one organization a winner, whereas another fails to make use of the same opportunities? The key to survival and success lies not in the rational, quantitative approaches, but rather in a commitment to irrational, difficult-to-measure things like people, quality, customer service, and more importantly, developing the flexibility to meet changing conditions. For example, in a study that examined the "high tech-high touch" phenomenon at Citicorp, the crucial component in adapting to technological change was the human factor. Employee involvement and commitment is the true key to successful change.

Defining Organization Development (OD)

The words "organization development" refer to something about organizations and developing them. An organization is "the planned coordination of the activities of a number of people for the achievement of some common explicit purpose or goal, through division of labor and functions, and through a hierarchy of authority and responsibility." Organizations are social systems, and OD efforts are directed toward organizations or major subparts of them.

Development is the act, process, result, or state of being developed – which in turn means to advance, to promote the growth of, to evolve the possibilities of, to further, to improve, or to enhance something. Two elements of this definition seem important: first, development may be an act, process, or end state; second, development refers to "bettering" something.

Combining these words suggests that organization development is the act, process, or result of furthering, advancing, or promoting the growth of an organization. According to this definition, organization development is anything done to "better" an organization. However, this definition is too broad and all-inclusive, as it can refer to almost anything done in an organizational context that enhances the organization – hiring a person with needed skills, firing an incompetent, merging with another organization, installing a computer, and so on.

🔑 Definition — Organization Development (OD) (Richard Beckhard): "OD is an effort (1) planned, (2) organization-wide, and (3) managed from the top, to (4) increase organization effectiveness and health through (5) planned interventions in the organization's 'processes,' using behavioral science knowledge."

Analysis of this definition suggests that OD is not just "anything done to better an organization"; it is a particular kind of change process designed to bring about a particular kind of end result. OD thus represents a unique strategy for system change, a strategy largely based in the theory and research of the behavioral sciences, and a strategy having a substantial prescriptive character. OD is thus a normative discipline; it prescribes how planned change in organizations should be approached and carried out if organization improvement is to be obtained.

In summary, OD is a process of planned system change that attempts to make organizations (viewed as social-technical systems) better able to attain their short- and long-term objectives. This is achieved by teaching the organization members to manage their organization processes and culture more effectively. Facts, concepts, and theory from the behavioral sciences are utilized to fashion both the process and the content of the interventions. A basic belief of OD theorists and practitioners is that for effective, lasting change to take place, the system members must grow in the competence to master their own fates.

Finally, it is important to note that OD has two broad goals: organization development and individual development. Although it is not stated explicitly in the above definitions, improving the quality of life for individuals in organizations is a primary goal of organization development. Enhancing individual development is a key value of OD practitioners and a key outcome of most OD programs.

⭐ Key Takeaways

Students must understand that modern organizations face unprecedented change driven by globalization, information technology, and managerial innovation, and the only winning companies will be those that respond quickly. OD is not just any effort to improve an organization; it is specifically a planned, organization-wide change managed from the top, using behavioral science knowledge to increase effectiveness and health through interventions in processes. The successful manager must not only be flexible and adaptive but must also be able to diagnose problems and implement change programs, with employee involvement and commitment being the true key to successful change. Finally, OD has two inseparable goals: improving organizational effectiveness and enhancing individual development, and lasting change requires system members to grow in their competence to master their own fates.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the three major trends shaping change in organizations, as discussed in this lecture?
2. According to Richard Beckhard's definition, what are the five key characteristics of Organization Development?
3. Why is the simple definition of OD as "anything done to better an organization" considered too broad and all-inclusive?
4. What does it mean that OD is a "normative discipline"?
5. What are the two broad goals of Organization Development?

📘 Lecture 2 — OD: A Unique Change Strategy

📖 Overview: This lecture explores what makes Organization Development (OD) a distinct and unique approach to consulting and organizational change, differentiating it from traditional expert consulting models. It examines the core characteristics of OD, the unique role of the OD consultant, the nature of OD interventions, and how the targets and desired outcomes of OD set it apart from other improvement strategies.

🗂️ Topics Covered

This lecture begins by contrasting OD with three traditional consulting models: purchase of expertise, doctor-patient, and process consultation. It then details six primary distinguishing characteristics of OD: change, collaboration, performance, humanistic values, systems thinking, and scientific approach. The lecture explains that an OD program is long-range, planned, and sustained, unfolding according to a strategy. It then explores the unique collaborative and relatively equal relationship between the OD consultant and the client system, the reflective and self-analytical nature of OD interventions, and the targets of change which include role sets, intergroup configurations, and organizational culture and processes. Finally, it outlines the distinctive desired outcomes of OD, such as enhanced self-renewing capacity.

📝 Lecture Summary

Consulting to organizations can take many forms

Edgar Schein describes three consulting models that are common in organizations. In the purchase of expertise model, a leader identifies a need for information and hires a consultant to make a report with recommendations, such as surveying consumers. In the doctor-patient model, a leader detects symptoms of ill health and calls in a consultant to diagnose the problem and prescribe a cure, for example, examining low morale. In the process consultation model, which is typical in OD, the consultant works collaboratively with the group to diagnose strengths and weaknesses and develop action plans, helping the organization become more effective at improving its own processes.

🔑 Definition — Process Consultation Model: A consulting model where the consultant assists the client organization in becoming more effective at examining and improving its own processes of problem solving, decision-making, and action taking.

📌 Example: For problems like low morale or over-budget projects, a process consultant would use a collaborative, participative approach, helping the clients generate valid data and learn from it, rather than providing the answers themselves.

💡 Why this matters: OD differs fundamentally from traditional "expert" models by focusing on process, not content, and by placing the responsibility for solving problems with the client.

Primary distinguishing characteristics of organization development

OD is a planned strategy to bring about organizational change, focusing on the human and social side. It involves a collaborative approach, where participation and involvement in problem solving by all levels are hallmarks. OD programs emphasize improving and enhancing performance and quality. They rely on a set of humanistic values about people and organizations, aiming to increase the use of human potential. OD represents a systems approach, concerned with the interrelationship of divisions, departments, groups, and individuals. Finally, OD is based upon scientific approaches to increase organization effectiveness.

An OD Program is a long-range, planned, and sustained effort that unfolds according to a strategy

An OD program is conceptualized in long-range terms because changing a system's culture is a difficult and complicated matter that takes time, and organizational problems are multifaceted and complex, not solvable by one-shot interventions. It is a planned and sustained effort, as opposed to a system "drift," and involves creating a subsystem within the organization, like a Department of OD, charged with planning, managing, and evaluating the continuous process of organizational self-renewal. The evidence suggests that in large organizations, two to three years of OD effort is typical before self-sustaining change occurs. Finally, OD programs unfold according to a strategy, which involves developing overall goals and paths to goals, usually based on the diagnosed problems of the client system.

🔑 Definition — Organization Development Program: A long-range, planned, and sustained effort that unfolds according to a strategy to bring about organizational change.

📌 Example: An OD effort to improve inter-departmental communication might be a two-year program involving initial diagnosis, team-building workshops, and follow-up activities, rather than a single training session.

💡 Why this matters: "Good management" practiced without an OD program is not considered OD. OD practitioners aim to inculcate good practices, but the term OD is not synonymous with good management; it refers to a specific, structured, and ongoing process.

The OD consultant establishes a unique relationship with client system members

The most fundamental difference in OD is the role of the consultant. The OD consultant seeks a collaborative relationship of relative equality with the organization members, meaning consultant and client "co-labor." The relationship is one of relative equality, with each party possessing different but needed knowledge and skills. The consultant's role is generally that of a facilitator, not a content expert, acting primarily as a question-asker. This nondirective posture rests on three beliefs: (1) division of labor (consultant focuses on process, client on content), (2) the best solution is in the heads of client members, and (3) the responsibility for change rests ultimately with the client system, who must "own" the problem and solution.

🔑 Definition — Collaborative Relationship (in OD): A relationship where the consultant and client system co-labor, with the consultant acting as a facilitator and the client owning the problem and solution.

📌 Example: Instead of a consultant prescribing a new reward system, an OD consultant would facilitate a series of meetings where employees and managers identify issues with the current system and collaboratively design a new one.

The nature of the intervention differentiates OD from other improvement strategies

OD consultants create interventions, which are structured sets of activities designed to achieve certain outcomes. These interventions are reflective, self-analytical, and action-oriented, focusing on the organization's culture and human processes. The overriding goal of an OD intervention is to teach the client system members to diagnose and solve problems by themselves, a concept known as "learning how to learn." The emphasis is on system improvement, rather than just individual change, targeting the organization's ability to cope and its relationships with subsystems and the environment.

🔑 Definition — OD Interventions: Structured sets of activities and events in the life of the organization designed to achieve certain outcomes, focusing on making the client system self-analytical and proficient in solving its own problems.

📌 Example: An intervention might involve collecting survey data about communication breakdowns, then having the relevant team members analyze the data, discuss the causes, and develop their own action plan for improvement.

💡 Why this matters: The rationale is captured by the proverb: "Give a man a fish, and you have given him a meal; teach a man to fish, and you have given him a livelihood." OD teaches the organization to "fish."

The targets of OD interventions differentiate OD from other improvement strategies

OD interventions target specific configurations of people. The first target is intact work groups and role sets, as immediate work groups and supervisors have immense power to determine individual behavior and are the source of many organizational problems. The second target is intergroup configurations, focusing on enhancing key interdependences across units and levels by addressing issues like dysfunctional competition. The third target is the organization’s processes and culture, which are seen as important strategic leverage points for bringing about organizational improvement and change.

OD consultants utilize a behavioral science base

OD is an applied field that draws on theories, concepts, and practices from sociology, psychology, social psychology, education, economics, psychiatry, and management. This behavioral science knowledge base is brought to bear on real organizational problems and is a contributing factor to OD's distinctive approach.

The desired outcomes of OD are distinctive in nature

While OD shares the common goal of improving organizational effectiveness, it has additional distinctive outcomes. These include a changed organizational culture, changed processes (especially renewal and adaptation), and the establishment of norms for continual self-study and pro-action. Michael Beer lists the aims of OD as: (1) enhancing congruence between structure, processes, strategy, people, and culture; (2) developing new and creative organizational solutions; and (3) developing the organization’s self-renewing capacity. It is this focus on self-renewal that is particularly unique to OD.

⭐ Key Takeaways

A student must remember that OD is fundamentally a collaborative, process-oriented approach to change, distinct from the expert-driven "purchase of expertise" and "doctor-patient" models. The core of OD lies in its long-range, planned, and sustained nature, aimed at making the client system self-sufficient in diagnosing and solving its own problems. The OD consultant acts as a facilitator, not a prescriber, focusing on the organization's culture, processes, and human systems. The primary targets for change are intact work groups, intergroup relationships, and the overall culture, rather than just individuals. The ultimate desired outcome is not just a one-time fix, but the development of the organization's ongoing capacity for self-renewal and adaptation.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are Edgar Schein's three consulting models, and which one is typical of Organization Development?
2. List and briefly explain the six primary distinguishing characteristics of Organization Development.
3. Why is an OD program considered "long-range," and what does "planned and sustained effort" mean in this context?
4. Describe the role of the OD consultant in terms of collaboration, expertise, and the reason for a "nondirective" posture.
5. What are the three main "targets" of OD interventions, and why are these targets chosen over a focus on individuals?

📘 Lecture 3 — What an “ideal” effective, healthy organization would look like?

📖 Overview: This lecture defines the characteristics of an ideal, effective, and healthy organization based on consensus among practitioners. It then explores the critical importance of adapting to constant change in the modern environment and outlines the organizational traits required for future success, illustrated by the case of Trilogy Software.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture begins by listing ten specific characteristics of an effective, healthy organization, covering goal management, structure, decision-making, rewards, communication, conflict, and system thinking. It then discusses why change is the only constant in today's environment, using 3M's 15 percent rule as an example. Finally, it describes the organization of the future, emphasizing flexibility, speed, and innovation, and presents the Trilogy Software case study as a practical example of a new kind of company.

📝 Lecture Summary

What an “ideal” effective, healthy organization would look like?

An effective organization is defined by ten key characteristics. First, the total organization, its subparts, and individuals manage work against goals and plans. Second, form follows function, meaning the task determines how human resources are organized. Third, decisions are made by and near the sources of information, regardless of their location on the organization chart. Fourth, the reward system punishes and rewards managers comparably for short-term profit, subordinate development, and creating a viable working group. Fifth, communication is open and confronting, sharing all relevant facts, including feelings, with minimal distortion.

The remaining characteristics include: a minimum of win/lose activities, with conflict treated as a problem-solving opportunity; high conflict about ideas but low interpersonal conflict; the organization functioning as an open system interacting with a larger environment; a shared value of helping each person maintain integrity and uniqueness; and operating in an action-research way with built-in feedback mechanisms for learning from experience.

🔑 Definition — Effective Organization: An organization where total organization, subparts, and individuals manage work against goals; form follows function; decisions are made near information sources; and communication is open and undistorted. 💡 Why this matters: These 10 characteristics provide a comprehensive benchmark for diagnosing organizational health and identifying areas for improvement through OD interventions.

The only constant is Change

While many firms adapt to information technology, few adapt to changing social and cultural conditions. Change is unavoidable in a dynamic environment, and its pace makes it a moving target. For survival, organizations must effectively respond to technological, social, and economic changes. In the twenty-first century, productivity increases of 100% will be needed to compete. Past failures to address the changing environment create problems for many executives. In contrast, 3M Corporation excels at innovation through its 15 percent rule, allowing employees to spend 15% of their work week on product-related ideas, which led to the Post-it note.

🔑 Definition — 15 percent rule: 3M's policy allowing employees to spend up to 15% of their work week on any product-related activity, fostering innovation.

The Organization of the Future

The nature of managerial success is changing fundamentally. Past advantages like economies of scale and large advertising budgets are no longer effective. The traditional managerial approach cannot lead to economic leadership. Managers need a new mindset valuing flexibility, speed, innovation, and challenge. Virtual organizations can form overnight as networks of free agents. Successful future organizations will share common traits: being faster and more responsive to innovation; quality conscious with total commitment; having employee involvement that adds value; being customer oriented to create niche markets; and being smaller, made up of more autonomous units.

📐 Formula: Future Organization Success = Flexibility + Speed + Innovation + Quality + Employee Involvement + Customer Orientation + Smaller Autonomous Units

OD in Practice: Trilogy Software – A New Kind of Company

Joe Liemandt founded Trilogy Software Inc. in Austin, Texas in 1989. It grew from 400 to 1000 employees in four years and is now one of the world's largest privately held software companies. All employees are shareholders, managers, and partners. The founder's biggest worry is holding onto talented people in competition with Microsoft. The CEO personally teaches much of the employee development program. Unusual practices include perks like a company speedboat, stocked kitchens, weekly parties, spontaneous awards (sports cars, Las Vegas trips), all-expense-paid company trips to Hawaii, and bonuses equal to 50-100% of salary. These new organizations offer the advantages of free agency (flexibility, compensation linked to contribution) while also providing the continuity of mutual commitment.

🔑 Definition — Trilogy Model: A new kind of company where all employees are shareholders, managers, and partners; extraordinary perks and bonuses are used to retain talent; and the CEO personally leads employee development.

⭐ Key Takeaways

A healthy organization must have goals, structure that follows function, decentralized decision-making, balanced rewards, open communication, problem-solving approaches to conflict, and operate as an open system. Change is the only constant, requiring organizations to adapt continuously to technological, social, and economic shifts for survival. Future successful organizations will prioritize flexibility, speed, quality, employee involvement, customer orientation, and smaller autonomous units. The Trilogy Software case demonstrates a radical new model where employees are owners, extraordinary perks retain talent, and CEO involvement in development creates strong commitment. The 10 characteristics of an effective organization serve as a diagnostic framework for OD practitioners to assess and improve organizational health.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the ten characteristics of an effective, healthy organization according to the lecture?
2. Why is "form follows function" important in an effective organization, and how does it relate to decision-making?
3. Explain how 3M's 15 percent rule exemplifies the principle that "the only constant is change."
4. What five common traits will successful organizations of the future share?
5. How does Trilogy Software's model differ from traditional organizations in terms of employee roles, rewards, and retention strategies?

📘 Lecture 4 — The Evolution of OD

📖 Overview: This lecture traces the historical development of Organization Development, explaining its emergence from five major stems. Understanding this evolution is crucial because it reveals the intellectual foundations and practical methods that continue to shape how organizations manage change today.

🗂️ Topics Covered

This lecture covers the five major stems that led to the evolution of OD, beginning with Laboratory Training (T-Groups) and Kurt Lewin's pioneering work at NTL. It then examines Action Research and Survey Feedback, including the classic studies by Coch and French, and Likert's development of the Likert Scale. The lecture concludes with the three remaining stems: participative management, quality of work life, and strategic change, though these are outlined briefly.

📝 Lecture Summary

The Evolution of OD

A brief history of OD helps clarify the evolution of the term and surrounding confusion. As currently practiced, OD emerged from five major stems. The first was the growth of the National Training Laboratories (NTL) and the development of training groups (sensitivity training or T-groups). The second stem was classic work on action research by social scientists, featuring a technique known as survey feedback. Kurt Lewin was instrumental in developing T-groups, survey feedback, and action research. The third stem represents participative management applied to organization structure. The fourth stem focuses on productivity and quality of work life. The fifth and most recent stem involves strategic change and organization transformation.

💡 Why this matters: Recognizing these five stems helps students see OD not as a single invention but as a convergence of different fields—social psychology, group dynamics, industrial relations, and strategic management.

1. Laboratory Training (The T-Group)

This stem pioneered laboratory training, or the T-group—a small, unstructured group where participants learn from their own interactions about interpersonal relations, personal growth, leadership, and group dynamics. Laboratory training began in 1946 when Kurt Lewin (1898–1947) and his staff at MIT's Research Centre for Group Dynamics were asked by the Connecticut Interracial Commission to train community leaders. A workshop was developed, and community leaders met to discuss problems. Researchers privately discussed observed behaviors; the leaders requested to sit in on these feedback sessions. Thus, the first T-group was formed where people reacted to data about their own behavior. Two conclusions emerged: feedback about group interaction was a rich learning experience, and "group building" had transferable learning potential.

The Office of Naval Research and the National Education Association backed the formation of NTL at Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine. The first Basic Skill Training Groups (later T-groups) were offered in 1947. In the 1950s, three trends emerged: regional laboratories, year-round T-group sessions, and T-group expansion into business and industry.

As trainers worked with more permanent and complex social systems, they faced frustration in transferring behavioral skills from T-groups to organizations. However, training "teams" from the same organization emerged, linking to the organizational focus of Douglas McGregor, Herbert Shepard, and Robert Blake, and later Richard Beckhard, Chris Argyris, Jack Gibb, and Warren Bennis. Applying T-group techniques to organizations became known as team building—a process for helping work groups become more effective in tasks and member needs.

🔑 Definition — T-group: A small, unstructured group where participants learn from their own interactions and evolving dynamics about interpersonal relations, personal growth, leadership, and group dynamics. 📌 Example: In 1946, community leaders sat in on researcher feedback sessions about their own behavior, forming the first T-group.

🔑 Definition — Team building: A process for helping work groups become more effective in accomplishing tasks and satisfying member needs, derived from applying T-group techniques to organizations.

2. Action Research/Survey Feedback

Kurt Lewin was also involved in the second movement—action research and survey feedback. The action research contribution began in the 1940s with studies by John Collier, Kurt Lewin, and William Whyte. They discovered research needed to be closely linked to action for managing change. A collaborative effort between organization members and social scientists was initiated to collect data, analyze problems, devise solutions, implement them, then collect further data—creating a continuous cycle. Results were twofold: members used research on themselves to guide change, and social scientists derived new knowledge for other settings.

Pioneering studies included Lewin's work at Harwood Manufacturing Company and the classic research by Lester Coch and John French on overcoming resistance to change, which led to participative management. Other notable studies included Whyte and Edith Hamilton's study of Chicago's Tremont Hotel and Collier's work on race relations. Today, action research is the backbone of most OD applications.

A key component was systematic collection of survey data fed back to the client organization. After Lewin's death in 1947, his Research Center moved to Michigan, joining the Survey Research Center as part of the Institute for Social Research, headed by Rensis Likert. Likert's doctoral dissertation developed the widely used five-point "Likert Scale."

In an early study at Detroit Edison (beginning 1948), Likert and Floyd Mann administered a company-wide survey of management and employee attitudes. Three data sets were developed: (1) viewpoints of 8,000 non-supervisory employees about supervisors, promotion, and satisfaction; (2) similar reactions from first- and second-line supervisors; (3) higher management information. The feedback process evolved into an "interlocking chain of conferences." Findings were reported to top management and transmitted downward through task groups. In 1950, eight accounting departments requested a repeat survey; feedback approaches varied across departments. A third follow-up indicated more significant positive changes in departments receiving feedback than those without it.

🔑 Definition — Action research: A collaborative effort between organization members and social scientists to collect research data, analyze it for causes of problems, devise and implement solutions, and then collect further data to assess results in a continuous cycle. 📐 Formula: Data Collection → Data Feedback → Action Planning → Implementation → Follow-up Data Collection → (repeat cycle) 📌 Example: At Detroit Edison, a company-wide survey was administered; findings were reported to top management and transmitted downward through interlocking conferences; follow-up studies showed departments practicing feedback had more positive changes.

🔑 Definition — Likert Scale: A widely used scale in survey research where respondents specify their level of agreement to a statement, traditionally using a five-point scale (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neither agree nor disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree).

Results of Action Research/Survey Feedback

Likert and colleagues found that when managers failed to discuss survey results with subordinates and plan improvements, little change occurred. Conversely, when managers discussed results with subordinates and planned together, substantial favorable changes occurred. Another finding: feeding back data from attitude surveys to participating departments produced more positive change than traditional training courses. The effectiveness lies in dealing with the system of human relationships as a whole (supervisors and subordinates change together) and treating each person in the context of their own job and work relationships.

(Remaining Stems – Briefly Mentioned)

The lecture briefly notes the third stem (participative management and organization structure/design), fourth stem (productivity and quality of work life), and fifth stem (strategic change and organization transformation), but does not elaborate on these in detail.

⭐ Key Takeaways

OD evolved from five distinct stems: Laboratory Training (T-groups), Action Research/Survey Feedback, Participative Management, Quality of Work Life, and Strategic Change. Kurt Lewin is the founding father of OD, instrumental in T-groups, action research, and survey feedback. The T-group was the first method to use real-time feedback about participants' own behavior to drive learning, but transferring these skills to complex organizations proved difficult, leading to team building. Action research created a collaborative cycle of data collection, feedback, action planning, and follow-up—now the backbone of most OD. Survey feedback using the Likert Scale demonstrated that actively discussing results with subordinates produces far more positive change than simply reporting data or relying on traditional training.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What were the five major stems from which OD emerged?
2. How did the first T-group form in 1946, and what two conclusions did researchers draw from it?
3. What is the difference between a T-group and team building?
4. Describe the cycle of action research as taught in this lecture.
5. What key finding did Likert and Mann derive from the Detroit Edison study about the importance of discussing survey results with subordinates?

📘 Lecture 5 — The Evolution of OD

📖 Overview: This lecture traces the historical evolution of Organization Development through three major stems: Participative Management, Quality of Work Life, and Strategic Change. It then presents a comprehensive five-stage model for implementing OD programs, emphasizing that successful change requires a systematic, diagnostic approach and continuous improvement.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers Likert’s Participative Management (System 4) approach and the survey-feedback process, Quality of Work Life programs including self-managing work groups and quality circles, the strategic change stem and open system planning, and a detailed five-stage model of OD encompassing need anticipation, practitioner-client relationships, diagnosis, action planning, and self-renewal. It concludes with the critical importance of continuous improvement in modern organizations.

📝 Lecture Summary

3. Participative Management

The belief that a human relations approach represented a one-best-way to manage organizations was exemplified in research associating Likert’s Participative Management (System 4) style with organizational effectiveness. This framework characterizes organizations as having one of four types of management systems: Exploitative authoritative systems (System 1) exhibit an autocratic, top-down approach where employee motivation is based on punishment and occasional rewards, communication is primarily downward, and results in mediocre performance. Benevolent authoritative systems (System 2) are more paternalistic, allowing employees a little more interaction within boundaries defined by management. Consultative systems (System 3) increase employee interaction and decision-making, but management still makes final decisions, resulting in good productivity and moderate satisfaction. Participative group systems (System 4) are almost the opposite of System 1, designed around group methods of decision making and supervision, fostering high degrees of member involvement. Work groups are highly involved in setting goals, making decisions, improving methods, and appraising results, achieving high levels of productivity, quality, and member satisfaction.

Likert applied System 4 management using a survey-feedback process. The intervention started with organization members completing the Profile of Organizational Characteristics, asking about both present and ideal conditions of six organizational features: leadership, motivation, communication, decisions, goals, and control. In the second stage, data were fed back to work groups, who examined the discrepancy between their present situation and their ideal (using System 4 as the benchmark) and generated action plans to move toward System 4 conditions.

🔑 Definition — System 4 (Participative Group Systems): An organizational management system designed around group methods of decision making and supervision that fosters high degrees of member involvement and participation, achieving high levels of productivity, quality, and member satisfaction.

💡 Why this matters: Likert's framework provides a clear benchmark (System 4) that organizations can use as an ideal target when diagnosing their current management style and planning improvements.

Quality of Work Life:

The contribution of the productivity and quality-of-work (QWL) background to OD is described in two phases. The first phase, starting in the 1950s, aimed at better integrating technology and people through joint participation by unions and management in work design. The most distinguishing characteristic was the development of self-managing work groups as a new form of work design—groups composed of multiskilled workers given the necessary autonomy and information to design and manage their own task performances. Two definitions of QWL emerged: first, defined in terms of people’s reaction to work (individual outcomes like job satisfaction and mental health); second, defined as an approach or method synonymous with techniques such as job enrichment, self-managed teams, and labor-management committees.

A second phase of QWL activity emerged starting in 1979, driven largely by growing international competition faced by the US. QWL programs expanded beyond work design to include reward systems, work flows, management styles, and the physical work environment. This resulted in larger-scale, longer-term projects and shifted attention beyond the individual worker to work groups and the larger work context. Quality circles—groups of employees trained in problem-solving methods who meet regularly to resolve work-environment, productivity, and quality-control concerns—became particularly popular. Today, this second phase continues primarily under the banner of “employee involvement” (EI) rather than QWL, emphasizing how employees can contribute more to running the organization. The term “employee empowerment” has been used interchangeably with EI, though empowerment may be too restrictive as it draws attention to power aspects while neglecting other important elements like information, skills, and rewards. Finally, the QWL approach has gained new momentum by joining forces with the total quality movement advocated by Demming & Juran, where the organization is viewed as a set of processes linked to quality, modeled through statistical techniques, and improved continuously.

🔑 Definition — Quality Circle: A group of employees trained in problem-solving methods who meet regularly to resolve work-environment, productivity, and quality-control concerns and to develop more efficient ways of working.

Strategic Change:

The strategic change stem is a recent influence on OD’s evolution, arising as organizations and their environments have become more complex and uncertain. Strategic change involves improving the alignment among an organization’s environment, strategy, and organization design. Interventions include efforts to improve both the organization’s relationship to its environment and the fit between its technical, political, and cultural systems. The need for strategic change is usually triggered by major disruptions such as lifting of regulatory requirements, technological breakthroughs, or a new chief executive officer from outside.

One of the first applications was Richard Beckhard’s use of open system planning, which proposed that an organization’s environment and strategy could be described and analyzed. Based on the organization’s core mission, differences between environmental demands and organizational responses could be reduced and performance improved. Since then, change agents have proposed a variety of large-scale or strategic change models, each recognizing that strategic change involves multiple levels, a change in culture, is often driven from the top by powerful executives, and has important effects on performance. Implementing strategic change requires OD practitioners to be familiar with competitive strategy, finance, and marketing, as well as team building, action research, and survey feedback.

🔑 Definition — Strategic Change: Organizational improvement efforts that involve improving the alignment among an organization’s environment, strategy, and organization design, typically triggered by major environmental disruptions and driven from the top.

A Model for Organizational Development:

Organization development is a continuing process of long-term organizational improvement consisting of a series of stages, with emphasis on a combination of individual, team, and organizational relationships. The primary difference between OD and other behavioral science techniques is the emphasis on viewing the organization as a total system of interacting and interrelated elements. OD programs are based on systematic analysis of problems and top management actively committed to the change effort. Many OD programs use the action research model, which involves collecting information, feeding it back to the client system, and developing and implementing action programs to improve system performance.

Stage One: Anticipate a Need for Change

Before a change program can be implemented, the organization must anticipate the need for change. The first step is the manager's perception that the organization is in a state of disequilibrium or needs improvement, which may result from growth, decline, or environmental changes. There must be a felt need, because only felt needs convince individuals to adopt new ways. The example is given of a new AT&T CEO who told top executives that the tradition of keeping people in top jobs as long as they didn't mess up was over.

Stage Two: Develop the Practitioner-Client Relationship

After the organization recognizes a need for change and an OD practitioner enters the system, a relationship develops between the practitioner and the client system (the person or organization being assisted). The development of this relationship is an important determinant of success or failure. The exchange of expectations and obligations forms a psychological contract, which depends on a good first impression or match between practitioner and client. The practitioner attempts to establish open communication, trust, and shared responsibility. Issues of responsibility, rewards, and objectives must be clarified at this point. The practitioner must decide when to enter and what their role should be—for instance, intervening with top management's sanction, or with or without support from lower levels.

Stage Three: The Diagnostic Phase

After developing a working relationship, the practitioner and client gather data about the system. The collection of data provides better understanding of client system problems—the diagnosis. One crucial rule is for the practitioner to question the client's diagnosis because the client's perspective may be biased. After acquiring information, the practitioner and client analyze data together to identify problem areas and causal relationships. A weak, inaccurate, or faulty diagnosis can lead to costly and ineffective change programs. The diagnostic phase determines the exact problem, identifies the forces causing the situation, and provides a basis for selecting effective change strategies. The example is given of a firm with high employee turnover; questionnaire data revealed employees felt the company had become a bureaucratic organization clogged with red tape, and subsequent OD programs reduced turnover to 19 percent compared with 34 percent for the industry.

Stage Four: Action Plans, Strategies, and Techniques

The diagnostic phase leads to interventions, activities, or programs aimed at resolving problems and increasing organization effectiveness. These programs apply OD techniques such as total quality management (TQM), job design, role analysis, goal setting, team building, and inter-group development to the causes specified in the diagnostic phase. More time is likely spent on this fourth stage than on any other stage of an OD program.

Stage Five: Self-Renewal, Monitor, and Stabilize

Once an action program is implemented, the final step is to monitor the results and stabilize the desired changes. This stage assesses the effectiveness of change strategies in attaining objectives. Each stage needs monitoring to gain feedback on member reaction to change efforts. Once a problem is corrected and a change program implemented and monitored, means must be devised to ensure the new behavior is stabilized and internalized—otherwise, the system will regress to previous ineffective modes. The client system needs to develop the capability to maintain innovation without outside support.

Continuous Improvement:

In today's environment, there are only two kinds of companies—those that are changing and those that are going out of business. Continual change is a way of life. The five-stage model shows how different OD methods and approaches are used to continuously improve performance. As an OD program stabilizes, the need for the practitioner should decrease. If the client moves toward independence and demonstrates self-renewal capacity, gradual termination of the relationship is easily accomplished. However, if the client system has become overly dependent on the practitioner, termination can be difficult.

An important issue in OD implementation is whether the practitioner can deal effectively with power and the use of power. Hierarchical organizations rely on power, and political infighting is a reality in most organizations. While OD is not a political/power type of intervention, the practitioner must be aware of politics and use a problem-solving approach compatible with power-oriented situations. Research by Eisenhardt and Bourgeois found that political conflicts within top management teams are associated with poor firm performance.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The evolution of OD has been shaped by three major stems: Participative Management (especially Likert's System 4 framework), Quality of Work Life programs (from self-managing groups to employee involvement and total quality management), and Strategic Change (focusing on alignment between environment, strategy, and organization design). For the exam, you must know the five-stage OD model in sequence: Anticipate Need → Develop Practitioner-Client Relationship → Diagnosis → Action Plans → Self-Renewal/Monitor/Stabilize. Critical concepts include the four management systems (especially System 4 as the ideal), the distinction between employee involvement and empowerment, the importance of diagnosing problems accurately before intervening, and the recognition that power and politics are organizational realities that OD practitioners must navigate carefully. The lecture emphasizes that continuous improvement is essential for organizational survival in today's competitive environment.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the four types of management systems in Likert's framework, and what characterizes System 4?
2. What is the difference between employee involvement (EI) and employee empowerment as described in the QWL section?
3. What is the primary difference between OD and other behavioral science techniques?
4. List the five stages of the organization development process in order, and explain what happens in Stage Three (Diagnostic Phase).
5. What did Eisenhardt and Bourgeois find regarding politics and organizational performance in their study of high-speed decision making?

📘 Lecture 06 — The Organization Culture

📖 Overview: This lecture explores organizational culture as the personality of an organization, encompassing assumptions, values, norms, and tangible signs. It explains how culture manifests both visibly and invisibly, how it is created and maintained, and why understanding and managing culture is critical for organizational effectiveness and development.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers the definition of organizational culture, visible and invisible manifestations of culture, the distinction between pivotal and peripheral norms, the socialization process for new employees, adjustment to cultural norms, psychological contracts between individuals and organizations, and a real-world case study demonstrating the tangible value of corporate culture.

📝 Lecture Summary

The Organization Culture

Organizational culture is the personality of an organization, comprised of the assumptions, values, norms, and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and their behaviors. Culture is difficult to express distinctly, but everyone recognizes it when they sense it — for example, the culture of a large for-profit corporation differs markedly from that of a hospital or a university. You can identify an organization's culture by examining furniture arrangement, what members brag about, what they wear, and similar observable cues.

🔑 Definition — Organizational Culture: "The culture of an organization is its customary and traditional way of thinking and doing things, which is shared to a greater or lesser degree by all its members, and which new members must learn and at least partially accept, in order to be accepted into service in the firm. Culture covers a wide range of behavior: the methods of production; job skills and technical knowledge; attitudes towards discipline and punishment; the custom and habit of managerial behavior; its way of doing business; the methods of payment; the values placed on different types of work; beliefs in democratic living and joint consultation."

Culture appears in both visible and invisible forms. The surface layer of culture includes observable manifestations like dress code, work environment, perks, and titles. However, the far more powerful aspects are invisible — the cultural core is composed of beliefs, values, standards, paradigms, worldviews, moods, internal conversations, and private conversations of group members. This invisible core is the foundation for all actions and decisions within a team, department, or organization.

Visible Manifestations of Culture:

• Dress Code, Work Environment, Benefits, Perks, Conversations, Work/Life Balance, Titles & Job Description, Organizational Structure

Invisible Manifestations of Culture:

• Values, Private Conversations, Invisible Rules, Attitudes, Beliefs, Worldviews, Moods and Emotions, Unconscious Interpretations, Standards of Behavior, Paradigms, Assumptions

Business leaders often mistakenly assume that their company's vision, values, and strategic priorities are synonymous with culture. In reality, these may only be words hanging on a plaque. In a thriving profitable company, employees embody the values, vision, and strategic priorities — what creates this embodiment is the culture that permeates employees' psyches, bodies, conversations, and actions.

The energy fields that make up a group's culture are dynamic and change continuously. Culture is created and constantly reinforced on a daily basis through conversations, symbols, rituals, written materials, and body language. The failure to discuss values, purpose, and rules within a group often leads to a culture at cross purposes with stated intentions. Poor communication creates confusion and a crisis of meaninglessness.

Since culture is created every time a group comes together to form a team, a company will have many sub-cultures within its main culture — in departments, divisions, regions, or operating units. For example, marketing and technology teams may have different worldviews, jargon, work hours, and ways of doing things. A major challenge for today's company is to create a strong, cohesive corporate culture that pulls all sub-cultures together.

Corporate culture starts when the organization begins and develops as it grows. Culture controls how people interact with each other and with outside stakeholders. Over time, culture changes as people come and go. Culture reflects the values, ethics, beliefs, personality and traits of founders, management, and employees. In a well-established company, culture can be so strong that even new top management may not be able to change it for 5, 10, or 20 years.

💡 Why this matters: Culture is extremely powerful — the rules of the game, what behavior is ethical and accepted, the mood of the organization, and employee enthusiasm are all contained in culture. Culture can be a powerful hidden asset or a liability — a time-bomb waiting to go off.

Every time people come together with a shared purpose, culture is automatically created out of combined thoughts, energies, and attitudes. People tend to prefer conformity in their culture because it represents a harmonious environment with predictable behavior. Most people have a deeply rooted desire for order and stability, which conformity provides.

Norms

Norms are organized and shared ideas regarding what members should do and feel, how behavior should be regulated, and what sanctions should be applied when behavior does not coincide with social expectations. The values and behaviors of every organization are unique — some patterns may be functional and facilitate achieving organizational goals, while others may actually inhibit or restrict goal accomplishment.

Pivotal norms are norms essential to accomplishing the organization's objectives. Peripheral norms support and contribute to pivotal norms but are not essential. For example, enforced dress codes Monday through Thursday are probably peripheral when Friday is casual dress day. Pivotal and peripheral norms constantly confront individuals, and they must decide whether or not to conform. The pressure to conform varies, allowing individuals some degree of freedom depending on perceived rewards or punishments.

The Socialization Process

Socialization is the process that adapts employees to the organization's culture. Even with effective recruiting, new employees must adjust to the organizational culture. Since they are not aware of the culture, new employees are likely to disagree with or question existing customs and values.

🔑 Definition — Socialization: the process that adapts employees to the organization's culture.

New Employee Expectations: To function effectively, managers and members must be aware of organizational norms. They must recognize how sharply norms are defined and how strongly they are enforced. Entry into a new situation often results in anxiety or stress. The less an individual can relate the new situation to previous situations, the greater the anxiety. The more the individual can meet expectations, the less the discomfort. Some organizations assign current employees as mentors to new employees.

Encounter Organization's Culture: The organizational culture provides a way for members to meet and get along. Three important aspects of socialization when joining an organization are:

1. Deciding who is a member and who is not
2. Developing an informal understanding of behavioral norms
3. Separating friends from enemies

While individual employees experience a new situation, the organization may attempt to influence them. If new members' expectations reflect actual organizational norms, the integration process is relatively painless for both parties.

Adjustment to Cultural Norms

New members often find norms unclear, confusing, and restrictive. They may react in different ways:

• Conformity — accepting all norms, resulting in uniformity and complete acceptance of organizational values, which may lead to stagnation and loss of creativeness
• Rebellion — rejecting all values or leaving the organization entirely
• Creative Individualism — accepting pivotal norms while seriously questioning peripheral norms

Creative individualism is the ideal behavior for a healthy and effective organization, but it is often difficult for a newcomer to correctly determine which norms are peripheral and which are pivotal. What may be pivotal in one department may be peripheral or not a norm at all in another department of the same organization.

Results

Only the more healthy organizations allow members to challenge their norms. The aim of OD is to develop an organizational climate appropriate to the organization's mission and members. OD involves changing the culture of organizations and work groups so that more effective means of interacting, relating, and problem solving will result. The reaction of the individual to the norms results in the formation of an unwritten agreement with the organization.

In organizations with different cultures, each person tends to:

1. Separate more important from less important goals
2. Develop ways to measure their accomplishments
3. Create explanations for why goals may not always be met

Psychological Contracts

A psychological contract is an unwritten agreement between individuals and the organization that describes certain expectations each has of the other. Because both parties are growing and changing, the contract must be open-ended so old and new issues can be renegotiated.

🔑 Definition — Psychological Contract: an unwritten agreement between individuals and the organization of which they are members, describing certain expectations that the organization has of the individual and the individual's expectations of the organization.

An organization has certain expectations of its members — being on the job during certain hours, quality and quantity of work, loyalty, appearance, and other unique requirements. The individual also has expectations — work experience, security, advancement, social relationships, and remuneration. Unfulfilled expectations often result in high turnover, absenteeism, sabotage, and worker alienation.

When either party's expectations are not being satisfied adequately, friction and difficulties may develop. Sometimes the psychological contract does not even address certain key expectations, with one or both parties assuming agreement on unstated expectations. Unstated or assumed expectations can lead to an organization of individuals who feel cheated or managers disappointed in their subordinates. To avoid such misunderstandings, both parties should formulate a psychological contract that can be continually renegotiated.

OD in Practice: What's Your Culture Worth?

The founders of Setpoint, a custom-manufacturing company with about 30 employees, built a company culture that became one of their most valuable assets. When Steve Peterson, owner of Peterson Inc., visited Setpoint, he was amazed at how employees on the shop floor understood and used the company's financial tracking board. A technician explained the board's numbers — calculating gross profit per project, gross profit per hour, and the ratio of overall gross profit to operating expenses (targeting about 2.0). Peterson recalls being impressed that the people on the shop floor had "great confidence" and understood business so well. He knew Setpoint had what his company needed.

Peterson began negotiating to acquire Setpoint — not for market share, earnings, or strategic advantage, but specifically for their corporate culture. The case demonstrates that culture can be a tangible, valuable asset worth acquiring at a substantial price.

⭐ Key Takeaways

Organizational culture is the personality of an organization, comprising visible manifestations (dress code, work environment) and an invisible core (values, beliefs, assumptions) that drives all actions and decisions. Culture is created and reinforced daily through conversations, symbols, rituals, and behaviors, and it exists in both a dominant culture and various sub-cultures within departments. Norms are divided into pivotal norms (essential for objectives) and peripheral norms (supportive but non-essential), and creative individualism — accepting pivotal while questioning peripheral norms — is ideal for organizational health. The psychological contract is a critical unwritten agreement between individuals and organizations that must be consciously formulated and renegotiated to prevent misunderstandings, turnover, and alienation.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What is the difference between visible and invisible manifestations of organizational culture? Provide at least three examples of each.
2. How do pivotal norms differ from peripheral norms, and why is it important for new members to distinguish between them?
3. What is creative individualism, and why is it considered the ideal behavior for a healthy organization?
4. What is a psychological contract, and what problems can arise when expectations remain unstated or assumed?
5. How did Setpoint's corporate culture become a tangible asset worth acquiring, according to the case study?

📘 Lecture 07 — The Nature of Planned Change

📖 Overview: This lecture examines the theory and practice of planned organizational change, focusing on the difference between change that happens to an organization and change that is deliberately designed by its members. It provides a detailed exploration of Lewin's three-stage change model—unfreezing, moving, and refreezing—and illustrates these concepts through the comprehensive British Airways transformation case study. Understanding planned change is essential because it forms the theoretical foundation for all Organization Development interventions.

🗂️ Topics Covered

This lecture covers the distinction between unplanned and planned change, the three major theories of planned change (Lewin's model, action research, and contemporary adaptations), a detailed breakdown of Lewin's three stages (unfreezing, moving, refreezing) with their sub-processes, and a comprehensive case study of British Airways' transformation from 1982-1987 that demonstrates each stage of Lewin's model at the individual, structural, and climate levels.

📝 Lecture Summary

Theories of Planned Change

The three major theories of organizational change that have received considerable attention in the field are: Lewin's change model, the action research model, and contemporary adaptations of action research.

Lewin's Change Model

According to the open-systems view, organizations—like living creatures—tend to be homeostatic, or continuously working to maintain a steady state. This helps us understand why organizations require external impetus to initiate change and why change will be resisted even when necessary.

Organizational change can occur at three levels, each requiring different change strategies and techniques:

1. Changing the individuals who work in the organization—their skills, values, attitudes, and behavior.
2. Changing organizational structures and systems—reward systems, reporting relationships, work design.
3. Directly changing the organizational climate or interpersonal style—how open people are, how conflict is managed, how decisions are made.

According to Lewin, a pioneer in the social psychology of organizations, the first step of any change process is to unfreeze the present pattern of behavior as a way of managing resistance to change. The second step, movement, involves making the actual changes that will move the organization to another level of response. The final stage, refreezing, involves stabilizing or institutionalizing these changes by establishing systems that make these behavioral patterns "relatively secure against change."

💡 Why this matters: Lewin's model provides a simple yet powerful framework for understanding that change is not a single event but a three-phase process. Each phase has distinct requirements and challenges, and skipping any phase typically leads to failed change efforts.

Stage 1: Unfreezing

Unfreezing involves reducing those forces maintaining the organization's behavior at its present level. Three ways of unfreezing an organization are:

i. Disconfirmation (or lack of confirmation): Organizational members are not likely to embrace change unless they experience some need for it. By introducing information that shows discrepancies between behaviors desired by organization members and those currently exhibited, members can be motivated to engage in change activities.

ii. Induction of guilt or anxiety: This establishes a gap between what is current but not working well and some future goal. When people recognize this gap, they will be motivated via guilt or anxiety to reduce it.

iii. Creation of psychological safety: To face disconfirmation, experience guilt or anxiety, and be able to act, people must believe that moving will not bring them humiliation or loss of self-esteem. The consultant must ensure that when people admit something is wrong, they will not be punished or humiliated.

Stage 2: Moving (Changing)

The second step, movement, involves making the actual changes that will move the organization to another level of response. On the individual level, people behave differently with new skills or supervisory practices. On the structural level, there are changes in organizational structures, reporting relationships, and reward systems. On the climate level, behavior patterns indicate greater interpersonal trust and openness.

Two main processes accomplish this stage:

i. Identification with a new role model: This could be a mentor, boss, or consultant allowing people to "begin to see things from that other person's point of view."

ii. Scanning the environment for new, relevant information: This involves bringing new information to help people move forward with needed changes, such as the consultant quoting examples from other client organizations.

Stage 3: Refreezing

This final stage helps the client integrate the changes by establishing systems (norms, policies, structures) that make behavioral patterns "relatively secure against change."

The refreezing stage may involve:

• Redesigning the organization's recruitment process to hire applicants who share the new management style and value system.
• Ensuring new behaviors become operating norms, reward systems reinforce those behaviors, and a new, more participative management style predominates.

This stage has two parts:

i. Personal refreezing: The process of taking the new, changed way of doing things and making it fit comfortably into one's total self-concept. This involves practice, trying new roles, getting feedback, and making adjustments.

ii. Relational refreezing: The process of assuring that the client's new behavior will fit with significant others. This involves openly engaging with others about the new way of doing things to help them see why the change is better.

Case Example: British Airways

In 1982, Margaret Thatcher's government decided to convert British Airways (BA) from government ownership to private ownership. BA had required large subsidies (almost $900 million in 1982). The growing deregulation of international air traffic also placed BA at risk of financial losses.

Unfreezing: The first step involved a massive reduction in the worldwide BA workforce (from 59,000 to 37,000) accomplished with compassion through early retirement and settlements. New top management—Lord John King as chairman and Colin Marshall as CEO—was appointed. Marshall decided BA's strategy should be to become "the World's Favorite Airline." The "Putting People First" training program was introduced to challenge prevailing wisdom.

Movement: Nicholas Georgiades was hired as director of human resources and developed specific tactics. Training programs like "Managing People First" and "Leading the Service Business" provided individual feedback. The concept of "emotional labor" was championed—recognizing that quality service in uncertain environments can lead to burnout. Personnel staff were retrained as internal change agents, and a new bonus system demonstrated management's commitment to sharing financial gains.

Refreezing: Top management's continued commitment ensured changes became "fixed." People exemplifying new BA values were promoted. "Open Learning" programs and "Top Flight Academies" were introduced. A new performance appraisal system based on both behavior and results was created. A performance-based compensation system was installed. New symbols were introduced—new uniforms, refurbished aircraft, and a new corporate coat of arms with the motto "We fly to serve."

By 1987, BA had successfully moved to private ownership, from a $900 million loss to $435 million profit, and its culture had transformed from "bureaucratic and militaristic" to "service-oriented and market-driven."

⭐ Key Takeaways

The most critical concept from this lecture is Lewin's three-stage model of planned change—unfreezing, moving, and refreezing—which provides the foundational framework for all OD interventions. Unfreezing requires creating dissatisfaction with the current state (through disconfirmation, guilt/anxiety, and psychological safety), not just announcing a change. The moving stage involves both cognitive processes (identification with role models and environmental scanning) and behavioral changes at individual, structural, and climate levels. Refreezing requires institutionalizing change through systems, norms, policies, and rewards—without this stage, changes will not last. The British Airways case demonstrates that successful change requires action at all three levels simultaneously (individual, structure, climate) and that top management commitment is essential throughout the entire process.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the three stages of Lewin's change model, and what is the purpose of each stage?
2. What are the three ways of unfreezing an organization according to this lecture?
3. What are the two main processes for accomplishing the moving (changing) stage?
4. What is the difference between personal refreezing and relational refreezing?
5. How did British Airways apply Lewin's model at the individual, structural, and climate levels during its transformation from 1982-1987?

📘 Lecture 08 — Action Research Model

📖 Overview: This lecture introduces the Action Research Model, a foundational framework in Organization Development that emphasizes a cyclical, collaborative process of data gathering, diagnosis, action, and evaluation. It details the seven key phases of this model, explains its distinction from steps, and explores contemporary adaptations including appreciative inquiry and participatory approaches that place greater emphasis on member involvement and positive organizational conversations.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers the definition and cyclical nature of the action research model, its seven main phases from entry through evaluation, the concept of termination in OD work, the distinction between phases and steps, and contemporary adaptations including increased member involvement (participatory action research) and the appreciative inquiry model which focuses on an organization's strengths rather than its problems.

📝 Lecture Summary

Action Research Model

The action research model focuses on planned change as a cyclical process in which initial research about the organization provides information to guide subsequent action. Results of the action are then assessed to provide further information to guide further action, and so on. This iterative cycle involves considerable collaboration among organization members and OD practitioners, placing heavy emphasis on data gathering and diagnosis prior to action planning and implementation, as well as careful evaluation of results after action is taken.

Action research is traditionally aimed both at helping specific organizations implement planned change and at developing more general knowledge that can be applied to other change settings. The main steps involved are entry, contracting, diagnosis, feedback, planning change, intervention, and evaluation.

🔑 Definition — Action Research Model: A planned change process that uses a cyclical process of research and action, where initial data gathering guides action, and results are assessed to inform further action.

1. Entry (Problem Identification)

This stage usually begins when a key executive in the organization or someone with power and influence senses that the organization has one or more problems that might be solved with the help of an OD practitioner. Contact between the consultant and client initiates the entry phase. After contact, the consultant and client explore the possibilities of a working relationship. During this process, the consultant assesses:

• The probability of relating with the client
• The motivation and values of the client
• The client's readiness for change
• The extent of resources available
• Potential leverage points of change

2. Contracting (Consultation with a Behavioral Science Expert)

During the initial contact, the OD practitioner and the client carefully assess each other. The practitioner has their own normative, developmental theory or frame of reference and must be conscious of those assumptions and values. Sharing them with the client from the beginning establishes an open and collaborative atmosphere.

Unlike other types of contracts, the OD contract states three critical areas:

1. What each expects to get from the relationship
2. How much time each will invest, when, and at what cost
3. The ground rules under which the parties will operate

3. Diagnosis (Data Gathering and Preliminary Diagnosis)

This step is usually completed by the OD practitioner, often in conjunction with organization members. It involves gathering appropriate information and analyzing it to determine the underlying causes of organizational problems. The four basic methods of gathering data are interviews, process observation, questionnaires, and organizational performance data (unfortunately, often overlooked). One approach to diagnosis begins with observation, proceeds to a semi-structured interview, and concludes with a questionnaire to measure precisely the problems identified by the earlier steps. When gathering diagnostic information, OD practitioners may influence members from whom they are collecting data. In OD, "every action on the part of the consultant constitutes an intervention" that will have some effect on the organization.

4. Feedback (Feedback to a Key Client or Group)

Because action research is a collaborative activity, the diagnostic data are fed back to the client, usually in a group or work-team meeting. The feedback step helps members determine the strengths and weaknesses of the organization or department under study. The consultant provides the client with all relevant and useful data while protecting confidential sources of information and may even withhold data at times. Defining what is relevant and useful involves consideration of privacy and ethics as well as judgment about whether the group is ready for the information.

At this point, members discuss the feedback and explore with the OD practitioner whether they want to work on identified problems. A close interrelationship exists among data gathering, feedback, and diagnosis because the consultant summarizes the basic data and presents it for validation and further diagnosis. The action research process is very different from the doctor-patient model, in which the consultant comes in, makes a diagnosis, and prescribes a solution. Failure to establish a common frame of reference may lead to faulty diagnosis or a communications gap whereby the client is unwilling to believe the diagnosis or accept the prescription.

A feedback session generally has three steps:

1. The consultant provides a summary of the data collected and some preliminary analysis
2. A general discussion where questions of clarification are raised and answered
3. Time devoted to interpretation, where changes may be made in the consultant's analysis

Case Example: An OD practitioner conducted interviews with a senior management group asking four questions about strengths, weaknesses, support for an off-site meeting, and meeting objectives.

Strengths identified:

• Senior management highly experienced in business (7 mentions)
• Commitment of work force (5)
• Good people throughout (3)
• Last four years' success (3)
• Technological superior & market leader (3)

Weaknesses identified:

• Marketing & Servicing System (6)
• Do not establish priorities (3)
• Organizational priorities always secondary to individual managers (3)
• Lack of management depth (3)
• Little planning (3)

Objectives for off-site meeting:

• Agree on regional structure (7)
• Set financial objectives for next two years (6)
• List of things to do & stop doing (4)
• Hear from GM about team notions, ideas, expectations (4)

5. Planning Change (Joint Action Planning)

The OD practitioner and the client members jointly agree on further actions to be taken. This is the beginning of the moving process (described in Lewin's change model), as the organization decides how best to reach a different quasi-stationary equilibrium. At this stage, the specific action depends on the culture, technology, and environment of the organization; the diagnosis of the problem; and the time and expense of the intervention. The purposes of this planning phase are to generate alternative steps for responding to problems identified in the diagnosis and to decide on the order of steps to take.

💡 Why this matters: Good diagnosis determines the intervention — the quality of diagnosis directly influences the effectiveness of the planned change actions.

6. Intervention (Action)

This stage involves the actual change from one organizational state to another. It may include installing new methods and procedures, reorganizing structures and work designs, and reinforcing new behaviors. Such actions typically require a transition period as the organization moves from the present to a desired future state.

Examples of interventions at the individual level: job redesign and enrichment, training and management development, changes in quality of working life, management by objectives, and career development. Examples of interventions at the group level: team building, installation of autonomous work groups or quality control circles.

7. Evaluation (Data Gathering After Action)

Because action research is a cyclical process, data must be gathered after the action has been taken to measure and determine the effects of the action and to feed the results back to the organization. This may lead to re-diagnosis and new action.

Termination of the OD Effort

An organization has a constant need for periodic, objective diagnostic check-ups by external consultants. Termination is not an applicable phase for internal OD practitioners. Although they may conclude specific programs and projects with their clients, they should not terminate the relationship. A primary role of internal practitioners is to serve as guardians of the new culture.

Phases not Steps

Phases are a more appropriate term than steps for describing the flow of events in OD work. Steps imply discrete actions, while phases connote a cycle of changes. Although useful for understanding OD practice to conceive of distinct phases, in actual practice they blend, overlap, and do not follow one from the other. For example, when collecting information for diagnostic purposes, an intervention is occurring simultaneously — when the OD practitioner asks questions, they are intervening.

Phases is appropriate also because of the cyclical nature of the OD process. As the process continues, new or undisclosed data are discovered, affecting organization members and creating additional information for diagnosis.

Contemporary Adaptations of Action Research

The action research model underlies most current approaches to planned change. Recent trends include movement from smaller subunits to total systems and communities, where action research is more complex and political and must be coordinated across multiple change processes with diverse stakeholders. Action research is also applied increasingly in international settings, requiring tailoring to fit cultural assumptions.

Two key adaptations:

First: Increased member involvement. Contemporary applications have substantially increased the degree of member involvement in the change process. Referred to as "participatory action research," "action learning," "action science," "self-design," or "appreciative inquiry," this approach emphasizes the need for organization members to learn firsthand about planned change. Both parties are "co-learners" in diagnosing the organization, designing changes, and implementing and assessing them. Neither party dominates the change process.

Second: Integration of an interpretive or social constructionist approach. Called "appreciative inquiry," this model proposes that words and conversations determine what is important and meaningful in organizational life. It suggests that the most important change an organization can make is to begin conversations about what the organization is doing right, rather than focusing on problems and gaps.

🔑 Definition — Appreciative Inquiry: A model of planned change that focuses on an organization's strengths and positive attributes, where members understand and describe the organization when it is working at its best, and that knowledge is applied to create a powerful and guiding image of what the organization could be.

The five steps of appreciative inquiry are:

1. Discover: Members choose to look for what is working well
2. Dream: Gather data about the "best of what is" and find stories presenting an exciting picture of the future
3. Design: Develop "possibility propositions" — statements bridging current best practices with ideal possibilities
4. Destiny: Bring stakeholders together to construct a vision of the future and devise action plans (creating "what should be")
5. Implementation: Make changes, assess results, and make adjustments toward the vision

⭐ Key Takeaways

The action research model is the foundational framework for OD practice, operating as a cyclical process of entry, contracting, diagnosis, feedback, planning, intervention, and evaluation — with phases that blend together rather than discrete steps. A critical distinction is that the model is collaborative, unlike the doctor-patient model, requiring shared frames of reference between consultant and client for successful change. Contemporary adaptations emphasize participatory action research where both parties are co-learners, and appreciative inquiry which shifts focus from organizational problems to organizational strengths and positive conversations. The cyclical nature means termination is never truly complete, especially for internal practitioners who serve as guardians of the new culture, and every diagnostic question constitutes an intervention in itself.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the seven main phases of the action research model, and why is "phases" more appropriate than "steps"?
2. How does the action research model differ from the doctor-patient model of consulting?
3. What three critical areas must an OD contract state, and why is establishing a common frame of reference important?
4. What are the five steps of appreciative inquiry, and how does it differ from traditional problem-focused action research?
5. Why is termination not an applicable phase for internal OD practitioners, and what role do they serve instead?

📘 Lecture 09 — General Model of Planned Change

📖 Overview: This lecture presents a comprehensive general framework for planned change in organizations, building on Lewin's model, action research, and contemporary adaptations. It details the four core activities of the OD process—entering/contracting, diagnosing, planning/implementing, and evaluating/institutionalizing—and explores how planned change varies across situations based on magnitude, degree of organization, and cultural context. Understanding this model is critical for effectively managing organizational change in diverse settings.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers the general model of planned change with four sequential yet overlapping activities: entering and contracting, diagnosing, planning and implementing change, and evaluating and institutionalizing change. It then examines three key dimensions along which planned change varies: magnitude of change (incremental vs. quantum), degree of organization (over organized vs. under organized), and domestic vs. international settings. Finally, it provides a critique of planned change in terms of both its conceptualization and practice, concluding with a detailed case analysis of The Dim Lighting Company.

📝 Lecture Summary

Entering and Contracting

The first set of activities in planned change concerns entering and contracting. These events help managers decide whether to engage further in a planned change program and commit resources. Entering involves gathering initial data to understand the organization's problems or positive opportunities. Once collected, these problems or opportunities are discussed to develop a contract or agreement spelling out future change activities, resources to be committed, and how OD practitioners and organization members will be involved. Organizations often do not get beyond this stage due to disagreements about the need for change, resource constraints, or more feasible alternatives. In nontraditional and international settings, this process must be sensitive to the context.

🔑 Definition — Contract: An agreement that spells out future change activities, the resources committed, and how OD practitioners and organization members will be involved. 💡 Why this matters: The entering and contracting stage sets the foundation for the entire change effort; if poorly handled, the change process may fail before it truly begins.

Diagnosing

In this stage, the client system is carefully studied to understand organizational problems (including causes and consequences) or to identify positive attributes. Diagnosis includes choosing an appropriate model for understanding the organization and gathering, analyzing, and feeding back information. Diagnostic models explore three levels of activities: organization issues (most complex, involving the total system), group-level issues (department and group effectiveness), and individual-level issues (job design). Data can be gathered through interviews, observations, survey instruments, or archival sources like meeting minutes and organization charts. Organization members, often with an OD practitioner, jointly discuss data and implications for change.

🔑 Definition — Client system: The organization or part of the organization being studied in the diagnosis stage. 💡 Why this matters: Diagnosis is one of the most important OD activities because accurate problem identification prevents costly and ineffective interventions later.

Planning and Implementing Change

In this stage, members and practitioners jointly plan and implement OD interventions to achieve the organization's vision or goals. Design criteria include the organization's readiness for change, current change capability, culture and power distributions, and the change agent's skills. There are four major types of interventions:

1. Human process interventions at individual, group, and total system levels.
2. Interventions modifying structure and technology.
3. Human resource interventions improving member performance and wellness.
4. Strategic interventions managing external relationships and internal structure/process to support business strategy.

Implementing interventions involves managing the change process: motivating change, creating a desired future vision, developing political support, managing the transition, and sustaining momentum.

🔑 Definition — OD interventions: Activities designed to improve the organization's functioning and achieve its vision or goals.

Evaluating and Institutionalizing Change

The final stage evaluates the effects of the intervention and manages institutionalization of successful change programs. Feedback about the intervention's results tells members whether changes should be continued, modified, or suspended. Institutionalizing successful changes involves reinforcing them through feedback, rewards, and training. This stage demonstrates how traditional planned change activities (entry, survey feedback, change planning) can combine with contemporary methods (large-group interventions, high participation).

🔑 Definition — Institutionalization: The process of reinforcing successful changes through feedback, rewards, and training to make them lasting.

Different Types of Planned Change

Planned change varies enormously depending on the client's needs, the change agent's skills, and the organization's context. Three key dimensions contrast these differences: the magnitude of organizational change, the degree to which the client system is organized, and whether the setting is domestic or international.

Magnitude of Change

Planned change falls along a continuum from incremental changes (fine-tuning the organization) to quantum changes (fundamentally altering operations). Incremental changes involve limited dimensions/levels, occur within existing strategy/structure/culture, and aim to improve the status quo. Quantum changes alter how the organization operates, involve multiple dimensions (structure, culture, reward systems, etc.) and multiple levels (top management through individual jobs). Traditional OD focused on incremental change (e.g., improving communication in a work team). In recent years, OD increasingly addresses quantum change driven by competitiveness and uncertainty — this is more complex, extensive, and long-term, typically driven from the top with change agents helping create a vision and manage the transition. Quantum change may not be developmental; firms may simply downsize or tighten controls without developing capacity. However, the OD approach to quantum change seeks to make organizations more competitive by developing human resources and promoting flexibility.

📌 Example: Organizations in the 1960s-70s used planned change mainly for incremental change (fine-tuning bureaucratic structures). In contrast, modern firms like General Electric, Kimberly-Clark, and Hewlett-Packard use OD for quantum change, transforming from control-oriented bureaucracies to high-involvement organizations capable of continuous self-improvement.

Degree of Organization

Planned change varies depending on whether the organization is over organized or under organized. In over organized situations (mechanistic bureaucracies), leadership, job designs, structure, and policies are too rigid. Communication is suppressed, conflicts avoided, and employees apathetic. Planned change here aims to loosen constraints: changes in leadership, job design, and structure liberate suppressed energy, increase information flow, and promote conflict resolution. The OD practitioner shares leadership, encourages open communication, and maintains flexibility.

In under organized situations, there is too little constraint for effective performance. Leadership, structure, and policies are poorly defined; communication is fragmented; job responsibilities are ambiguous. These are found in product development, project management, and community development. Planned change here aims to increase organization through four modified steps:

1. Identification: Identify relevant people/groups to involve in the change program.
2. Convention: Bring relevant people together to begin organizing for task performance.
3. Organization: Create organizing mechanisms (new leadership positions, communication channels, plans/policies).
4. Evaluation: Assess outcomes and signal need for adjustments.

In under organized situations, the consultant develops a well-defined, possibly autocratic leadership role in the early stages, with clearly defined and tightly specified consulting relationships.

Domestic vs. International Settings

Developed in western societies, the action research model reflects values of equality, involvement, and short-term time horizons. In other cultures (e.g., Asian countries) that are more hierarchical, status conscious, less open to discussing personal issues, and more concerned with saving "face," traditional OD steps become problematic. The cultural values guiding OD practice in the U.S. include tolerance for ambiguity, equality, individuality, and achievement motives. When OD is applied outside North America/Europe, the action research process must be adapted to fit the cultural context — for example, diagnosis can involve only senior managers, be directed from the top, or use internal consultants and documents instead of face-to-face interviews. To succeed, OD practitioners must develop awareness of their own cultural biases, be open to other perspectives, be fluent in host country values/assumptions, and understand the economic/political context. Most adopt a "cultural guide" (often an organization member) to navigate cultural, operational, and political nuances.

🔑 Definition — Cultural guide: A member of the organization who helps the OD practitioner navigate the cultural, operational, and political nuances of change in that society.

Critique of Planned Change

Despite refinements, planned change models and practice remain in a formative stage with considerable room for improvement.

Conceptualization Problems: Porras and Robertson argued that planned change should be guided by information about (1) organizational features that can change, (2) intended outcomes, (3) causal mechanisms, and (4) contingencies. They noted the key to change is individual behavior change, but causal mechanisms are poorly understood. Additional deficiencies include: lack of knowledge about how stages differ across situations (contingency thinking needed), the portrayal of change as rationally controlled when it actually has a chaotic quality with shifting goals and unexpected events, and poor understanding of the relationship between planned change and organizational performance/effectiveness.

Practice Problems: OD practitioners often specialize in specific techniques (team building, TQM, large-group interventions) leading to myopia — they favor particular methods and ignore more appropriate strategies. Some organizations skip careful diagnosis and rely on preconceptions, hiring consultants for the wrong problems. Organizations demanding quick fixes often receive prepackaged programs that fail to gain support or produce advertised results. Many organizations fail to recognize the systemic nature of change, believing intervention in one part suffices when supporting changes elsewhere are needed (e.g., at GTE of California, employee involvement only succeeded after reward systems were redesigned to support cross-functional collaboration).

📌 Example: At GTE of California, the positive benefits of an employee involvement program did not appear until the organization redesigned its reward system to support cross-functional collaboration necessary to solve complex problems.

Case: The Dim Lighting Co.

The Dim Lighting Company, a subsidiary producing electric lamps with 2,000 workers, is run by General Manager Jim West. Last year, profit margins dropped 15%, and West feels pressure for a good year to protect his career advancement. Robert Spinks, Director of R&D, has submitted a budget request for a major research project on micro-miniaturization of lighting sources requiring $250,000/year for two years plus $300,000 to begin production, with a 70% chance of success and $1 million net cash flow by year three. Corporate headquarters praised the idea but is reluctant to spend. At a budget meeting, the accountant (Carol Preston) and production manager (Bill Boswell) oppose the project due to high risk and immediate bottom-line needs, while marketing (Pete Newell) supports it. Spinks may resign if the project is rejected. West must decide between immediate profitability and long-term innovation, while managing conflicting departmental interests and his own career concerns.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The general model of planned change consists of four interconnected activities — entering/contracting, diagnosing, planning/implementing, and evaluating/institutionalizing — that are not strictly linear but involve overlap and feedback. Planned change varies dramatically across three dimensions: incremental vs. quantum change (magnitude), over organized vs. under organized situations (degree of organization), and domestic vs. international settings (cultural context). Critics have identified significant deficiencies in both the conceptualization (lack of contingency thinking, overly rational portrayal, poor performance measurement) and practice (technique myopia, diagnostic shortcuts, quick fixes, failure to recognize systemic change) of planned change. The Dim Lighting case illustrates how organizational politics, conflicting departmental interests, resource constraints, and personal career concerns complicate the entering and contracting stage.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the four basic activities in the general model of planned change, and why are they described as overlapping rather than strictly linear?
2. How does planned change differ between over organized and under organized situations in terms of goals and consultant behavior?
3. What are the four major types of OD interventions, and what criteria guide the design of interventions?
4. According to Porras and Robertson's critique, what four types of information should guide planned change activities, and why is individual behavior change considered key?
5. In the Dim Lighting case, what are the macro and micro problems, and what alternatives does the case analysis suggest for resolving the budget conflict?

📘 Lecture 10 — The Organization Development Practitioner: A closer look at OD practitioners

📖 Overview: This lecture provides a comprehensive examination of who organization development practitioners are, including the three main categories of practitioners and the distinctions between internal and external practitioners. It matters because understanding the roles, styles, and relationship-building strategies of OD practitioners is essential for anyone seeking to implement effective organizational change.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture begins by defining who qualifies as an OD practitioner across three categories: OD professionals, specialists in related fields, and managers practicing OD. It then examines the differences between external and internal practitioners, including their respective advantages and disadvantages. The lecture also covers the external-internal practitioner team approach, the practitioner style model and its components, and finally discusses how to develop a trust relationship with the client system.

📝 Lecture Summary

Who is the Organization Development Practitioner?

The term organization development practitioner refers to at least three sets of people. The most obvious group are those specializing in OD as a profession, who may be internal or external consultants offering professional services to organization clients including top managers, functional department heads, and staff groups. OD professionals traditionally share a common set of humanistic values promoting open communications, employee involvement, and personal growth and development. They tend to have common training, skills, and experience in social processes of organizations such as group dynamics, decision making, and communications. In recent years, OD professionals have expanded those traditional values and skill sets to include more concern for organizational effectiveness, competitiveness, and bottom-line results.

Second, the term OD practitioner applies to people specializing in fields related to OD, such as reward systems, organization design, total quality, information technology, and business strategy. These content-oriented fields increasingly are becoming integrated with OD's process orientation, particularly as OD projects have become more comprehensive. Professionals in these related fields gain experience and competence in OD mainly through working with OD professionals on large-scale projects and through attending OD training sessions. They practice OD when they apply their special competence within an OD-like process or when they apply OD competence to their own specialties.

Third, the term OD practitioner applies to the increasing number of managers and administrators who have gained competence in OD and apply it to their own work areas. Studies argue that OD applied by managers rather than OD professionals is growing rapidly, suggesting that the faster pace of change affecting organizations today is highlighting the centrality of the manager in managing change. Consequently, OD must become a general management skill. Managers tend to gain competence in OD through interacting with OD professionals in actual change programs, supplemented with more formal OD training. In practice, the distinctions among the three sets of OD practitioners are blurring as cross-training and integration produce a more comprehensive and complex kind of OD practitioner.

External and Internal Practitioners

In every large-scale planned change program, some person or group is usually designated to lead the change; sometimes it is the OD practitioner. The practitioner is the change leader, the person leading or guiding the process of change in an organization. Internal practitioners are already members of the organization, either managers practicing OD with their work groups or OD specialists from the human resources or organization development department. External practitioners are brought in from outside the organization as OD specialists and are often referred to as consultants. Both the use of external and internal practitioners have advantages and disadvantages.

The OD practitioners who are specialists, whether from within or outside the organization, are professionals who have specialized and trained in OD and related areas such as social sciences, interpersonal communications, decision making, and organization behavior. These specialists, often referred to as OD consultants, have a more formal and involved process when they enter the client system than managers who are doing OD with their work group.

The External Practitioner

The external practitioner is someone not previously associated with the client system. Coming from the outside, the external practitioner sees things from a different viewpoint and from a position of objectivity. Because they are invited into the organization, they have increased leverage (the degree of influence and status within the client system) and greater freedom of operation than internal practitioners. Research evidence suggests that top managers view external practitioners as having a more positive role in large-scale change programs than internal practitioners.

Since external practitioners are not part of the organization, they are less in awe of the power wielded by various organization members and do not depend upon the organization for raises, approval, or promotions. They tend to have a more independent attitude about risk-taking and confrontations with the client system. The disadvantages of external practitioners result from the same factors as the advantage — outsiders are generally unfamiliar with the organization system, its technology, culture, communication networks, and formal or informal power systems.

The Internal Practitioner

The internal practitioner is already a member of the organization: a top executive, an organization member who initiates change in his or her work group, or a member of the human resources or organization development department. Many large organizations have established offices specifically responsible for helping the organization implement change programs. Internal practitioners have certain advantages: they are familiar with the organization's culture and norms, know the power structure and how to apply leverage, are already known to employees, and have a personal interest in seeing the organization succeed.

The position of an internal practitioner also has disadvantages. These may include a lack of specialized skills needed for organization development, lack of objectivity (they may accept the organizational system as given and accommodate change tactics to management's needs), and being known to the workforce can work against them. Finally, the internal practitioner may not have the necessary power and authority, as they are sometimes in a remote staff position reporting to a mid-level manager.

The External-Internal Practitioner Team

The implementation of a large-scale change program is almost impossible without the involvement of all levels and elements of the organization. One approach uses a team formed of an external practitioner working directly with an internal practitioner, known as the external-internal practitioner team. This is probably the most effective approach. The partners bring complementary resources to the team; each has advantages and strengths that offset the disadvantages and weaknesses of the other.

The external practitioner brings expertise, objectivity, and new insights to organization problems. The internal practitioner brings detailed knowledge of organization issues and norms, a long-time acquaintance with members, and an awareness of system strengths and weaknesses. The collaborative relationship serves as a model for the rest of the organization, embodying qualities such as trust, respect, honesty, confrontation, and collaboration. The team makes it possible to divide the workload and share in diagnosis, planning, and strategy. Another reason for using this team approach is to achieve greater continuity over the entire OD program, as the internal practitioner provides a continuing point of contact whenever problems or questions arise.

💡 Why this matters: The external-internal team approach is considered the most effective because it combines the advantages of both types of practitioners while minimizing their respective disadvantages.

Practitioner Style Model

There is often a gap between the practitioner's and the client's understandings about OD and change. The practitioner needs to assess the degree of this gap because a relationship is possible only if the practitioner can be flexible enough to understand where the client is and help the client learn about the OD change process. The practitioner brings certain knowledge, skills, values, and experience to the situation, while the client system has its own values and expectations for the practitioner.

The practitioner's task and the scope, difficulty, and complexity of the changes to be implemented affect the relationship. Finally, the target organization's readiness for change, level of resistance, and culture influence the practitioner's style and the change approaches that may be successful. The OD practitioner needs to involve organization members at all levels and convince them to "buy in" on the change program.

Developing a Trust Relationship

The development of openness and trust between practitioner and client is an essential aspect of the OD program because trust is necessary for cooperation and communication. When there is no trust, people tend to be dishonest, evasive, and not authentic with one another, and communication is often inaccurate, distorted, or incomplete. There are several basic responses that the practitioner may use in the communication process aimed at developing a trust relationship:

• Questions — "How do you see the organization?"
• Applied expertise (advising) — "One possible intervention is team building."
• Reflection — "It sounds like you would like to see a participative form of leadership."
• Interpretation — "From your description, inter-team conflict could be the problem."
• Self-disclosure — "I've felt discouraged myself when my ideas were rejected."
• Silence — Say nothing, let the client sort out his or her thoughts.

How these basic responses are used is important in developing the practitioner-client relationship. In general, the more balanced the practitioner's use of these responses and the more open the range of responses, the higher the level of trust. Some practitioners rely almost exclusively on questions without sharing their own ideas and feelings, which tends to create a one-way flow of information. Other practitioners rely heavily on advising responses, which may tend to develop a dependency relationship.

During the first several contacts with the client system, the practitioner should reflect on questions such as: What is the attitude of the client system toward OD? What is the gut-level meaning of the client's problem? What are the possibilities that an OD program will alleviate the problem? What is the practitioner's potential impact on the system? Once these questions are answered, the practitioner can decide whether to continue the change efforts or to discontinue and terminate the relationship.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The most critical things to remember are that there are three distinct categories of OD practitioners — OD professionals, specialists in related fields, and managers — and these distinctions are increasingly blurring. External practitioners bring objectivity and leverage but lack insider knowledge, while internal practitioners bring cultural familiarity but may lack objectivity and power; the external-internal team approach combines the best of both. The practitioner style model emphasizes the need to assess the gap between practitioner and client understanding, and developing trust through balanced use of communication responses (questions, advising, reflection, interpretation, self-disclosure, and silence) is essential for effective OD practice.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the three sets of people to whom the term "organization development practitioner" refers?
2. What are the key advantages and disadvantages of external practitioners compared to internal practitioners?
3. Why is the external-internal practitioner team considered the most effective approach for implementing large-scale change programs?
4. What are the six basic responses a practitioner can use in the communication process to develop a trust relationship?
5. What questions should a practitioner reflect upon during the first several contacts with the client system?

📘 Lecture 11 — Creating a Climate for Change

📖 Overview: This lecture examines the foundational conditions necessary for successful organizational change, focusing on the relationship between the OD practitioner and the client system. It explores various practitioner styles, client relationship modes, and the critical importance of establishing trust, openness, and collaboration. Understanding these dynamics is essential for any OD practitioner seeking to diagnose and improve organizational effectiveness.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture begins by discussing the practitioner’s role in creating a positive climate for participation and learning, including potential value conflicts with the client organization. It then defines who the true client is in OD consultation—not any individual or group, but the relationships and interfaces between units. The text categorizes five distinct practitioner styles (Stabilizer, Cheerleader, Analyzer, Persuader, Pathfinder) based on their emphasis on effectiveness and member morale. Next, it presents four practitioner-client relationship modes (Apathetic, Gamesmanship, Charismatic, Consensus) that describe how openly members share information and take responsibility. Finally, important dimensions for a successful relationship are listed, and the Grayson Chemical Company case study is introduced to apply these concepts.

📝 Lecture Summary

Creating a Climate for Change

Most OD practitioners agree that an open, give-and-take relationship with the client is desirable. This depends on the practitioner’s ability to form relationships of openness and trust. Good relationships do not fit into a formula, but practitioners have noted recognizable characteristics. The change agent should act congruently, in accordance with the values he or she is attempting to superimpose upon the client system’s value system. The practitioner must “practice what they preach” and think and act in ways that create a positive climate for participation and learning.

The basic value system of the OD practitioner may not be compatible with the organization’s culture, leading to conflict. An assessment of the degree of difference and the likelihood of working through these differences should be part of the initial intervention. The practitioner may desire openness, authenticity, and trust, while client system managers may feel threatened. The practitioner also examines the degree of conflict and collaboration between organization units to avoid being party to existing conflicts.

🔑 Definition — Congruent behavior: Acting in accordance with the values one is attempting to promote. Example: An OD practitioner advocating for transparency must be transparent with the client.

Who is Client?

The client in OD consultation is never one individual, regardless of position, or any particular group or subsystem. The correct answer to “who is the client?” is “none of the above.”

💡 The client is the relationship and/or interface between individuals and units within and related to the system. The arrows in the figure depict the true client—the connections between parts of the organization. The consultant’s effectiveness depends on maintaining a social distance between self and other individuals, operating on the boundaries of units rather than exclusively within them, thereby maintaining an objective stance.

OD Practitioner Styles:

The OD practitioner is the person who initiates, stimulates, or facilitates a change program and may come from inside or outside the organization. Intervention refers to the practitioner’s entry into the client system and includes several different roles and activities.

Practitioners have a variety of styles based on the degree of emphasis placed upon two goals: effectiveness (goal accomplishment) and morale (relationships and participant satisfaction).

🔑 Definition — Intervention: The practitioner’s entry into the client system, including several different roles and activities.

The Stabilizer Style:

The goal of the Stabilizer Style is neither effectiveness nor participant satisfaction. The practitioner aims to keep from rocking the boat and maintain a low profile. The underlying motivation is often survival or following top management’s directives. This style is typically forced upon the practitioner by organizational pressures.

The Cheerleader Style:

The Cheerleader Style places emphasis on member satisfaction and is chiefly concerned with employee motivation and morale. It seeks warm working relationships and avoids confrontation. Effectiveness is not emphasized, based on the assumption that high satisfaction leads to high effectiveness, though evidence contradicts this.

The Analyzer Style:

The Analyzer Style places great emphasis on efficiency and little on member satisfaction. It relies on rational assessment of problems, using authority to resolve conflicts and rational problem-solving processes. The practitioner has specialized expertise and takes responsibility for solving specific problems, based on the belief that the client cannot learn these skills.

The Persuader Style:

The Persuader Style focuses on both effectiveness and morale but optimizes neither. It provides a low-risk strategy, avoiding direct confrontation. A great deal of effort is applied to satisfy different forces, often resulting in a watered-down change program where organization improvement is unlikely.

The Pathfinder Style:

The Pathfinder Style seeks both a high degree of effectiveness and a high degree of member satisfaction, believing that greater effectiveness is possible when all members are involved and problem-solving is done through teamwork. There is awareness that confrontation and conflict can lead to a more effective organization. The pathfinder practitioner uses collaborative problem solving and challenges underlying patterns of member behavior.

A survey of 1,000 OD practitioners found that listening, integrity, and organizational diagnosis were rated as the most important OD skills. The pathfinder practitioner focuses on six processes essential for effective performance: (1) communication, (2) member roles and functions in groups, (3) group problem-solving and decision-making, (4) group norms and growth, (5) leadership and authority, and (6) inter-group cooperation and competition.

💡 These five practitioner styles are not mutually exclusive. A practitioner may transition from one style to another to meet changing client system needs.

Practitioner-Client Relationship Modes:

Eric H. Neilsen identified basic dimensions in the practitioner-client relationship. To collaboratively change the organization’s culture, members need to (1) share their ideas, assumptions, perceptions, and feelings, and (2) accept personal responsibility for their own behavior. Based on these two dimensions, four possible modes are identified:

The Apathetic Mode: Members keep true ideas to themselves, assuming sharing will not make a difference. They follow routines, take no responsibility, and do as they are told.

The Gamesmanship Mode: Members keep true feelings to themselves, assuming sharing may threaten desired outcomes. They conform outwardly but manipulate strategic factors to gain personal goals. Members may favor change if it serves their personal interest.

The Charismatic Mode: A limited number of members openly share ideas and feelings based on perceptions of leadership. Followers look for cues from leaders, so responsibility is low for most members. Change is seen as desirable if leaders approve.

The Consensus Mode: Members continuously share perceptions and feelings openly. Personal viewpoints are expressed and seen as relevant. Decisions are made and differences resolved through sharing viewpoints, involving both sharing data and maintaining responsibility for actions. Members find the OD process consistent with their way of operating.

Important dimensions in practitioner-client relationship:

• The practitioner’s attitudes and behavior enable a climate where feelings can be freely expressed
• Ability to listen effectively and express ideas clearly
• The practitioner is honest with the client
• Operating based on power equalization to ensure the power differential is not too great
• This is particularly important for internal practitioners who may be in a subordinate position
• All key parties must be involved in the OD program to some extent
• A good relationship increases the probability of a successful OD program; a superficial relationship increases the probability of failure

Case: The Grayson Chemical Company

The Grayson Chemical Company manufactured industrial chemicals. The company was about 40 years old with stable management but declining earnings and sales had brought pressure from the board. The company had become increasingly stagnant and had steadily lost market standing and profitability. The board recruited a new CEO, Tom Baker, from another company. Baker needed to develop a top management team to turn the company around, but the situation was unfavorable—decisions were made by the book, things were done because “they have always been done this way,” and incompetent managers were often promoted.

The Meeting Baker met with three board members who each offered different advice:

• Robert Temple advised developing performance goals with existing people and rewarding achievement
• James Allen advised bringing in a new top management team (6 people) that Baker knew and trusted
• Hartley Ashford advised bringing in managers with proven track records from different industries for a synergistic effect

Case Solution: The Grayson Chemical Company

I. Problems: A. Macro: (1) Grayson has become stagnant, failed to change, and is no longer competitive; (2) current people are not acceptable to change; (3) culture of doing things by the book B. Micro: (1) incompetent managers promoted; (2) board does not have a consensus of opinion

II. Causes: (1) Grayson has not been proactive with its environment; (2) corporate culture is very resistant to change; (3) board does not speak with one voice, leading to disorganized operations with no clear direction

III. Systems affected: The entire organization is affected. Structural system could be radically altered. Psychosocial system shows status quo and contentment. Technical system has “fairly” competent managers but not enough for required changes. Managerial system faces turmoil from changes. Goals and values system values putting in time rather than excellence.

IV. Alternatives: (1) Maintain status quo; (2) develop a pathfinder style, involving board and organization members in renewing the company; (3) develop a persuader style to avoid rocking the boat

V. Recommendations: Develop pathfinder style, involve entire corporation in change process, establish open communications with board and consensus on what the board wants, and make personnel changes after thorough analysis

⭐ Key Takeaways

The client in OD is never a single individual or group but the relationship and interface between individuals and units within the system. An OD practitioner’s style can be classified based on emphasis on effectiveness and morale into five types: Stabilizer (low, low), Cheerleader (low effectiveness, high morale), Analyzer (high effectiveness, low morale), Persuader (moderate both), and Pathfinder (high both). The Pathfinder style is most ideal as it seeks high effectiveness through collaborative problem solving and member involvement. The practitioner-client relationship can exist in four modes (Apathetic, Gamesmanship, Charismatic, Consensus), with the Consensus mode being most conducive to successful OD. The practitioner must maintain power equalization, ensure key parties are involved, and model the values of openness, honesty, and collaboration they wish to see in the client system.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. Who is the true client in OD consultation, and why is this distinction important?
2. What are the five practitioner styles, and on which two dimensions are they based?
3. Describe the four practitioner-client relationship modes identified by Eric H. Neilsen.
4. What are the six essential processes for effective organization performance that the pathfinder practitioner focuses on?
5. In the Grayson Chemical Company case, which practitioner style is recommended and why is it most appropriate?

📘 Lecture 12 — OD Practitioner Skills and Activities

📖 Overview: This lecture examines the skills, competencies, and knowledge required for effective Organization Development practice. It explores the core competencies needed by all OD practitioners, the specific abilities of consultants, the differences between internal and external consulting roles, the concept of marginality, emotional demands of the role, and how practitioners use knowledge and experience along a client-centered to consultant-centered continuum.

🗂️ Topics Covered

This lecture covers the competencies of effective OD practitioners, including two major projects defining OD skill sets. It details four basic skill areas: intrapersonal, interpersonal, general consultation, and OD theory. The lecture also examines six key practitioner skill areas, ten primary consultant abilities, the roles and differences between internal and external consultants, the concept of marginality, emotional intelligence demands of OD practice, and the continuum of knowledge use from client-centered to consultant-centered approaches.

📝 Lecture Summary

OD Practitioner Skills and Activities

Much of the literature about the competencies of an effective OD practitioner reveals a mixture of personality traits, experiences, knowledge, and skills presumed to lead to effective practice. Research on successful change practitioners yields attributes including diagnostic ability, basic knowledge of behavioral science techniques, empathy, knowledge of theories and methods within the consultant's own discipline, goal-setting ability, problem-solving ability, ability to perform self-assessment, ability to see things objectively, imagination, flexibility, honesty, consistency, and trust. Two ongoing projects are attempting to define and categorize the skills and knowledge required of OD practitioners. The first effort, updated annually by fifty well-known practitioners and researchers, has grown to 187 statements in nine areas of OD practice including entry, start-up, assessment and feedback, action planning, intervention, evaluation, adoption, separation, and general competencies. The second project, sponsored by the Organization Development and Change Division of the Academy of Management, seeks to develop a list of competencies to guide curriculum development in graduate OD programs. This project identifies foundation competencies oriented toward descriptions of an existing system, including knowledge from organization behavior, psychology, group dynamics, management and organization theory, research methods, and business practices, and core competencies aimed at how systems change over time, including knowledge of organization design, organization research, system dynamics, OD history, and theories and models for change.

Basic Skills and Knowledge for All OD Practitioners

Based on available studies, all OD practitioners should have the following basic skills and knowledge to be effective:

1. Intrapersonal skills. Despite the growing knowledge base, organization development is still a human craft. As the primary instrument of diagnosis and change, practitioners often must process complex, ambiguous information and make informed judgments. Practitioners must have the personal centering to know their own values, feelings, and purposes as well as the integrity to behave responsibly in a helping relationship. Because OD is a highly uncertain process requiring constant adjustment and innovation, practitioners must have active learning skills and a reasonable balance between their rational and emotional sides. Finally, OD practice can be highly stressful, so practitioners need to know how to manage their own stress.

🔑 Definition — Intrapersonal skills: The ability to know one's own values, feelings, and purposes, and to manage oneself effectively in the helping relationship, including stress management and maintaining integrity.

2. Interpersonal skills. Practitioners must create and maintain effective relationships with individuals and groups within the organization and help them gain the competence necessary to solve their own problems. Group dynamics, comparative cultural perspectives, and business functions are considered foundation knowledge, and managing the consulting process and facilitation as core skills. All of these interpersonal competencies promote effective helping relationships. Practitioners must establish trust and rapport with organization members so they can share pertinent information and work effectively together. To help members learn new skills and behaviors, practitioners must serve as concrete role models and provide counseling and coaching. Because the helping relationship is jointly determined, practitioners need to be able to negotiate an acceptable role and to manage changing expectations and demands.

3. General consultation skills. OD starts with diagnosing an organization or department. OD practitioners need to know how to carry out an effective diagnosis at least at a rudimentary level. They should know how to engage organization members in diagnosis, how to help them ask the right questions, and how to collect and analyze information. Practitioners should know basic diagnostic questions, some methods for gathering information such as interviews or surveys, and some techniques for analyzing it such as force-field analysis or statistical means and distributions. In addition to diagnosis, OD practitioners should know how to design and execute an intervention, define an action plan, gain commitment to the program, tailor the intervention to the situation, and use information about how the change is progressing to guide implementation.

4. Organization development theory. OD practitioners should have a general knowledge of organization development, including appreciation for planned change, the action research model, and contemporary approaches to managing change. They should be familiar with the range of available interventions and the need for evaluating and institutionalizing change programs. Perhaps most important is that OD practitioners should understand their own role in the emerging field of organization development, whether as an OD professional, a manager, or a specialist in a related area.

Key Skill Areas for Internal Practitioners (Gebelein's Framework)

The role of the OD practitioner is changing and becoming more complex. Ellen Fagenson and W. Warner Burke found that the most practiced OD skill or activity was team development, whereas the least employed was the integration of technology. OD practitioners of today are no longer just process facilitators but are expected to know something about strategy, structure, reward systems, corporate culture, leadership, human resource development, and the client organization's business. Susan Gebelein lists six key skill areas critical to the success of the internal practitioner:

• Leadership: Leaders keep members focused on key company values and on opportunities and need for improvement.
• Project Management: Involving all the right people and departments to keep the change program on track.
• Communication: Vital to communicate the key values to everyone in the organization.
• Problem-Solving: The real challenge is to implement a solution; focus constantly on the next set of problems.
• Interpersonal: Giving everybody in the organization the tools and confidence to be involved in the change process, including facilitating, building relationships, and process skills.
• Personal: The confidence to help the organization make tough decisions, introduce new techniques, try something new, and see if it works.

The OD practitioner's role is to help employees create their own solutions, systems, and concepts. When the practitioner uses these skills, the employees will work hard to make them succeed because they are the owners of the change programs.

Consultant's Abilities

Ten primary abilities are key to an OD consultant's effectiveness. Most can be learned, but individual differences in personality or basic temperament may make some easier to learn than others:

1. The ability to tolerate ambiguity: Every organization is different, and what worked before may not work now; every OD effort starts from scratch.
2. The ability to influence: Unless the OD consultant enjoys power and has some talent for persuasion, he or she is likely to succeed in only minor ways.
3. The ability to confront difficult issues: Much OD work consists of exposing issues that organization members are reluctant to face.
4. The ability to support and nurture others: Particularly important in times of conflict and stress, and just before and during a manager's first experience with team building.
5. The ability to listen well and empathize: Especially important during interviews, in conflict situations, and when client stress is high.
6. The ability to recognize one's feelings and intuition quickly: Important to distinguish one's own perceptions from those of the client and use these feelings as interventions when appropriate.
7. The ability to conceptualize: Necessary to think and express in understandable words certain relationships such as cause-and-effect and if-then linkages within the systemic context of the client organization.
8. The ability to discover and mobilize human energy: Both within oneself and within the client organization; interventions are most effective when they tap existing energy and provide direction for productive use.
9. The ability to teach or to create learning opportunities: Should be utilized on the job, during meetings, and within the mainstream of the overall change effort.
10. The ability to maintain a sense of humor: Useful for reducing tension; not taking oneself too seriously is critical for maintaining perspective.

Role of Organization Development Professionals: Internal vs. External

Organization development professionals have positions that are either internal or external to the organization. Internal consultants are members of the organization and often are located in the human resources department. They may perform the OD role exclusively or combine it with other tasks such as compensation practices, training, or labor relations. External consultants are not members of the client organization; they typically work for a consulting firm, a university, or themselves. Organizations generally hire external consultants to provide particular expertise that is unavailable internally and to bring a different and potentially more objective perspective.

During the entry process, internal consultants have clear advantages: ready access to clients, knowledge of organizational language, and insights about root causes of problems, saving time in identifying culture, informal practices, and sources of power. External consultants have the advantage of being able to select clients according to their own criteria. During diagnosis, internal consultants already know most organization members and enjoy basic rapport and trust, but external consultants often have higher status, allowing them to probe difficult issues and assess the organization more objectively. During intervention, both types must rely on valid information, free and informed choice, and internal commitment, but an internal consultant's strong ties may make them overly cautious. A promising approach is to include both as members of an internal-external consulting team, combining special expertise and objectivity with inside knowledge and acceptance.

🔑 Definition — Internal-external consulting team: A collaborative arrangement where both internal and external OD consultants work together, combining the external consultant's specialized expertise and objectivity with the internal consultant's organizational knowledge and acceptance.

Marginality

A promising line of research on the professional OD role centers on the issue of marginality. The marginal person is one who successfully straddles the boundary between two or more groups with differing goals, value systems, and behavior patterns. Evidence suggests that people who are good at taking marginal roles have personal qualities of low dogmatism, neutrality, open-mindedness, objectivity, flexibility, and adaptable information-processing ability. Individuals with marginal orientations are more likely to develop integrative decisions that reconcile viewpoints among opposing groups and remain neutral in controversial situations. For the OD consultant, being marginal means becoming involved enough to understand the client's feelings and perceptions yet distant enough to see them objectively.

There are two relevant boundaries: the activities boundary and the membership boundary. With respect to change activities, the consultant must help but not be directly involved. With respect to membership, the OD consultant is never quite in nor quite out — being a member means vested interest and lack of objectivity, while being totally removed means inability to sense and empathize. Being marginal is critical for both external and internal consultants. The major concern for internal OD practitioners is that they can never be a consultant to their own group or to any group within the same vertical path of the managerial hierarchy.

Emotional Demands

The OD practitioner role is emotionally demanding. Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize and express emotions appropriately, to use emotions in thought and decisions, and to regulate emotion in oneself and in others. In tandem with traditional knowledge and skill, emotional intelligence affects and supplements rational thought; emotions help prioritize thinking by directing attention to important information not addressed in models and theories. Some researchers argue that emotional intelligence is as important as cognitive intelligence.

OD practitioners must relate to and help organization members adapt to resistance, commitment, and ambiguity, which raises emotions such as fear of failure or rejection. Ambiguity or denial of emotions can lead to inaccurate and untimely interventions. For example, a practitioner uncomfortable with conflict may intervene to diffuse conflict because of personal discomfort, not because the conflict is destructive, acting to address a personal need rather than to improve system effectiveness. Emotional intelligence increases with age and experience and can be developed through personal growth processes such as sensitivity training, counseling, and therapy.

🔑 Definition — Emotional intelligence: The ability to recognize and express emotions appropriately, to use emotions in thought and decisions, and to regulate emotion in oneself and in others, which is considered as important as cognitive intelligence for effective OD practice.

Use of Knowledge and Experience

The professional OD role has been described in terms of a continuum ranging from client-centered (using the client's knowledge and experience) to consultant-centered (using the consultant's knowledge and experience). Traditionally, OD consultants have worked at the client-centered end, relying mainly on sensitivity training, process consultation, and team building, remaining neutral and refusing to offer expert advice. The consultant would listen and reflect upon members' perceptions and ideas, helping clarify and interpret their communications and behaviors.

With the recent proliferation of OD interventions in structural, human resource management, and strategy areas, the limited definition of the professional OD role has expanded to include the consultant-centered end. In many newer approaches, the consultant may take on a modified role of expert, with the consent and collaboration of organization members. For example, in major structural redesign, the consultant might present basic concepts and ideas and then struggle jointly with managers to select an approach. This expertise, however, is always shared rather than imposed. The OD professional's role needs to be seen as falling along the entire continuum from client-centered to consultant-centered, with the consultant sometimes relying mainly on members' knowledge and at other times taking on the role of expert, withdrawing as managers gain more knowledge and experience.

💡 Why this matters: This continuum concept acknowledges that modern OD practice requires flexibility — practitioners must know when to facilitate client discovery and when to provide expert guidance, adapting their approach based on the organization's needs and the nature of the intervention.

⭐ Key Takeaways

All OD practitioners must possess four basic skill sets: intrapersonal skills (self-awareness and stress management), interpersonal skills (building trust, rapport, and helping relationships), general consultation skills (diagnosis and intervention design), and knowledge of OD theory. The ten consultant abilities, including tolerance for ambiguity, ability to influence, ability to confront difficult issues, and ability to maintain humor, form the core competencies for effective OD consulting. Internal and external consultants have distinct advantages and disadvantages at each stage of the change process, and combining them into internal-external consulting teams can leverage both sets of strengths while requiring strong team building and continuous feedback. The concept of marginality — straddling boundaries without being fully inside or outside — is critical for maintaining objectivity while remaining empathetic. Finally, emotional intelligence is as important as cognitive knowledge, and the use of knowledge ranges from client-centered facilitation to consultant-centered expertise, with the practitioner adapting along this continuum based on the situation.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the four basic skill and knowledge areas that all OD practitioners should possess based on available studies?
2. What are the six key skill areas critical to the success of internal OD practitioners according to Susan Gebelein?
3. List five of the ten primary abilities key to an OD consultant's effectiveness and explain why each matters.
4. What are the key differences between internal and external consultants during the entry, contracting, diagnosing, intervening, and evaluating stages of the change process?
5. Explain the concept of marginality in OD practice and why it is critical for both internal and external consultants to maintain a marginal position.

📘 Lecture 13 — Professional Values

📖 Overview: This lecture examines the foundational values and ethical frameworks that guide Organization Development practice. It traces the evolution from traditional humanistic values rooted in sensitivity training to contemporary concerns with organizational effectiveness, and explores the ethical dilemmas practitioners face in balancing human needs with organizational demands.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers professional values in OD including their origins in sensitivity training, the spirit of inquiry and democratic values, the tension between freedom and constraint, the challenge of optimizing both human benefits and production objectives, value conflicts with external stakeholders, professional ethics, ethical guidelines, and five types of ethical dilemmas: misrepresentation, misuse of data, coercion, value and goal conflict, and technical ineptness.

📝 Lecture Summary

Professional Values

Values have played an important role in organization development from its beginning. Traditionally, OD professionals promoted a set of values under a humanistic framework, including a concern for inquiry and science, democracy and being helpful. They sought to build trust and collaboration; to create an open, problem-solving climate; and to increase the self-control of organization members. More recently, OD practitioners have extended those humanistic values to include a concern for improving organizational effectiveness (for example, to increase productivity or to reduce turnover) and performance (for example, to increase profitability). They have shown an increasing desire to optimize both human benefits and production objectives.

We can gain understanding of OD values by referring to sensitivity training. This method of education and change has a humanistic value orientation, the belief that it is worthwhile to have the opportunity throughout life to learn and develop personally toward full realization and actualization of individual potential. Another OD value from sensitivity training is that people's feelings are just as important a source of data for diagnosis and have as much implication for change as do facts or so-called hard data. Yet another OD value stemming from sensitivity training is that conflict, whether interpersonal or inter-group, should be brought to the surface and dealt with directly, rather than ignored, avoided, or manipulated.

When sensitivity training was at the height of its popularity, two main value systems considered were: a spirit of inquiry, and democracy. The spirit of inquiry comes from the values of science. Two parts are relevant: the hypothetical spirit – being tentative, checking on the validity of assumptions, and allowing for errors; and experimentation – putting ideas or assumptions to the test. The second main value system, the democratic value, has two elements: collaboration, and conflict resolution through rational means. The learning process in sensitivity training is collaborative, not a traditional authoritarian student-teacher relationship. By conflict resolution through rational means, it is meant that "there is a problem-solving orientation to conflict rather than the more traditional approaches based on bargains, power plays, suppression, or compromise."

💡 Why this matters: Understanding these foundational values helps practitioners recognize the ethical tension between treating employees humanely while also meeting organizational performance goals.

Freedom vs. Constraint

It is painfully obvious that most organizations treat their most valued resources – employees – as if they were expendable. If OD helps correct these imbalances, it is long overdue, but what about the organization? If it doesn't survive, there will be no jobs, no imbalances to correct. Of the two words represented by OD, practitioners have spent more time on development than on organization. They are equally important; however, if either is out of balance, the OD consultant's goal is to redress the imbalance.

OD's right goal grows from its proper setting. If the proper setting is organizations, then there is only one right goal for OD, i.e. to confront an issue that is the tension between freedom and constraint. There is always tension between the two – the autonomy of the individual and the requirements of the organization. It is practically impossible to determine the proper balance but, when either factor is obviously out of balance, the OD consultant's goal is to work toward reducing the heavier side.

Value Dilemmas

The joint values of humanizing organizations and improving their effectiveness have received widespread support. But in practice OD professionals face serious challenges in simultaneously pursuing greater humanism and organizational effectiveness. More practitioners experience situations where there is conflict between employees' needs for greater meaning and the organization's need for more effective and efficient use of its resources. For example, expensive capital equipment may run most efficiently if it is highly programmed and routinized, but people may not derive satisfaction from working with such technology. Should efficiency be maximized at the expense of people's satisfaction? Can technology be changed to make it more humanly satisfying while remaining efficient? What compromises are possible? These are the value dilemmas often faced when trying to optimize both human benefits and organizational effectiveness.

In addition to value issues within organizations, OD practitioners deal more with value conflicts with powerful outside groups. Organizations are open systems existing within increasingly turbulent environments. External groups often have different and competing values for judging the organization's effectiveness. For example, stockholders may judge the firm in terms of earnings per share, the government in terms of compliance with equal employment opportunity legislation, patients in terms of quality of care, and ecology groups in terms of hazardous waste disposal. Because organizations must rely on these external groups for resources and legitimacy, they cannot simply ignore these competing values.

Recent attempts to help firms manage external relationships suggest the need for new interventions and competence in OD. Practitioners must have not only social skills but also political skills. They must understand the distribution of power, conflicts of interest, and value dilemmas inherent in managing external relationships. Interventions promoting collaboration and system maintenance may be ineffective in this larger arena, especially when there are power and dominance relationships among organizations. Under those conditions, OD practitioners may need more power-oriented interventions, such as bargaining, coalition forming, and pressure tactics.

Professional Ethics

Ethical issues in OD are concerned with how practitioners perform their helping relationship with organization members. Inherent in any helping relationship is the potential for misconduct and client abuse. OD practitioners can let personal values stand in the way of good practice or use the power inherent in their professional role to abuse (often unintentionally) organization members.

Ethical Guidelines

To its credit, the field of OD always has shown concern for the ethical conduct of its practitioners. Statements of ethics governing OD practice have been sponsored by the Organization Development Institute, the American Society for Training & Development, and a consortium of professional associations in OD. The consortium jointly sponsored an ethical code derived from a large-scale project conducted at the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Ethical Dilemmas

Although adherence to statements of ethics helps prevent ethical problems, OD practitioners still encounter ethical dilemmas. Figure 17 is a process model explaining how ethical dilemmas can occur in OD. The antecedent conditions include an OD practitioner and a client system with different goals, values, needs, skills, and abilities. During the entry and contracting phase these differences may or may not be addressed. If the contracting process is incomplete, the subsequent intervention process or role episode is subject to role conflict and role ambiguity. Neither the client nor the OD practitioner is clear about respective responsibilities. The role conflict and ambiguity may produce five types of ethical dilemmas: misrepresentation, misuse of data, coercion, value and goal conflict, and technical ineptness.

Misrepresentation

Misrepresentation occurs when OD practitioners claim that an intervention will produce results that are unreasonable for the change program or the situation. The client can contribute by portraying inaccurate goals and needs. In either case, one or both parties are operating under false pretenses. For example, in "The Undercover Change Agent" case, an attempt was made to use laboratory training in an organization whose top management did not understand it and was not ready for it. The OD consultant sold T-groups as the intervention that would solve the organization's problems. After the president made a surprise visit, the consultant was fired because the nature and style of the T-group contradicted the president's concepts about leadership. To prevent misrepresentation, OD practitioners need to gain clarity about goals and explore openly with the client expected effects, relevance, and the practitioner's competence.

Misuse of Data

Misuse of data occurs when information gathered during the OD process is used punitively. Large amounts of information are obtained during the entry and diagnostic phases. Although most OD practitioners value openness and trust, it is important to be aware of how data will be used. It is a human tendency to use data to enhance a power position. Openness is one thing, but leaking inappropriate information can be harmful. To minimize misuse, practitioners should reach agreement up front about how data will be used, and review this agreement periodically.

Coercion

Coercion occurs when organization members are forced to participate in an OD intervention. People should have freedom to choose whether to participate. In team building, for example, team members should have the option of deciding not to become involved. Management should not decide unilaterally that team building is good for members. However, freedom to choose requires knowledge about OD, making it imperative for practitioners to educate clients about interventions before choices are made.

Coercion also poses ethical dilemmas for the helping relationship. Kelman pointed out that behavior change "inevitably involves some degree of manipulation and control, and at least an implicit imposition of the change agent's values." This places the practitioner on two horns of a dilemma: (1) any attempt to change is itself a manipulation, and (2) there exists no formula to structure a change situation so that manipulation can be totally absent. Kelman stressed freedom of choice, seeing any action that limits freedom of choice as ethically ambiguous. An effective way to resolve this dilemma is to make the change effort as open as possible, with free consent and knowledge of individuals involved.

The second facet of coercion involves dependency. Helping relationships invariably create dependency. A major goal in OD is to lessen clients' dependency on consultants. To resolve dependency issues, consultants can openly discuss how to handle the dependency problem, focus on problem finding rather than solutions, and change the client's expectation from being helped to managing the problem themselves.

Value and Goal Conflict

This ethical conflict occurs when the purpose of the change effort is not clear or when the client and practitioner disagree over how to achieve goals. The important practical issue is whether it is justifiable to withhold services unilaterally from an organization that disagrees with their values or methods. OD pioneer Gordon Lippitt suggested that assuming some kind of change will occur anyway, the consultant has a responsibility to guide change in the most constructive fashion possible. Argyris takes an even stronger stand, maintaining that professional OD practitioners' responsibilities to clients are comparable to those of lawyers or physicians who may not refuse to perform their services. He suggests providing "first aid" as long as it doesn't compromise the consultant's values.

Technical Ineptness

This final ethical dilemma occurs when OD practitioners try to implement interventions for which they are not skilled or when the client attempts a change for which it is not ready. Critical to success is selecting an appropriate intervention, which depends on careful diagnosis of the organization. In solving organizational problems, many OD consultants emphasize a favorite intervention or technique, such as team building, total quality management, or self-managed teams. They let their own values and beliefs dictate the change method. Technical ineptness also occurs when interventions do not align with the organization's ability to implement them.

🔑 Definition — Ethical Dilemmas: Situations in OD practice where practitioners face conflicts between different values, goals, or obligations, arising from incomplete contracting, role conflict, and role ambiguity between the practitioner and client system.

📐 Formula — Ethical Dilemma Model: Antecedent Conditions (different goals, values, needs, skills) → Entry & Contracting (incomplete) → Role Conflict & Role Ambiguity → Five Dilemmas (misrepresentation, misuse of data, coercion, value/goal conflict, technical ineptness)

📌 Example — The Undercover Change Agent: An OD consultant sold T-groups to an organization whose top management did not understand them. The president made a surprise visit and fired the consultant because the T-group's nature contradicted the president's leadership concepts. This illustrates misrepresentation — claiming an intervention would produce results unreasonable for the situation.

⭐ Key Takeaways

OD values have evolved from humanistic foundations in sensitivity training — emphasizing the spirit of inquiry, democracy, collaboration, and conflict resolution — to include organizational effectiveness and performance optimization. The central tension in OD is between individual freedom and organizational constraint, with the practitioner's goal being to redress imbalances. Ethical dilemmas arise from incomplete contracting and role ambiguity, producing five problems: misrepresentation, misuse of data, coercion, value/goal conflict, and technical ineptness. Practitioners must develop political skills to manage external stakeholder conflicts and power dynamics. The profession's ethical guidelines stress freedom of choice, open contracting, data confidentiality, competence, and managing dependency in the helping relationship.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the five types of ethical dilemmas in OD as described in the process model?
2. How did sensitivity training influence the core values of organization development?
3. What is the "right goal" of OD according to the lecture, and what tension does it address?
4. According to Kelman, what are the two horns of the dilemma regarding coercion in helping relationships?
5. What did Argyris suggest about the responsibility of OD practitioners toward clients who hold different values?

📘 Lecture 14 — Entering and Contracting

📖 Overview: This lecture introduces the initial steps of the Organization Development (OD) process: entering and contracting. It explains how OD practitioners and client organizations establish a collaborative relationship, clarify the nature of the problem to be addressed, and set the ground rules for the change effort. Understanding these foundational stages is critical because they shape the success of all subsequent diagnostic, intervention, and evaluation phases.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers the definition and importance of entering and contracting in OD, including how they vary in complexity depending on whether the practitioner is internal or external. It then details the three main activities involved in entering an OD relationship: clarifying the organizational issue, determining the relevant client system or team members, and selecting an appropriate OD practitioner. The lecture explains the contracting process, focusing on mutual expectations, time and resource commitments, and ground rules for collaboration. A detailed application example (Charity Medical Center) illustrates how these concepts work in practice.

📝 Lecture Summary

Entering and Contracting

The planned change process generally starts when key managers or administrators sense that their organization could be improved or has problems that could be alleviated through OD. The organization might be successful yet have room for improvement, might be facing impending environmental conditions necessitating change, or could be experiencing specific problems like poor product quality, high absenteeism, or dysfunctional conflicts. Conversely, the problems might appear more diffuse, such as feelings that the organization should be "more innovative," "more competitive," or "more effective."

Entering and contracting are the initial steps in the OD process. They involve defining in a preliminary manner the organization's problems or opportunities for development and establishing a collaborative relationship between the OD practitioner and members of the client system about how to work on those issues. These steps set the initial parameters for carrying out the subsequent phases of OD: diagnosing the organization, planning and implementing changes, and evaluating and institutionalizing them. They help define what issues will be addressed, who will carry them out, and how they will be accomplished.

Entering and contracting can vary in complexity and formality depending on the situation. When a manager of a work group serves as their own OD practitioner, entering and contracting are relatively simple and informal, involving direct discussion with group members without many formal procedures. In situations where managers are considering the use of professional OD practitioners—either internal or external—entering and contracting tend to be more complex and formal. OD practitioners may need to collect preliminary information, meet with representatives rather than the total membership, and formalize their respective roles and how the change process will unfold.

💡 Why this matters: Unless there is clarity and agreement about what issues to work on, who will address them, and how that will be accomplished, subsequent stages of the OD process are likely to be confusing and ineffective.

Entering into an OD Relationship

An OD process generally starts when a member of an organization or unit contacts an OD practitioner about potential help in addressing an organizational issue. The organization member may be a manager, staff specialist, or some other key participant, and the practitioner may be an OD professional from inside or outside of the organization. Determining whether the two parties should enter into an OD relationship typically involves clarifying the nature of the organization's current functioning and the issue(s) to be addressed, the relevant client system for that issue, and the appropriateness of the particular OD practitioner. The OD practitioner may need to collect preliminary data about the organization, and the organization may need to gather information about the practitioner's competence and experience.

The activities involved in entering an OD relationship are: clarifying the organizational issue, determining the representatives of the client organization, and selecting the appropriate OD practitioner.

Clarifying the Organizational Issue

When seeking help from OD practitioners, organizations typically start with a presenting problem—the issue that has caused them to consider an OD process. It may be specific (decreased market share, increased absenteeism) or general ("we're growing too fast," "we need to prepare for rapid changes"). The presenting problem often has an implied or stated solution. For example, managers may believe that because members of their teams are in conflict, team building is the obvious answer. They may even state the presenting problem in the form of a solution: "We need some team building."

In many cases, however, the presenting problem is only a symptom of an underlying problem. For example, conflict among team members may result from several deeper causes, including ineffective reward systems, personality differences, inappropriate structure, and poor leadership. The issue facing the organization or department must be clarified early in the OD process so that subsequent diagnostic and intervention activities are focused correctly.

Gaining a clearer perspective on the organizational issue may require collecting preliminary data. OD practitioners often examine company records and interview a few key members to gain an introductory understanding of the organization, its context, and the nature of the presenting problem. These data are gathered in a relatively short period, typically over a few hours to one or two days. They are intended to provide enough rudimentary knowledge of the organizational issue to enable the two parties to make informed choices about proceeding with the contracting process.

📌 Example: A manager might say, "We need some team building." The OD practitioner must clarify whether the real issue is indeed team conflict or something deeper like an ineffective reward system or poor leadership. The practitioner might review company records and interview a few key members for a day or two to understand the situation better.

The diagnostic phase of OD involves a far more extensive assessment of the problematic or development issue that occurs during the entering and contracting stage. The diagnosis might also discover other issues that need to be addressed, or it might lead to redefining the initial issue identified during entering and contracting. This is a prime example of the emergent nature of the OD process, where things may change as new information is gathered and new events occur.

Determining the OD Team Members

A second activity in entering an OD relationship is to define who are the team members involved in addressing the organizational issue. Generally, organization members who can directly impact the change issue should be involved, whether it is solving a particular problem or improving an already successful organization or department. Unless these members are identified and included in the entering and contracting process, they may withhold their support for and commitment to the OD process. In trying to improve the productivity of a unionized manufacturing plant, for example, it will be necessary to include union officials as well as managers and staff personnel. It is not unusual for an OD project to fail because the team members were inappropriately defined.

Determining the team members can vary in complexity depending on the situation. When the organizational issue can be addressed in a specific organization unit, members of that unit must be included. For example, if a manager asked for help improving the decision-making process of his or her team, the manager and team members would be part of the OD process.

Determining the team members is more complex when the organizational issue cannot readily be addressed in a single unit. Here, it may be necessary to include members from multiple units, from different hierarchical levels, and even from outside of the organization. For example, resolving conflict between a production department and other departments would require including members from all departments involved as well as the executive to whom all departments report. If interdepartmental conflict also involved key suppliers and customers from outside the firm, those groups might need to be included as well.

In complex situations, OD practitioners need to gather additional information about the organization to determine the relevant team members, generally as part of the preliminary data collection. When examining company records or interviewing personnel, practitioners can seek to identify key members and organizational units that need to be involved. They can ask questions such as: Who can directly impact the organizational issue? Who has a vested interest in it? Who has the power to approve or reject the OD effort?

Selecting an OD Practitioner

The last activity involved in entering an OD relationship is selecting an OD practitioner who has the expertise and experience to work with members on the organizational issue. Perhaps the best criteria for selecting, evaluating, and developing OD practitioners are those suggested by Gordon Lippitt, a pioneering practitioner in the field. Lippitt listed areas that managers should consider before selecting a practitioner, including:

• The ability of the consultant to form sound interpersonal relationships
• The degree of focus on the problem
• The skills of the practitioner relative to the problem
• The extent that the consultant clearly informs the client as to his or her role and contribution
• Whether the practitioner belongs to a professional association

References from other clients are highly important. A client may not like the consultant's work, but it is critical to know the reasons for both pleasure and displeasure. One important consideration is whether the consultant approaches the organization with openness and an insistence on diagnosis or whether the practitioner appears to have a fixed program applicable to almost any organization.

OD consulting is as much a person specialization as it is a task specialization. The OD professional needs not only a repertoire of technical skills but also the personality and interpersonal competence to use himself or herself as an instrument of change. Regardless of technical training, the consultant must be able to maintain a boundary position, coordinating among various units and departments and mixing disciplines, theories, technology, and research findings in an organic rather than a mechanical way. The practitioner is potentially the most important OD technology available.

Thus, in selecting an OD practitioner, perhaps the most important issue is: How effective has the person been in the past, with what kinds of organizations, using what kinds of techniques? Interpersonal relationships are tremendously important, but even con artists have excellent interpersonal relationships and skills.

The burden of choosing an effective OD practitioner should not rest entirely with the client organization. Consultants also bear a heavy responsibility for seeking an appropriate match between their skills and knowledge and what the organization or department needs. Few managers are sophisticated enough to detect subtle differences in expertise among OD professionals. Thus, practitioners should help educate potential clients, being explicit about their strengths and weaknesses. If OD professionals realize that a good match does not exist, they should inform managers and help them find more suitable help.

🔑 Definition — Presenting Problem: The issue that has caused an organization to consider an OD process; it may be specific (e.g., decreased market share) or general (e.g., "we're growing too fast") and often has an implied or stated solution.

🔑 Definition — Boundary Position: The role of an OD consultant who coordinates among various units and departments, mixing disciplines, theories, technology, and research findings in an organic way.

🔑 Definition — Emergent Nature of OD: The characteristic that things may change as new information is gathered and new events occur, possibly leading to redefinition of issues identified during the entering and contracting stage.

Developing a Contract

The activities of entering an OD relationship are a necessary prelude to developing an OD contract. They define the major focus for contracting, including the relevant parties. Contracting is a natural extension of the entering process and clarifies how the OD process will proceed. It typically establishes the expectations of the parties, the time and resources that will be expended, and the ground rules under which the parties will operate.

The goal of contracting is to make a good decision about how to carry out the OD process. It can be relatively informal, involving only a verbal agreement between the client and OD practitioner. A team leader with OD skills, for example, may voice concerns to members about how the team is functioning. After some discussion, they might agree to devote one hour of future meeting time to diagnosing the team with the help of the leader. Here, entering and contracting are done together informally.

In other cases, contracting can be more protracted and result in a formal document. This typically occurs when organizations employ outside OD practitioners. Government agencies, for example, generally have procurement regulations that apply to contracting with outside consultants.

Regardless of the level of formality, all OD processes require some form of explicit contracting that results in either a verbal or a written agreement. Such contracting clarifies the client's and the practitioner's expectations about how the OD process will take place. Unless there is mutual understanding and agreement about the process, there is considerable risk that someone's expectations will be unfilled. That can lead to reduced commitment and support, misplaced action, or premature termination of the process.

The contracting step in OD generally addresses three key areas: what each party expects to gain from the OD process, the time and resources that will be devoted to it, and the ground rules for working together.

Mutual Expectations

This part of the contracting process focuses on the expectations of the client and the OD practitioner. The client states the services and outcomes to be provided by the OD practitioner and describes what the organization expects from the process and the consultant. Clients usually can describe the desired outcomes, such as decreased turnover or higher job satisfaction. Encouraging them to state their wants in the form of outcomes, working relationships, and personal accomplishments can facilitate the development of a good contract.

The OD practitioner also should state what he or she expects to gain from the OD process. This can include opportunities to try new interventions, report the results to other potential clients, and receive appropriate compensation or recognition.

Time and Resources

To accomplish change, the organization and the OD practitioner must commit time and resources to the effort. Each must be clear about how much energy and how many resources will be dedicated to the change process. Failure to make explicit the necessary requirements of a change process can quickly ruin an OD effort. For example, a client may clearly state that the assignment involves diagnosing the causes of poor productivity in a work group. However, the client may expect the practitioner to complete the assignment without talking to the workers.

Resources can be divided into two parts:

• Essential requirements are things that are absolutely necessary if the change process is to be successful. From the practitioner's perspective, they can include access to key people or information, enough time to do the job, and commitment from certain people. The organization's essential requirements might include a speedy diagnosis or assurances that the project will be conducted at the lowest price.
• Desirable requirements are those things that would be nice to have but are not absolutely necessary, such as access to special resources and written rather than verbal reports.

Being clear about the constraints on carrying out the assignment will facilitate the contracting process and improve the chances for success.

Ground Rules

The final part of the contracting process involves specifying how the client and the OD practitioner will work together. The parameters established may include such issues as confidentiality, if and how the OD practitioner will become involved in personal or interpersonal issues, how to terminate the relationship, and whether the practitioner is supposed to make expert recommendations or help the manager make decisions. For internal consultants, organizational politics make it especially important to clarify issues of how to handle sensitive information and how to deliver bad news. Such process issues are as important as the needed substantive changes. Failure to address these concerns may mean that the client or the practitioner has inappropriate assumptions about how the process will unfold.

Application 1: Contracting at Charity Medical Center

This extended example illustrates how entering and contracting unfolded at Charity Medical Center (CMC), a 500-bed acute-care hospital that was part of the Jefferson Hospital Corporation (JHC). CMC had a declining market share for six months, and senior management recognized that other hospitals were newer, had better facilities, were more "user friendly," and had captured the interest of referring physicians.

An external OD practitioner named John Murray was invited to make a presentation on implementing a total quality management (TQM) process. John conducted an initial interview with CMC's vice president of patient-care services, Joan Grace, who noted that the hospital's primary advantage was its designation as a level-one trauma center but that the hospital's reputation was: "once we save a patient's life, we tend to forget they are here."

John collected preliminary data by reviewing documents (corporate mission statement, strategic planning document, organization chart, performance analysis) and conducting interviews (hospital president, nursing unit observations, human resources vice president from corporate office). His investigation revealed several important issues:

• CMC was actually two hospitals—a 150-bed suburban hospital also reported to CMC's president
• A budget existed for initiating a patient-care quality improvement process
• JHC was in a state of flux with systems still being established
• Management and nursing staff were extremely busy with meetings
• Another consulting firm had been awarded a contract for "job redesign" in two departments
• Most nursing units operated under traditional and somewhat outdated nursing management principles

In his presentation to senior management, John noted that implementing a quality process was a major organizational change requiring thorough diagnosis, considerable resource commitment, and high-level involvement by senior management. He also suggested that TQM was capable of addressing certain problems but was not designed to directly address such broader performance issues as market share.

When Joan asked John to meet to discuss how to proceed, John identified several knotty issues:

1. The relationship between market share problems and a quality program was unclear
2. Managers and nursing heads were frustrated by their inability to influence change because of busy meeting schedules
3. The job redesign effort being conducted by another consulting firm seemed disconnected from the TQM effort

John proposed that CMC should: thoroughly diagnose the reasons for market-share decline and managerial frustration; postpone the job redesign effort; and have CMC management meet for two days to examine the diagnostic information and make a joint decision about whether TQM made sense.

Joan found these requests difficult because of time constraints, a sense of urgency, and the political sensitivity of postponing the job redesign effort. John explained that his requests were necessary—collecting diagnostic information is the first step in any quality management process, and to proceed without that information could mean implementing the wrong change. He gave the example that the market share problem could result from how CMC was treating physicians, in which case a quality program would be inappropriate and costly.

John also offered to coordinate with the other consultants but strongly urged postponing the job redesign project until after the two-day management meeting. After a week of discussion, Joan agreed to John's requests and asked him to submit a written proposal.

📌 Example Key Points:

• Presenting problem: Declining market share
• Preliminary data collection: Company documents, interviews, observations
• Complex client system: CMC included two hospitals; stakeholders included the president, referring physicians, corporate office
• Multiple change efforts: TQM and job redesign were potentially conflicting
• Contracting negotiation: John insisted on diagnosis before committing to a solution, negotiated two-day meeting, access to key people, and postponement of the other consulting project
• Ground rules discussed: Confidentiality, access to information, coordination with other consultants

⭐ Key Takeaways

The entering and contracting phase is the critical foundation of any OD effort—without clarity and agreement at this stage, all subsequent phases risk failure. The presenting problem is often only a symptom of deeper issues, so OD practitioners must collect preliminary data to clarify the real organizational issue before proceeding. Determining the correct client system or team members is essential because excluding key stakeholders can cause them to withhold support and derail the entire project. Selecting an appropriate OD practitioner requires evaluating interpersonal skills, references, and fit with the organization's needs, not just technical expertise. Finally, a good contract must address mutual expectations, time and resource commitments, and ground rules for collaboration—and even when the client wants to move quickly, the practitioner must insist on proper diagnosis before action.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the three main activities involved in entering an OD relationship, and why is each important?
2. Why is the presenting problem often not the real problem that needs to be addressed in OD?
3. What criteria did Gordon Lippitt suggest for selecting an OD practitioner, and why are references particularly important?
4. What are the three key areas that must be addressed in the contracting step of OD, and what can happen if any of these areas are neglected?
5. In the Charity Medical Center example, what were the "essential requirements" that John Murray insisted upon before proceeding, and why did Joan Grace initially find them difficult to accept?

📘 Lecture 15 — Diagnosing Organizations

📖 Overview: This lecture explores the concept of diagnosis in organization development, moving beyond the medical model to a collaborative process between OD practitioners and organization members. It explains the task/process relationship, the diagnostic cycle, performance gap analysis, and the importance of diagnostic models and open-systems theory for understanding organizational functioning.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers the concept of diagnosis in OD, distinguishing it from the medical model and emphasizing collaboration. It details the diagnostic process as a cyclical activity involving data gathering, interpretation, and action planning. The concept of the performance gap and gap analysis is introduced as a key diagnostic method. The need for diagnostic models, including the open-systems model, is discussed to guide what information to collect and analyze. A case study, "The Old Family Bank," is presented to illustrate diagnostic application.

📝 Lecture Summary

Diagnosing Organizations

The lecture begins by comparing organizational diagnosis to medical diagnosis, noting that both involve identifying and closing gaps between the current and desired state. Kurt Lewin added a new dimension with the concept of the “task/process” relationship. Task refers to what is to be done—concrete, observable, and measurable. Process refers to how—reflecting perceptions, attitudes, and reasoning. The lecture emphasizes that task and process are inseparable, like the visual paradox of the Old Woman/Young Woman where you cannot see both images at once. Action reflects pure process, guided by right-brain creativity and insight. A key skill is diagnosing the linkages between task and process, such as what is not being talked about when work stops. The lecture warns that left-brain diagnostic thinking, which is objective and aloof, combined with a propensity to defer to authority, creates a setup for disappointment. The great contribution of group dynamics was its focus on process as inseparable from task, the diagnoser from the diagnosis, and a leader's effectiveness from follower contributions.

🔑 Definition — Task/Process Relationship: A concept highlighting the interplay between the what (task: concrete goals, targets) and the how (process: perceptions, attitudes, reasoning) in organizational dynamics.

What is Diagnosis?

Diagnosis is the process of understanding how the organization is currently functioning, providing the information necessary to design change interventions. It follows from successful entry and contracting. The lecture clarifies that the medical model of diagnosis is misleading for organizations. In OD, diagnosis is a collaborative process between organization members and the OD consultant, not a doctor-patient relationship. It does not assume something is inherently wrong. For example, a manager concerned about absenteeism might jointly decide with a consultant to diagnose the cause by examining records and interviewing employees, or they might focus on what encourages employee loyalty. Diagnosis can be problem-oriented (uncovering causes of problems) or development-oriented (assessing current functioning to discover areas for future enhancement). Organizational diagnosis examines two broad areas: the various interacting sub-elements (divisions, departments, products) and the organizational processes (communication, decision-making, leadership, conflict management).

🔑 Definition — Diagnosis (in OD): A collaborative process between organization members and the OD consultant to collect pertinent information, analyze it, and draw conclusions for action planning and intervention. It can be problem-oriented or development-oriented.

💡 Why this matters: This distinction moves OD from a reactive, problem-fixing model to a proactive, strengths-based approach to enhancing organizational effectiveness.

The Process:

Diagnosis is a cyclical process with nine steps:

1. Preliminary identification of possible problem areas.
2. Gathering data based on the preliminary problem.
3. Categorizing and analyzing the data.
4. Presenting data to the client in a feedback session.
5. Determining if enough data is available.
6. Jointly diagnosing and identifying likely problem areas.
7. Determining the client's level of motivation to work on the problems.
8. Identifying target systems and designing the change strategy.
9. Monitoring the results to determine the degree of change achieved versus goals.

The Performance Gap:

A key method in diagnosis is determining the performance gap—the difference between what the organization could do and what it actually does. This leads to gap analysis. Data is collected on the actual state and the ideal or desired state. The gap forms the basis for diagnosis and intervention design. A performance gap may result from ineffective internal performance, competitive changes, or failure to adapt to the external environment. Recognizing a performance gap can unfreeze the organization and create conditions for change. One self-assessment version uses questionnaires to gather information on the organization's strengths, how to take advantage of them, its weaknesses, and how to alleviate them. In diagnosis, the practitioner looks for causality—a cause-effect relationship—identifying what factors are causing the problem (e.g., declining sales) versus the symptom.

The Need for Diagnostic Models:

To diagnose an organization, practitioners and members need a framework for what information to collect. These conceptual frameworks are diagnostic models, which describe relationships among different features of the organization, its context, and its effectiveness. Models point out what areas to examine and what questions to ask. However, all models are simplifications and may be biased if they focus on certain features to the exclusion of others. For example, a model focusing on interpersonal conflict would ignore skill composition and task complexity. Diagnostic models can be derived from academic research (e.g., on motivation, leadership, job design) or from practitioner experience in the field. The lecture introduces the open-systems model as a general framework for diagnosis.

🔑 Definition — Diagnostic Models: Conceptual frameworks that people use to understand organizations, describing relationships among different features of the organization, its context, and its effectiveness. They guide what to examine and what questions to ask.

Open-Systems Model:

This section introduces systems theory and the open-systems model. A system is a unitary whole composed of parts or subsystems that function together. Open systems, like organizations and people, exchange information and resources with their environments and are influenced by external forces (e.g., raw material availability, customer demands, government regulations). Open systems display hierarchical ordering: society > organizations > groups (departments) > individuals. Key properties of open systems include:

• Inputs, Transformations, and Outputs: Resources from the environment (inputs) are transformed (e.g., through work processes) into products/services (outputs).
• Boundaries: The demarcation between the system and its environment. In open systems, boundaries are permeable.
• Feedback: Information about outputs that is used to adjust the system's functioning.
• Equifinality: A system can reach the same final state from different starting points and by different paths.
• Alignment: For a system to be effective, its parts must be aligned with each other and with the environment.

🔑 Definition — Open Systems: Systems that exchange information and resources with their outside environments and are influenced by external forces.

🔑 Definition — Equifinality: The principle that a system can achieve the same final state from different initial conditions and by different pathways.

💡 Why this matters: The open-systems model provides a comprehensive framework for understanding that an organization's internal behavior (e.g., employee morale, departmental conflict) is often a response to, or in alignment with, external pressures and opportunities.

Case: The Old Family Bank

This case illustrates a diagnostic scenario. H. Day, the data-processing VP, examined turnover, absenteeism, and productivity figures across bank departments. He found the check-sorting department had low turnover/absenteeism and was the most productive, despite poor working conditions (hot, noisy). In contrast, the data-processing department also had low turnover/absenteeism and high cohesion, but ranked last in productivity, despite excellent working conditions (air-conditioned, quiet). Interviews revealed check-sorting workers were unskilled, loyal to the company, and committed to team performance. Data-processing workers were highly skilled, felt management valued production over staff units, believed their pay didn't reflect their skill, and thus felt little loyalty to the company.

📌 Example (Case Analysis): The case solution identifies the problems: a macro issue of lack of loyalty affecting bank effectiveness, and micro issues of data-processing personnel feeling unappreciated. Causes include their perception of pay inequity and their access to company-wide information without understanding managerial decision-making. Alternatives include: 1) gathering more data; 2) using a force-field analysis model; 3) checking regional pay data for competitiveness; and 4) explaining the bank's pay-setting procedures. The recommendation is to undertake all these alternatives.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The most critical concept from this lecture is that organizational diagnosis is a collaborative, cyclical process, not a top-down medical examination. Students must understand the distinction between task and process and how they are inseparable. The performance gap analysis is a key diagnostic tool for identifying the difference between actual and ideal states. Diagnostic models, especially the open-systems model, provide essential frameworks for deciding what information to collect and analyze, preventing a biased or incomplete diagnosis. Finally, the case study reinforces that apparent contradictions (e.g., good conditions but poor performance) often reveal underlying process issues like perceived fairness and organizational loyalty.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What is the key difference between the medical model of diagnosis and the OD model of diagnosis?
2. Explain the "task/process" relationship and give an example of each from a team meeting.
3. What is a "performance gap" and how is it used in gap analysis?
4. Why is it important to use a diagnostic model when beginning an organizational diagnosis, and what is a potential risk?
5. According to the open-systems model, what are "inputs," "transformations," and "outputs" for a university, and what is an example of "feedback" it might receive?

📘 Lecture 16 — Organization as Open Systems

📖 Overview: This lecture explores the concept of organizations as open systems that constantly exchange information and resources with their external environments. Understanding these systemic properties—including inputs, transformations, outputs, boundaries, feedback, equifinality, and alignment—is essential for diagnosing organizational effectiveness and designing successful change initiatives.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture introduces the key properties of open systems: inputs, transformations, and outputs; boundaries; feedback; equifinality; and alignment. It then presents the diagnostic model for analyzing organizations at three levels (organization, group/ department, and individual job), with detailed focus on organization-level diagnosis including inputs from the general environment and industry structure. The comprehensive diagnostic model showing inputs, design components, and outputs at each organizational level is also presented.

📝 Lecture Summary

Organization as Open Systems

Open systems, such as organizations and people, exchange information and resources with their environments and cannot completely control their own behavior, being influenced in part by external forces. Organizations are affected by environmental conditions including raw material availability, customer demands, and government regulations. Open systems display a hierarchical ordering: society comprises organizations; organizations comprise groups (departments); groups comprise individuals. Although systems at different levels vary in size and complexity, they share common properties by virtue of being open systems.

Inputs, Transformations, and Outputs

Any organizational system is composed of three related parts: inputs, transformations, and outputs. Inputs consist of human or other resources (information, energy, materials) coming into the system from the external environment. Transformations are the processes of converting inputs into outputs, typically carried out by a production or operations function composed of both social components (people and their work relationships) and technological components (tools, techniques, and methods of production or service delivery). Outputs are the results of what is transformed by the system and sent to the environment. For example, group health insurance companies receive premiums, individuals, and medical bills; transform them through physician visits and record keeping; and export treated patients and payments to hospitals.

Boundaries

The idea of boundaries helps distinguish between systems and environments. Closed systems have relatively rigid and impenetrable boundaries, whereas open systems have far more permeable borders. Defining boundaries of social systems is difficult because there is continuous inflow and outflow through them. The definition of a boundary is somewhat arbitrary because a social system has multiple subsystems and boundary lines for different subsystems may vary. The permeability of boundaries also varies from fixed to diffuse—for instance, a community's police force has far more rigid boundaries than its political parties. Conflict over boundaries is always a potential problem within organizations.

🔑 Definition — Boundaries: The borders or limits of a system that distinguish it from its environment. In open systems, these borders are permeable, allowing continuous inflow and outflow of resources and information.

Feedback

Feedback is information regarding the actual performance or results of the system, but only information used to control the future functioning of the system is considered feedback. Feedback can be used to maintain the system in a steady state (e.g., keeping an assembly line running at a certain speed) or to help the organization adapt to changing circumstances. McDonald's uses strict feedback processes to ensure consistency across outlets, while a salesperson's report of poor sales may trigger organizational change, and a market research study may recommend changing the advertising campaign.

🔑 Definition — Feedback: Information regarding actual system performance used to control the future functioning of the system, either to maintain a steady state or to help the organization adapt to changing circumstances.

Equifinality

The idea of equifinality suggests that similar results may be achieved with different initial conditions and in many different ways. In closed systems, a direct cause-and-effect relationship exists between initial condition and final state, but biological and social systems operate differently. This concept suggests that managers can use varying degrees of inputs and transform them in various ways to obtain satisfactory outputs. The function of management is not to seek a single rigid solution but to develop a variety of satisfactory options. Systems and contingency theories suggest that there is no universal best way to design an organization.

🔑 Definition — Equifinality: The principle that similar results may be achieved with different initial conditions and through many different pathways; there is no single best way to design an organization.

Alignment

A system's overall effectiveness is determined by the extent to which the different parts are aligned with each other. This alignment or fit concerns relationships between inputs and transformations, between transformations and outputs, and among subsystems of the transformation process. Alignment represents the extent to which features, operations, and characteristics of one system support the effectiveness of another system. The systemic perspective suggests that diagnosis is the search for misfits among various parts and subsystems of an organization. For example, General Electric's diversification strategy requires a divisional structure—a functional structure would not fit because it is more efficient for one division to focus on one product line.

💡 Why this matters: Alignment is the key diagnostic concept—organizational effectiveness depends on how well components fit together, not just on individual component excellence.

🔑 Definition — Alignment: The extent to which features, operations, and characteristics of one system support the effectiveness of another system; the search for misfits among various parts and subsystems.

Diagnosing Organizational Systems

When viewed as open systems, organizations can be diagnosed at three levels: (1) the overall organization (including strategy, structure, and processes), (2) the group or department (including norms and work schedules), and (3) the individual position or job (including job design for required task behaviors). Diagnosis can occur at all three levels or be limited to particular level issues. The key to effective diagnosis is knowing what to look for at each level and how levels affect each other. Figure 22 presents a comprehensive model showing for each level: inputs, key design components of the transformation subsystem, and outputs. Cross-level relationships emphasize that organizational levels must fit with each other.

Organization-Level Diagnosis

The organization level of analysis is the broadest systems perspective in diagnostic activities. The model in Figure 22(A) is similar to other popular models including Weisbord's six-box model, Nadler and Tushman's congruency model, Galbraith's star model, and Kotter's organization dynamics model. Figure 22(A) proposes that an organization's transformation processes or design components represent how the organization positions and organizes itself within an environment (inputs) to achieve specific outputs. The combination of design component elements is called a strategic orientation.

🔑 Definition — Strategic orientation: The combination of design component elements representing how an organization positions and organizes itself within its environment to achieve specific outputs.

Inputs (Organization Level)

Two key inputs affect how an organization designs its strategic orientation. The general environment represents external elements and forces affecting attainment of organization objectives, described in terms of uncertainty present in social, technological, economic, ecological, and political forces. The industry structure or task environment, as defined by Michael Porter, consists of five forces: supplier power, buyer power, threats of substitutes, threats of entry, and rivalry among competitors. Strategic orientations must be sensitive to powerful suppliers who can increase prices; powerful buyers who can force price reductions; threats of new entrants; threats of substitute products; and rivalry among existing competitors.

Inputs must be understood for their rate of change and complexity. The general environment or industry structure can be characterized along a dynamic-static continuum—dynamic environments change rapidly and unpredictably, suggesting flexible strategic orientations. Complexity refers to the number of important elements in the environment. For example, software development organizations face dynamic and complex environments with rapidly changing technologies, regulations, customers, and suppliers, while glass jar manufacturers face more stable and less complex environments.

🔑 Definition — Five Forces Model (Porter): A framework for analyzing industry structure consisting of supplier power, buyer power, threats of substitutes, threats of entry, and rivalry among competitors.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The most critical concept from this lecture is that organizations are open systems whose behavior can only be fully understood by examining their interactions with external environments. The core systemic properties—inputs, transformations, outputs, boundaries, feedback, equifinality, and alignment—apply at every organizational level and are essential diagnostic tools. For exam purposes, remember that there is no single best way to design organizations (equifinality) and that effectiveness depends on alignment between all system components (systemic perspective). The three-level diagnostic model (organization, group/ department, individual job) must be understood as interconnected, with higher levels serving as inputs to lower levels. Finally, Porter's five forces model provides the framework for analyzing industry structure inputs that shape strategic orientation.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the three related parts of any organizational system, and how do they relate to each other?
2. Why is defining boundaries more difficult in social systems than in biological or mechanical systems?
3. How does the concept of equifinality challenge the notion of a "universal best way" to design organizations?
4. What does the systemic perspective suggest about the primary purpose of organizational diagnosis?
5. What are the five forces in Porter's industry structure model, and how does each affect an organization's strategic orientation?

📘 Lecture 17 — Diagnosing Organizations

📖 Overview: This lecture presents a comprehensive model for diagnosing organizational systems at the organization level. It explains the five major design components—strategy, technology, structure, measurement systems, and human resources systems—and how they must align with each other and the environment for organizational effectiveness. Understanding this diagnostic framework is crucial for identifying performance problems and planning appropriate interventions.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers the comprehensive model for diagnosing organizational systems, starting with organization-level diagnosis and the five design components: strategy, technology, structure, measurement systems, and human resources systems, plus organization culture as an intermediate output. It then examines organizational outputs including performance, productivity, and stakeholder satisfaction, followed by the concept of alignment between inputs, design components, and outputs. Finally, it applies these concepts through a detailed analysis of Nike's strategic orientation as a case study.

📝 Lecture Summary

Organization-Level Diagnosis: Design Components

Figure 23(A) shows that a strategic orientation is composed of five major design components—strategy, technology, structure, measurement systems, and human resources systems—and an intermediate output—culture. Effective organizations align their design components to each other and to the environment.

A strategy represents the way an organization uses its resources (human, economic, or technical) to gain and sustain a competitive advantage. It can be described by the organization’s mission, goals and objectives, strategic intent, and functional policies. A mission statement describes the long-term purpose of the organization, the range of products or services offered, the markets to be served, and the social needs served by the organization’s existence. Examples include Walt Disney's "To make people happy," Wal Mart's "To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people," Merck's "To preserve and improve human life," and Mary Kay Cosmetics' "To give unlimited opportunity to women."

Goals and objectives provide explicit direction, set organization priorities, provide guidelines for management decisions, and serve as the cornerstone for organizing activities, designing jobs, and setting standards of achievement. They should set a target of achievement, provide a means for measuring achievement, and provide a deadline for accomplishment. A strategic intent is a succinct label that describes how the organization intends to achieve its goals and objectives—through differentiation, lowest costs, or growth. Functional policies are the methods, procedures, rules, or administrative practices that guide decision making and convert plans into actions; for example, Intel allocates about 30% of revenues to R&D.

Technology is concerned with the way an organization converts inputs into products and services, representing the core of the transformation function including production methods, work flow, and equipment. Two features influence other design components: interdependence (how different parts of a technological system are related) and uncertainty (the amount of information processing and decision making required). High interdependence requires considerable coordination; high uncertainty makes tasks difficult to plan and routinize. Car manufacturing technology is relatively certain and moderately interdependent.

The structural system describes how attention and resources are focused on task accomplishment. It divides work into subunits and coordinates these subunits. Two ways to describe how work is divided are through formal structures (by function, product/service, or matrix combination) or through differentiation and integration. Differentiation refers to the degree of similarity or difference in design of subunits—highly differentiated organizations have major design differences among departments. Integration is how the organization coordinates work across subunits, achieved through plans, schedules, budgets, special roles, or cross-departmental teams. Required integration increases with environmental uncertainty, structural differentiation, and departmental interdependence.

🔑 Definition — Integration: The way an organization coordinates work across subunits; achieved through various mechanisms such as plans, schedules, budgets, project managers, liaison positions, integrators, or cross-departmental task forces and teams.

Measurement systems are methods of gathering, assessing, and disseminating information on activities of groups and individuals. Such data tell how well the organization is performing and detect and control deviations from goals. Effective systems link to strategic objectives, provide accurate and timely information, are accepted as legitimate, and produce benefits exceeding costs.

Human resources systems include mechanisms for selecting, developing, appraising, and rewarding organization members. Strategy and technology provide information about required skills and knowledge; appraisal processes identify if those skills are being applied; and reward systems recognize performance contributing to goal achievement.

Organization culture is the final design component, representing the basic assumptions, values, and norms shared by members. It is shown as an intermediate output because it is both an outcome (of history, environment, and prior choices) and a constraint (difficult to change). McDonald's culture emphasizes efficiency, speed, and consistency. 💡 Why this matters: Culture can either hinder or facilitate change, so diagnosis must understand the current culture's alignment with other design factors.

Outputs

Outputs of a strategic orientation can be classified into three components: organization performance (financial outputs like profits, ROI, earnings per share; for nonprofits, cost reduction or budget adherence), productivity (internal efficiency measures like sales per employee, waste, error rates, quality, units per hour), and stakeholder satisfaction (how well the organization met expectations of different groups—customer satisfaction via market share, employee satisfaction via opinion surveys, investor satisfaction via stock price).

Alignment

Organization effectiveness requires determining alignment among elements through two key questions:

1. Does the organization’s strategic orientation fit with the inputs?
2. Do the design components fit with each other?

For example, if external environment elements are fairly similar in certainty, an effective structure should have low differentiation. If the environment is complex with different uncertainty levels, a more differentiated structure is warranted—as shown in Chevron Oil Company, where regulatory affairs is formal and bound by protocol while technological departments are flexible and adaptive.

Analysis: Application 2 — Nike's Strategic Orientation

The Nike case provides an opportunity to perform organization-level analysis. In 1993, Nike had over 30% market share in athletic footwear, but after six years of solid growth, international sales were falling, basketball shoe sales declined, stock dropped 41%, and stakeholder groups attacked the company for labor practices and lack of diversity.

Key diagnostic questions for inputs:

1. General environment: Nike's environment is uncertain and complex—technologically dependent on breakthroughs, socially and politically aware of multiple stakeholder demands from different countries and governments.
2. Industry structure: Highly competitive with high threat of entry, high threat of substitutes, low supplier bargaining power, moderate buyer bargaining power, and severe rivalry among firms (Reebok, Adidas, New Balance, etc.).

Key diagnostic questions for strategic orientation:

1. Strategy: Nike's strategy is clear on some points—differentiation through high-quality, high-performance athletic footwear—but nebulous on others, with no formal mission statement, nebulous goals, and tension between growth and profitability.
2. Technology, structure, measurement systems, human resources: Technology is moderately uncertain and interdependent; structure is a product division structure that is moderately differentiated but appears not highly integrated, with contract relationships creating a fluid network-like structure; human resources and measurement systems are underdeveloped with no compensation policy and formal control systems generally resisted.
3. Culture: A dominant feature driven by athletic norms of winning, competition, achievement, and performance—very entrepreneurial, captured by the "Just Do It" marketing campaign.

Alignment analysis reveals: The complex and uncertain environment fits well with Nike's differentiation focus and flexible design. However, strategy elements are not internally aligned—growth goals and diversified mission do not align with differentiation intent. Technology aligns with structure (product development requires flexibility), and the Futures program reduces uncertainty and provides integration. The lack of formal HR systems supports fluid design but creates problems for hiring and development.

Two intervention possibilities suggested:

1. Increase clarity about strategy without formalizing (which culture would resist)
2. Increase integration and coordination of structure, measurement systems, and HR systems without increasing formalization

⭐ Key Takeaways

For effective organizational diagnosis, students must understand the five design components (strategy, technology, structure, measurement systems, and human resources systems) plus culture as an intermediate output. Alignment is the central concept—organizations must fit design components to each other and to environmental inputs, and misalignments reveal root causes of performance problems. Culture is particularly important as both an outcome and a constraint that can facilitate or sabotage change efforts. The Nike case demonstrates how analysis proceeds from assessing inputs and outputs, through examining each design component, to evaluating alignments and identifying intervention possibilities—always respecting the organization's existing culture.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the five major design components in the comprehensive model for diagnosing organizational systems, and what is the intermediate output shown in Figure 23(A)?
2. What are the three components of organizational outputs, and how do they differ for for-profit versus nonprofit organizations?
3. What two features of technology influence other design components, and what is the difference between them?
4. In the Nike case study, what three aspects of its strategy were misaligned, and what two interventions were suggested?
5. Why is organization culture described as an "intermediate output," and how does it function as both an outcome and a constraint in organizational diagnosis?

📘 Lecture 18 — Diagnosing Groups and Jobs

📖 Overview: This lecture covers the diagnosis of groups and jobs, the second major phase in planned change. It presents diagnostic models for work groups and individual jobs, explaining how to assess their design components, inputs, outputs, and the critical fits between them. Understanding these levels is essential for identifying root causes of organizational problems and targeting effective interventions.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture begins by explaining why small groups and departments need their own diagnostic models distinct from organization-level diagnosis. It then details the group-level diagnostic model, covering inputs (organization design), five design components (goal clarity, task structure, group composition, group functioning, and performance norms), outputs (performance and quality of work life), and the necessary fits between inputs and design components. Finally, it applies the group-level model to diagnose a top-management team at Ortiv Glass Corporation, analyzing how mismatches between design components and task demands explain the team’s ineffectiveness.

📝 Lecture Summary

Group-Level Diagnosis

Diagnosis is the second major phase in planned change. While large groups or departments can be diagnosed using organization-level models, small departments and groups behave differently and need their own diagnostic models. Work groups consist of a relatively small number of people working face-to-face on a shared task. The group-level diagnostic model shows inputs, design components, outputs, and relational fits. It is similar to other popular models like Hackman and Morris’s task group design model.

Inputs

Organization design is the major input to group design. It consists of the design components of the larger organization: technology, structure, measurement systems, human resources systems, and organization culture. Technology determines the group’s task characteristics; structural systems specify coordination requirements. The human resources and measurement systems (e.g., performance appraisal and reward systems) play an important role. For example, individually based performance appraisal and reward systems tend to interfere with team functioning because members may maximize individual performance to the detriment of the team. Collecting information about the group’s organization design context greatly improves diagnostic accuracy.

Design Components

Groups have five major components: goal clarity, task structure, group composition, group functioning, and performance norms.

Goal clarity involves how well the group understands its objectives. Goals should be moderately challenging; there should be a method for measuring, monitoring, and feeding back information about goal achievement; and goals must be clearly understood by all members.

Task structure is how the group’s work is designed. It varies along two key dimensions: coordination of members’ efforts and regulation of their task behaviors. Coordination is the degree to which group tasks promote effective interaction. It is important for interdependent tasks (e.g., surgical teams) but unimportant for independent tasks (e.g., telephone operators). Regulation is the degree to which members can control their own task behaviors and be free from external controls like supervision. Self-regulation occurs when members decide on task assignments, work methods, production goals, and membership.

Composition concerns group membership. Demographic variables (age, education, experience, skills, abilities) affect how people behave and relate. Demographics determine if the group has task-relevant skills and interpersonal skills. People’s internal needs, such as individual differences in social needs, influence group behaviors and whether membership is satisfying or stressful.

Group functioning is the underlying basis of group life – how members relate to each other affects task performance. Some groups have interpersonal competition and conflict; others may be too concerned with sharing good feelings. Group functioning involves task-related activities (giving and seeking information, elaborating, coordinating, evaluating) and the group-maintenance function (encouraging, harmonizing, compromising, setting standards, observing), which holds the group together as a cohesive team.

Performance norms are member beliefs about how the group should perform its task, including acceptable levels of performance. Norms derive from interactions and serve as guides. Once agreed upon (implicitly or explicitly), members routinely perform tasks according to them. For example, problem-solving groups often decide early that decisions will be made through voting; voting then becomes routine.

Outputs

Group effectiveness has two dimensions: performance and quality of work life. Performance is measured by the group’s ability to control or reduce costs, increase productivity, or improve quality – a “hard” measure. Quality of work life concerns work satisfaction, team cohesion, and organizational commitment.

Fits

Group design components must fit inputs for groups to be effective. Research suggests these fits:

1. Group design should be congruent with the larger organization design. Organizations with low differentiation and high integration should have groups with highly skilled members performing interdependent tasks. Organizations with differentiated structures and formalized systems should have groups with clear, quantitative goals and standardized behaviors. When group designs are incompatible, groups may develop norms counter to organizational effectiveness (e.g., horseplay, goldbricking).

2. When technology results in interdependent tasks, coordination should be promoted by task structures, composition, performance norms, and group functioning. When technology permits independent tasks, design components should promote individual task performance. For example, when coordination is needed, task structure might physically locate related tasks together; composition might include members with interpersonal skills; performance norms would support task-relevant interactions.

3. When technology is uncertain (high information processing and decision making required), group design should promote self-regulation. Members need freedom, information, and skills to assign tasks, decide methods, and set goals. When technology is certain, group designs should promote standardization and external control by supervisors, schedules, and plans. For self-regulation, task structure should be flexible; composition should include members with multiple skills; norms should support complex problem solving.

💡 Why this matters: These fits are the key diagnostic tool. A group may have excellent design components individually, but if they don’t fit the inputs (organization design, technology), the group will fail. The diagnosis must explicitly check these alignments.

Application 3: Top-Management Team at Ortiv Glass Corporation

The Ortiv Glass Corporation produces plate glass. It has an organic organization design with participative management. A top-management problem-solving team was formed at its newest plant, consisting of the plant manager and five functional department managers (engineering, administration, human resources, production, quality control). Members had good technical skills, managerial experience, and a desire to solve problems collaboratively. The team had been working together for only five months.

The team met for two hours weekly to share information and deal with plant-wide issues. Meetings were described as informative but chaotic. They started late as members straggled in. They were interrupted by “urgent” phone messages, with recipients leaving. The group had problems arriving at clear decisions; discussions rambled, problems were postponed, leading to a backlog, and meetings lasted beyond two hours. When decisions were made, members often failed to follow through, and there was confusion about what was agreed. Everyone expressed dissatisfaction.

Relationships were cordial but strained, especially on complex issues. Although the plant manager said he wanted all sides, he often interrupted or changed topics when members openly disagreed, followed by awkward silence. When a solution was not forthcoming, members either moved on or informally voted, letting majority rule decide. These behaviors emerged informally over time and became acceptable.

Analysis: The group is having ineffective problem-solving meetings. The key diagnostic issue is the fit between inputs and design components.

Inputs: The larger organization design is relatively organic, promoting flexibility and innovation. The team’s issues involve high interdependence among functions and high uncertainty (complex problems). These inputs require high coordination and self-regulation.

Design Components Diagnosis:

1. Goal clarity: Goals are clear (solve problems), but there is no clear agreement on specific problems. Members come late because they have “more pressing” problems.
2. Task structure: Face-to-face meetings facilitate coordination and allow members freedom to regulate their task behaviors.
3. Composition: Members have task-relevant skills and experience. They are interested in collaborative problem solving.
4. Performance norms (inferred from behaviors):
   • “It’s okay to come late.”
   • “It’s okay to interrupt meetings with phone messages.”
   • “It’s okay to leave meetings.”
   • “It’s okay to hold meetings longer than two hours.”
   • “A good group member should not openly disagree.”
   • “It’s okay to vote on decisions.”
   • “A good group member should be cordial.”
   • “It’s okay to postpone solutions.”
   • “It’s okay not to follow through.”
5. Group functioning: Interpersonal relations are not healthy. Members do not confront differences openly; the plant manager intervenes when conflicts emerge. Members fail to examine underlying causes of dissatisfaction.

Fits Analysis: The key difficulty is a mismatch between the team’s performance norms and interpersonal relations and the demands of the problem-solving task. Complex, interdependent problems require norms that support sharing diverse, conflicting information, generating novel solutions, and explicitly addressing how knowledge and skills are used. Instead, the team’s norms promote a superficial, haphazard problem-solving method subject to external disruptions. Members do not confront differences or examine the ineffective norms. Diagnosis suggests the need for interventions aimed at improving performance norms and developing healthy interpersonal relations.

🔑 Definition — Goal clarity: how well the group understands its objectives.

🔑 Definition — Task structure: how the group’s work is designed, varying in coordination and regulation.

🔑 Definition — Group functioning: the underlying basis of group life, involving task-related and group-maintenance activities.

🔑 Definition — Performance norms: member beliefs about how the group should perform its task, including acceptable performance levels.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The group-level diagnostic model analyzes five design components (goal clarity, task structure, composition, group functioning, performance norms) and their fit with the input of organization design. The critical diagnostic insight is that a group’s problems often stem not from any single component, but from a mismatch between these components and the demands of the task (interdependence and uncertainty). Performance norms are a powerful but often invisible driver of group behavior; identifying them requires inferring from actions, not asking members directly. The Ortiv case demonstrates that even with good people and a good structure, unhealthy norms and poor interpersonal functioning can completely derail a team’s effectiveness.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the five design components in group-level diagnosis, and what does each one refer to?
2. Why is it a problem to diagnose a group’s effectiveness by looking only at its design components without checking their fit with inputs?
3. What performance norms were operating in the Ortiv Glass top-management team, and how did they contribute to the team’s dysfunction?
4. In the fits section, what should a group’s design look like when technology results in interdependent and uncertain tasks?
5. What is the difference between task-related activities and group-maintenance functions in group functioning?

📘 Lecture 19 — Diagnosing Groups and Jobs

📖 Overview: This lecture examines how to diagnose organizational systems at the individual job level. It presents a comprehensive model for understanding job inputs, design components, and the necessary fits between them, building on earlier discussions of organization and group diagnosis. Understanding job-level diagnosis is crucial because individual jobs are the foundation upon which groups and organizations are built.

🗂️ Topics Covered

This lecture covers the individual-level diagnosis within organizations, focusing on the inputs that affect job design (organization design, group design, and personal characteristics of job holders), the five key design components of jobs (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback about results), and the critical fits between job design and its inputs to ensure effective performance and satisfaction.

📝 Lecture Summary

Individual-Level Diagnosis:

The lowest level of organizational diagnosis is the individual job or position. An organization consists of numerous groups; a group, in turn, is composed of several individual jobs. This section discusses the inputs, design components, and relational fits for diagnosing jobs. The model shown in Figure 25(C) is similar to other popular job diagnostic frameworks, such as Hackman and Oldham’s job diagnostic survey and Herzberg’s job enrichment model.

Inputs:

Three major inputs affect job design: organization design, group design, and the personal characteristics of job holders. Organization design is concerned with the larger organization within which the individual job is the smallest unit. Technology, structure, measurement systems, human resources systems, and culture can have a powerful impact on the way jobs are designed. For example, company reward systems can orient employees to particular job behaviors. Technology characterized by relatively uncertain tasks and low interdependency is likely to support job designs allowing employees flexibility and discretion. Conversely, low-uncertainty work systems are likely to promote standardized job designs requiring routinized task behaviors. Group design concerns the larger group or department containing the individual job. Group task structure, goal clarity, composition, performance norms, and group functioning serve as inputs to job design and typically have a more immediate impact on jobs than organization-design components. For example, group task structure can determine how individual jobs are grouped together. When members maintain close relationships and the group is cohesive, group norms are more likely to be enforced and followed. Personal characteristics of individuals occupying jobs include their age, education, experience, and skills and abilities. Individual differences in growth need — the need for self-direction, learning, and personal accomplishment — can determine how much people are motivated and satisfied by jobs with high levels of skill variety, autonomy, and feedback about results. Similarly, work motivation can be influenced by people's expectations that they can perform a job well and that good job performance will result in valued outcomes.

Design Components:

Figure 25(C) shows that individual jobs have five key dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback about results. Skill variety identifies the degree to which a job requires a range of activities and abilities to perform the work. Assembly-line jobs generally have limited skill variety, while most professional jobs include a great deal of skill variety. Task identity measures the degree to which a job requires the completion of a relatively whole, identifiable piece of work. Skilled craftspeople generally have jobs with high levels of task identity, as they can see a job through from beginning to end. Assembly-line jobs score low on task identity. Task significance identifies the degree to which a job has a significant impact on other people's lives. Custodial jobs in a hospital are likely to have more task significance than similar jobs in a toy factory. Autonomy indicates the degree to which a job provides freedom and discretion in scheduling the work and determining work methods. Assembly-line jobs generally have little autonomy, while college teaching positions have more autonomy. Feedback about results involves the degree to which a job provides employees with direct and clear information about the effectiveness of task performance. Assembly-line jobs often provide high levels of feedback about results, whereas college professors must often contend with indirect and ambiguous feedback. Those five job dimensions can be combined into an overall measure of job enrichment. Enriched jobs have high levels of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback about results. They provide opportunities for self-direction, learning, and personal accomplishment at work.

Fits:

The diagnostic model in Figure 25(C) suggests that job design must fit job inputs to produce effective job outputs, such as high quality and quantity of individual performance, low absenteeism, and high job satisfaction. Research reveals the following fits between job inputs and job design:

1. Job design should be congruent with the larger organization and group designs within which the job is embedded. Highly differentiated and integrated organizations and groups that permit members to self-regulate their behavior fit enriched jobs. Conversely, bureaucratic organizations and groups relying on external controls are congruent with job designs scoring low on the five key dimensions. Congruence across different levels of organization design promotes integration of the organization, group, and job levels.
2. Job design should fit the personal characteristics of the jobholders if they are to perform effectively and derive satisfaction from work. Generally, enriched jobs fit people with strong growth needs and those possessing moderate to high levels of task-relevant skills, abilities, and knowledge. Jobs scoring low on the five job dimensions generally fit people with rudimentary skills and abilities and with low growth needs. Because people can grow through education, training, and experience, job design must be monitored and adjusted from time to time.

⭐ Key Takeaways

Job-level diagnosis is the lowest level of organizational analysis and focuses on inputs (organization design, group design, and personal characteristics), design components (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback about results), and the fit between them. Enriched jobs, which score high on all five design components, provide opportunities for self-direction and learning but must be congruent with the larger organization and group context. Furthermore, enriched jobs are best suited for individuals with strong growth needs and relevant skills, while simpler jobs fit those with lower growth needs. The overall effectiveness of job design depends critically on achieving a good fit between job inputs and the job itself.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the three major inputs that affect job design according to the lecture?
2. List and briefly define the five key dimensions of individual jobs.
3. What is a "growth need" and how does it relate to job enrichment?
4. According to the research on fits, how should job design relate to the larger organization and group?
5. What are the key outputs of effective job design mentioned at the end of the lecture?

📘 Lecture 20 — Collecting and Analyzing Diagnostic information

📖 Overview: This lecture examines the critical process of diagnosing organizations before implementing change. It explores the key dimensions consultants must consider when planning diagnosis, explains how to establish a productive diagnostic relationship with clients, and details the four major methods for collecting and analyzing data. Understanding these concepts is vital because the quality of diagnostic information directly determines the success of any OD intervention.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture begins by outlining seven key dimensions to consider in diagnosis: timing, participation, confidentiality, variable selection, integration with long-range strategy, target population, and technique type. It then defines organization diagnosis and the data collection and feedback cycle. The diagnostic relationship is examined in depth, including establishing a contract with eight critical questions. The data-collection process is broken down into defining objectives, selecting key factors, and choosing a method. Finally, the four main data-gathering techniques—questionnaires, interviews, observations, and unobtrusive measures—are compared and contrasted in detail.

📝 Lecture Summary

Dimensions to Consider in Diagnosis:

In addition to having descriptive, analytic, and diagnostic theories, a consultant must consider seven key dimensions when planning diagnostic activities. Timing is significant because collecting data when participants are not prepared can waste resources. The extent of participation is crucial, ranging from unilateral to fully participative problem identification, with the underlying assumption favoring participative diagnosis. Confidentiality must be managed carefully; in early, low-trust stages, individual interviews with anonymous responses are appropriate, but as trust grows, group surfacing of data becomes possible.

The degree of pre-selection vs. emergent selection of variables varies by technique—some questionnaires tap 19 dimensions under categories like leadership and climate, while others like the Managerial Grid focus on concern for people and production. The integration with a long-range strategy is important; diagnostic activities should be part of an overall action research plan, not isolated events prompted by whim. The nature of the target population affects acceptability, interdependencies examined, and issues that can be worked. Finally, the type of technique has major ramifications—interviews can build trust while collecting data, whereas questionnaires cannot, and the composition of subgroups in workshops (heterogeneous vs. homogeneous) affects data candor.

🔑 Definition — Diagnosis: The process of collecting information that will be shared with the client in jointly assessing how the organization is functioning and determining the best change intervention.

Collecting and Analyzing Diagnostic information:

Organization development is vitally dependent on organization diagnosis. Data collection involves gathering information on specific organizational features such as inputs, design components, and outputs. The process begins by establishing an effective relationship between the OD practitioner and those providing data, then choosing data-collection techniques. The four methods are questionnaires, interviews, observations, and unobtrusive measures. Data analysis organizes and examines the information to clarify underlying causes of problems or identify areas for future development. The overall process forms a cycle of data collection, analysis, and feedback.

💡 Why this matters: The quality of information gathered is a critical part of the OD process. Organizations are often "data-rich but information-poor," meaning they have lots of data but little structured, useful information.

The Diagnostic Relationship:

Before collecting diagnostic information, practitioners must establish a relationship with those who will provide and subsequently use it. This relationship affects the quality and usefulness of the data collected. OD practitioners must clarify who they are, why data are being collected, what data gathering will involve, and how data will be used. This helps allay fears that data might be used against members and gains participation and support. Establishing this relationship is similar to forming a diagnostic contract meant to clarify expectations and specify conditions.

The diagnostic contract answers eight critical questions:

1. Who am I? — Introduces the OD practitioner to organization members
2. Why am I here, and what am I doing? — Defines goals of diagnosis and how it fits the developmental strategy
3. Who do I work for? — Clarifies who hired the consultant; having those people help build the contract builds trust
4. What do I want from you, and why? — Specifies time and effort required; involvement should be voluntary
5. How will I protect your confidentiality? — Addresses who will see responses and in what form; consultants may guarantee anonymity or require open sharing
6. Who will have access to the data? — Clarifies access; respondents should generally get their own results
7. What's in it for you? — Describes benefits members can expect, usually through the feedback process
8. Can I be trusted? — The diagnostic relationship ultimately rests on trust; consultants need ample face-to-face contact and active listening

Careful attention to the diagnostic relationship promotes three goals of data collection: obtaining valid information about organizational functioning, rallying energy for constructive change, and developing the collaborative relationship necessary for effecting change.

The Data-Collection Process:

The data-collection process is a fundamental step in any OD program. The practitioner is gathering data and deciding relevance whenever meeting with the client, observing, or asking questions. An OD program based on systematic and explicit investigation has a much higher probability of success.

The word data (from Latin dare, "to give") refers to unstructured, unformed facts—an aggregation of all signs, signals, and clues. The word information (from Latin informare, "to give form to") means data that have form and structure. A common problem is organizations being data-rich but information-poor.

The Definition of Objectives:

The first step is defining the objectives of the change program. A clear understanding of broad goals is necessary to determine what information is relevant. Usually, preliminary data gathering (such as interviews with key members) clarifies problem conditions before large-scale data collection begins. Data gathering provides the basis for organizations to look at their own processes and begins a process of self-examination leading to improved problem-solving capabilities.

The Selection of Key Factors:

The second step is identifying central variables (such as turnover, communication breakdowns, or isolated management). The trend has moved from narrow issues (pay, immediate supervisors) to broader issues like culture and values. Organizations generate "hard" data internally (production reports, budgets, turnover ratios, sales per square foot, profit per employee) that can be compared with competitors' data and industry averages. Additional data gathering may examine: degree of dependence between units, quality of information exchange, degree to which vision and goals are shared, norms and attitudes, and effects of power distribution.

The Selection of a Data-Gathering Method:

The third step is selecting a method of gathering data. There is no one best way; selection depends on the nature of the problem. Data should be acquired systematically to allow quantitative or qualitative comparison.

Methods for Collecting Data:

The four major techniques for gathering diagnostic data are questionnaires, interviews, observations, and unobtrusive measures. No single method can fully measure all variables important to OD because each has strengths and weaknesses. Perceptual measures (questionnaires, surveys) are open to self-report biases like socially desirable answers. Observations are susceptible to observer biases. Because of these biases, more than one method should be used when collecting diagnostic data. If data from different methods are consistent, variables are likely being measured validly.

📐 Principle of Multi-Method Data Collection: Using two or more data-collection methods (triangulation) → increases validity. If questionnaire and observation data conflict, a third method (e.g., interviews) should be used to resolve discrepancies.

Table Comparison of Methods:

Questionnaires:

Questionnaires are one of the most efficient data-collection methods. They contain fixed-response queries and can be administered to large numbers of people simultaneously, analyzed quickly (especially with computers), and easily fed back to employees. They vary in scope and degree of standardization. Standardized instruments are based on explicit models and have been refined over time (e.g., Survey of Organizations, Michigan Organizational Assessment Questionnaire, Job Diagnostic Survey). Customized questionnaires are tailored to specific client needs, often combined with standardized instruments.

Major drawbacks: responses limited to questions asked; impersonal (employees may not give honest answers); elicit response biases like socially desirable answers.

Interviews:

Interviews are the most widely used data-gathering technique in OD programs (a study of 245 practitioners found this). They are more direct, personal, and flexible than surveys. Two advantages set them apart: flexibility for different situations (determining motives, values, attitudes) and two-way communication allowing deeper learning about problems. Data-gathering interviews usually last at least one hour, aiming to get interviewees to talk freely about important matters. The advantage is providing data virtually unobtainable through other methods, especially subjective data like norms, attitudes, and values. Disadvantages include time involved, required interviewer skill, respondent biases, and difficulty ensuring comparability across respondents.

Interviews take several formats. Directed interviews ask specific questions formulated in advance (open-ended questions allow free responses but are hard to quantify; closed questions are easily recorded and quantifiable). Non-directed interviews have direction chosen by the respondent. Structured interviews derive from a conceptual model of organization functioning. Unstructured interviews include broad questions about goals, current performance, strengths/weaknesses, and barriers.

Group interviews save time and allow building on others' responses but may inhibit some people. A popular type is the focus group or sensing meeting—unstructured meetings with 10-15 employees representing cross-sections or homogeneous groupings. Another is assessing an intact work group by directing a question to the group about its functioning.

Observations:

Observation is a direct way of collecting data by watching organizational behaviors in their functional settings. It can range from complete participant observation (practitioner becomes a group member) to detached observation (using film, videotape) where the observer is clearly not part of the situation. Advantages: free from self-report biases; puts practitioner directly in touch with behaviors; involves real-time data (avoiding recollection distortions); adaptive to circumstances. Problems: difficulties interpreting meaning (may need coding schemes); observer bias and subjectivity; sampling issues (which people, time periods, territory, events to observe).

Unobtrusive Measures:

Unobtrusive measures are not collected directly from respondents but from secondary sources like company records and archives. They include records of absenteeism, grievances, quality/quantity of production, financial performance, meeting minutes, and correspondence. They are especially helpful in diagnosing organization, group, and individual outputs (market share, return on investment) and organization-level design components (structure, control systems, human resources systems via organization charts, MIS, and personnel manuals). They provide a relatively objective view, free from respondent and consultant biases, and permit statistical analysis of behaviors over time (e.g., monthly absenteeism trends).

Major problems: data may not be in usable form; built-in biases from changes in accounting or recording procedures. Despite drawbacks, they serve as a valuable adjunct to interviews and questionnaires.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The quality of diagnostic information is critical to OD success, and seven dimensions—timing, participation, confidentiality, variable selection, strategic integration, target population, and technique type—must be carefully considered before any data collection begins. Establishing a diagnostic relationship through a clear contract answering eight questions (including who the consultant is, how confidentiality will be protected, and what's in it for the participants) is essential for obtaining valid data, building energy for change, and developing a collaborative partnership. The data-collection process involves three sequential steps: defining objectives, selecting key factors, and choosing an appropriate method. The four main data-gathering methods—questionnaires, interviews, observations, and unobtrusive measures—each have distinct advantages and potential problems, so using multiple methods (triangulation) is recommended to ensure validity. Interviews are the most widely used technique because of their flexibility and ability to build rapport, while unobtrusive measures provide objective, "real" data that can validate findings from other methods.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the seven key dimensions a consultant must consider when planning diagnostic activities, and why is each important?
2. What are the eight questions that form the substance of the diagnostic contract, and what purpose does each serve?
3. What are the three goals of data collection that careful attention to the diagnostic relationship promotes?
4. Compare and contrast the four main data-collection methods—questionnaires, interviews, observations, and unobtrusive measures—listing at least two major advantages and two major potential problems for each.
5. Why is it recommended to use more than one data-collection method when gathering diagnostic information, and what should a practitioner do if data from different methods conflict?

📘 Lecture 21 — Collecting and Analyzing Diagnostic Information

📖 Overview: This lecture covers the critical processes of collecting, analyzing, and feeding back diagnostic data in Organization Development. It compares various data collection methods, explains sampling techniques, and details both qualitative and quantitative analysis tools. Understanding these methods is essential for OD practitioners to accurately diagnose organizational problems and facilitate effective change.

🗂️ Topics Covered

This lecture begins by comparing different data collection methods—questionnaires, interviews, observations, and unobtrusive measures—highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. It then addresses sampling issues, including sample size and selection methods like random and stratified sampling. The lecture details the implementation of data collection and explores techniques for analyzing data, including qualitative tools like content analysis and force-field analysis, and quantitative tools like means, standard deviations, scattergrams, correlation coefficients, and difference tests. Finally, it discusses the critical process of feeding back diagnostic information, covering both the content and process characteristics necessary for client ownership and action.

📝 Lecture Summary

A Comparison of Different Methods of Data Collection

The lecture begins by comparing four major data collection methods. Questionnaires allow for quantification and easy summarization with large samples at low cost, but suffer from non-empathy, predetermined questions, over-interpretation, and response bias. Interviews are adaptive, provide rich data, and build rapport, but are expensive, prone to interviewer bias, and have coding difficulties. Observations collect data on actual behavior in real-time, but face coding issues, sampling inconsistencies, observer bias, and high expense. Unobtrusive measures are non-reactive with high face validity, but have access, validity, and coding difficulties.

Sampling

Sampling addresses questions like "How many people should be interviewed?" and "Which records should be inspected?" While sampling is not needed when data is collected from all members, it becomes crucial for large systems. Sample size depends on population size, desired confidence in data quality, and available resources. Larger, more complex populations require larger samples. Greater confidence demands a larger proportion of the population, while limited resources constrain the sample size, favoring questionnaires over interviews if high confidence is needed. Sample selection commonly uses a simple random sample, where each member has an equal chance of selection, generated via a random number table or by picking every nth name. A stratified sample is used for complex populations, where the population is divided into subpopulations (e.g., managers, workers), and a random sample is taken from each.

🔑 Definition — Simple random sample: A sampling method where each member, behavior, or record has an equal chance of being selected. 🔑 Definition — Stratified sample: A sampling method where the population is segregated into mutually exclusive subpopulations, and a random sample is taken from each.

The Implementation of Data Collection

Data collection begins with deciding who and how many to survey. The one-to-one interview is the most common method (87% of respondents), followed by observation (60%), group interviews (52%), questionnaires (45%), and existing documents (37%). Practitioners typically rely on a variety of methods. Outside data-collection agents are recommended as they make respondents feel more secure about confidentiality. A small pilot study or beta test is crucial to correct problems before large-scale collection.

The Analysis of Data

Data analysis techniques range from simple to highly sophisticated statistical methods. Key questions to consider before collection include how data will be analyzed, by hand or computer, and how they will be coded. This is especially critical for large-scale surveys where processing is difficult. Analysis may include comparisons of different divisions or management levels. 💡 Why this matters: Properly planning for analysis before data collection is essential; if data isn't collected correctly, it cannot be meaningfully analyzed or controlled.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Data Collection

Effectiveness is judged by criteria such as data validity (measuring what was intended), time to collect (which usually takes longer than planned), cost (including diminishing returns from too many interviews), organization culture and norms (choosing techniques suited to the climate), and the Hawthorne effect (the observer's influence on the subject's behavior).

Techniques for Analyzing Data

Data analysis falls into two classes: qualitative (easier to use and interpret) and quantitative (provides more accurate readings).

Qualitative Tools

Content analysis summarizes qualitative data (e.g., interview comments) into meaningful categories. The process involves: 1) reading responses to gain familiarity, 2) generating themes that capture recurring comments, and 3) placing each response into one of the categories. The categories with the most responses represent the most often mentioned themes.

Force-field analysis, derived from Kurt Lewin's model, organizes information into forces for change (driving forces) and forces for maintaining the status quo (restraining forces). The first step is to list all forces and then determine which are most powerful, either by ranking or rating their strength. According to Lewin, efforts to change should focus on reducing the restraining forces, which is likely to result in change with less tension than increasing the driving forces.

🔑 Definition — Force-field analysis: A method for analyzing qualitative data that organizes information into forces promoting change and forces resisting change. 📐 Formula: Driving Forces → [Current State] ← Restraining Forces → [Desired State] 📌 Example: A hospital's work team identified a 6% daily absentee rate as a problem and a 3% rate as desirable. Using force-field analysis, they listed restraining forces (e.g., lack of consequences, low morale) and driving forces (e.g., supervisor pressure, job insecurity) and chose to reduce restraining forces by, for example, tying promotion policy more closely to absenteeism.

Quantitative Tools

The most common quantitative tools are means, standard deviations, frequency distributions, scattergrams, correlation coefficients, and difference tests.

A mean and standard deviation summarize the average score and the spread or variability of responses. A high standard deviation indicates considerable disagreement among respondents. A frequency distribution is a graphical method showing the number of times a particular response was given, which provides a clearer picture than the mean alone.

A scattergram visually displays the relationship between two variables by plotting each case at the intersection of its values. A correlation coefficient is a number (ranging from +1.0 to -1.0) that summarizes the data in a scattergram. +1.0 means a perfect positive relationship, -1.0 means a perfect negative relationship, and 0 means no relationship.

A difference test compares a sample group against a standard (e.g., industry average) or determines if two samples are significantly different from each other. It can also be used to determine if a group has changed its score over time by calculating a difference score (t-score or z-score).

🔑 Definition — Correlation coefficient: A number that summarizes the data in a scattergram, indicating the strength and direction of a relationship between two variables, ranging from +1.0 to -1.0. 📐 Formula: Correlation Coefficient (r) = value between -1.0 and +1.0 → A value of +0.8 indicates a strong positive relationship. 📌 Example: Data on the number of change orders and conflicts per month over a year was plotted on a scattergram. The pattern showed an apparently strong positive relationship, suggesting change orders contribute to conflict between departments.

Feeding Back Diagnostic Information

This is perhaps the most critical step in the diagnostic process. The key objective is for the client to have ownership of the data. Data feedback must arouse organizational action and direct energy toward problem solving.

Determining the Content of the Feedback: Effective feedback data has nine properties: relevant, understandable, descriptive, verifiable, timely, limited, significant (focusing on what members can change), comparative (providing benchmarks), and un-finalized (acting as a stimulus for further diagnosis).

Characteristics of the Feedback Process: The feedback meeting is a forum for discussing data and devising action plans. To overcome anxiety and ensure ownership (the willingness to take responsibility for the data), the process must include: 1) motivation to work with the data, 2) structure for the meeting, 3) appropriate attendance (including those with common problems), 4) appropriate power (clarifying what the group can change), and 5) process help from the OD practitioner to keep the group focused.

🔑 Definition — Survey feedback: A flexible and powerful technique for data feedback that arose from the wide use of questionnaires in OD work.

⭐ Key Takeaways

This lecture is a cornerstone for any OD practitioner. You must understand the trade-offs between different data collection methods and when to use each. For sampling, remember that random samples are best for simple populations, while stratified samples are needed for complex ones. For analysis, be able to distinguish between qualitative tools (content analysis for summarizing themes, force-field analysis for identifying change drivers and resistors) and quantitative tools (mean/SD/frequency for single variables, scattergrams/correlations for relationships, and t-tests for group differences). The most critical concept is that feedback is not just about presenting data; the process must be managed to foster client ownership, meaning the data must be relevant, understandable, and fed back in a structured meeting where attendees have the power and motivation to act. Without ownership, even perfect data will not lead to change.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What is the difference between a simple random sample and a stratified sample, and in what kind of diagnostic situation would you choose each?
2. Explain the main difference between qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques. Give one example of each.
3. According to force-field analysis by Kurt Lewin, which is the more effective change strategy: increasing driving forces or reducing restraining forces? Why?
4. What does a high standard deviation indicate about a set of data, and why is a frequency distribution sometimes more informative than just the mean?
5. List three of the nine properties of effective feedback content and three of the five features of a successful feedback process.

📘 Lecture 22 — Designing Interventions

📖 Overview: This lecture defines what constitutes an effective organization development (OD) intervention and explains the criteria for designing them. It explores the key contingencies that affect intervention success, including readiness for change, cultural context, and the change agent’s capabilities. The lecture also provides a comprehensive overview of the major types of OD interventions—human process, techno-structural, human resources management, and strategic—and how they target different organizational issues and levels.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture begins by defining effective interventions and their three main criteria: fit with organizational needs, causal knowledge of outcomes, and transfer of change-management competence. It then covers how to design interventions by considering contingencies related to the change situation (readiness, capability, culture, change agent skills) and the target of change (organizational issues and levels). A detailed overview of four major intervention types follows: human process, techno-structural, human resources management, and strategic interventions, with specific methods listed under each category.

📝 Lecture Summary

What are effective interventions?

An intervention is a set of sequenced, planned actions intended to help an organization increase effectiveness. Interventions purposely disrupt the status quo. In OD, three major criteria define an effective intervention: (1) it fits the needs of the organization; (2) it is based on causal knowledge of intended outcomes; and (3) it transfers change-management competence to organization members.

The first criterion requires that interventions be relevant, based on valid information about the organization, provide opportunities for free and informed choice, and gain members' internal commitment. Valid information reflects what members perceive and feel. Free and informed choice means members actively participate in decisions affecting them and can choose not to participate. Internal commitment means members accept ownership and responsibility for implementing the intervention.

The second criterion involves knowledge of outcomes. Interventions must be based on valid knowledge that specific results can be produced. Currently, knowledge of intervention effects is in a rudimentary stage in OD, with much evaluation research lacking sufficient rigor. Few attempts have been made to compare the effectiveness of different OD techniques.

The third criterion concerns enhancing the organization's capacity to manage change. Members should gain knowledge and skill in managing change from active participation. Competence in change management is essential in today's rapidly changing environment.

How to design effective interventions:

Designing OD interventions requires careful attention to the needs and dynamics of the change situation. Two major sets of contingencies affect intervention success: those related to the change situation and those related to the target of change.

Contingencies Related to the Change Situation:

Several situational factors affect intervention success. These include individual differences among members (e.g., needs for autonomy), organizational factors (e.g., management style, technical uncertainty), and dimensions of the change process (e.g., degree of top-management support). Four generic contingencies apply to all interventions:

Readiness for Change: Intervention success depends on the organization being ready for planned change. Indicators of readiness for change include sensitivity to pressures for change, dissatisfaction with the status quo, availability of resources, and commitment of significant management time. When readiness is low, interventions must first focus on increasing willingness to change.

Capability to Change: Managing planned change requires specific knowledge and skills, including the ability to motivate change, lead change, develop political support, manage the transition, and sustain momentum. If members lack these capabilities, a preliminary training intervention may be needed.

Cultural Context: The national culture within which the organization operates can exert a powerful influence on members' reactions to change. Interventions must be modified to fit local cultural values and assumptions, particularly when OD practices developed in one culture are applied in another.

Capabilities of the Change Agent: Many OD failures result from change agents applying interventions beyond their competence. Practitioners should assess their experience and expertise against requirements. The ethical guidelines require full disclosure and practitioners should intervene within their capabilities or recommend someone more suited.

Contingencies Related to the Target of Change:

Two key contingencies related to change targets can affect intervention success: the organizational issues the intervention is intended to resolve and the level of organizational system at which the intervention is expected to have a primary impact.

Organizational Issues:

Organizations must address four interrelated issues to operate effectively, which are key targets of OD interventions:

1. Strategic issues — decisions about products, services, markets, and how to relate to environments. OD methods are called strategic interventions (e.g., integrated strategic change, mergers and acquisitions, trans-organizational development, organization learning).
2. Technology and structure issues — how to divide work, coordinate departments, deliver products, and link people to tasks. Methods are called techno-structural interventions (e.g., organization design, employee involvement, work design).
3. Human resources issues — attracting competent people, goal setting, performance appraisal, rewards, career development, and stress management. Methods are human resources management interventions.
4. Human process issues — social processes like communication, decision making, leadership, and group dynamics. Methods are human process interventions (e.g., conflict resolution, team building).

💡 Why this matters: These organizational issues are interrelated. Decisions about one issue must fit with choices about others. For example, a goal-setting intervention may need to be integrated with a reward system linking pay to goal achievement.

Organizational Levels:

Organizations function at different levels—individual, group, organization, and trans-organization. Interventions primarily affect one level but also have secondary impacts on others. For example, structural design mainly affects the organization level but indirectly affects groups and individuals. Practitioners must think systemically, addressing the possibility of cross-level effects.

Overview of interventions:

Human Process Interventions:

These interventions focus on people and the processes through which they accomplish goals, including communication, problem solving, group decision making, and leadership. They derive from psychology, social psychology, group dynamics, and human relations.

Interpersonal and group process interventions:

1. T-group — provides experiential learning about group dynamics, leadership, and interpersonal relations. Brings ten to fifteen strangers together with a professional trainer.
2. Process consultation — focuses on interpersonal relations and social dynamics in work groups. A consultant helps members diagnose group functioning and devise solutions.
3. Third-party intervention — a form of process consultation aimed at dysfunctional interpersonal relations. Helps people resolve conflicts through problem solving, bargaining, and conciliation.
4. Team building — helps work groups become more effective, including examination of group tasks, member roles, and strategies.

System-wide human process interventions:

1. Organization confrontation meeting — mobilizes members to identify problems, set action targets, and begin working on problems. Applied when organizations are experiencing stress.
2. Inter-group relations — improves interactions among groups. Includes microcosm group intervention and inter-group conflict model.
3. Large-group interventions — involve a broad variety of stakeholders in large meetings to clarify values, develop new ways of working, or solve problems.
4. Grid organization development — a normative, packaged program with standardized instruments and specific procedures.

Techno-structural Interventions:

These interventions focus on technology (task methods, job design) and structure (division of labor, hierarchy). They derive from engineering, sociology, psychology, and socio-technical systems.

Restructuring interventions:

1. Structural design — concerns the organization's division of labor, moving from traditional structures (functional, self-contained-unit, matrix) to integrative forms (process-based, network-based).
2. Downsizing — reduces costs and bureaucracy through personnel layoffs, organization redesign, and outsourcing.
3. Reengineering — radically redesigns core work processes to create tighter linkage and coordination. Often uses new information technology. Often fails if it ignores basic OD principles.

Employee involvement (EI) — aims to improve employee well-being and effectiveness by moving knowledge, power, information, and rewards downward. Includes parallel structures, high-involvement plants, and total quality management.

Work design — concerns designing work for groups and individual jobs. Includes engineering, motivational, and socio-technical systems approaches producing enriched jobs and self-managing teams.

Human Resources Management Interventions:

These interventions focus on personnel practices used to integrate people into organizations, including career planning, reward systems, goal setting, and performance appraisal. They derive from economics, labor relations, and personnel practices.

Performance management interventions:

1. Goal setting — sets clear and challenging goals to improve fit between personal and organizational objectives.
2. Performance appraisal — a systematic process of jointly assessing work-related achievements, strengths, and weaknesses.
3. Reward systems — design of organizational rewards to improve satisfaction and performance.

Development and assistance interventions:

1. Career planning and development — helps people choose organizations, career paths, and attain career objectives.
2. Managing workforce diversity — makes HR practices responsive to diverse individual needs (women, ethnic minorities, disabled).
3. Employee wellness — includes employee assistance programs (EAPs) for substance abuse, mental health issues, and stress management programs.

Strategic Interventions:

These link internal functioning to the larger environment and transform organizations to keep pace with change. They derive from strategic management, organization theory, open-systems theory, and cultural anthropology.

Managing organization-environment relationships:

1. Integrated strategic change — describes how planned change contributes to strategic management. A strategic change plan helps manage transitions.
2. Trans-organization development — helps organizations enter alliances, partnerships, and joint ventures for complex tasks.
3. Merger and acquisition integration — assists organizations to form a new entity, addressing strategic, leadership, and cultural issues.

Transforming organizations:

1. Culture change — helps organizations develop cultures appropriate to their strategies and environments.
2. Self-designing organizations — gains capacity to alter fundamentally through participative processes involving multiple stakeholders.
3. Organization learning and knowledge management — enhances capability to acquire new knowledge (OL) and use it to improve performance (KM), enabling continuous improvement.

⭐ Key Takeaways

This lecture establishes that effective OD interventions must fit organizational needs, be based on causal knowledge of outcomes, and transfer change-management competence to members. Success depends heavily on situational contingencies including readiness for change, change capability, cultural context, and change agent skills. The four major intervention types—human process, techno-structural, human resources management, and strategic—target different but interrelated organizational issues and levels. Crucially, because organizational issues and levels are connected, interventions often need to be integrated with one another to achieve systemic impact. Students must remember that interventions must be designed carefully based on diagnosis, not applied generically, and that change agents must work within their capabilities.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the three major criteria for an effective OD intervention?
2. List four generic situational contingencies that can affect intervention success.
3. What are the four interrelated organizational issues that are key targets of OD interventions?
4. Name one human process intervention for interpersonal/group dynamics and one for system-wide change.
5. Why must OD interventions be integrated with one another rather than applied in isolation?