Practices of Organisational Development- Perspective approach

Introduction

            Generally employees and organisations are considered as a interrelated. i.e. organisations are depending on employees and vice versa, but organisations are facing many practical problems because of employees turnover. Since they have to train up new employees which will affect their production or any activities depending on employees. Hence it is very vital to know or to identify, how to retain their employees. Hence the outline factors depicts to us, possibilities to reduce the employees turnover in order to achieve the organisation goal.

Organisation development

            Organisation development is a systematic process for applying behavioural science principles and practices, in organisations to increase individual and organisational effectiveness. Today, it represents one of the best strategies for coping with the rampant changes occurring in the market place and society. It deals with the gamut of “people problems” and personal conflict, intergroup conflict, unclear or inappropriate goals, inappropriate organisation structure, poorly designed tasks, inadequate response to environment demands, poor customer relation, inadequate alignment among the organisations strategy structure, culture and processes and the like. In short, where individual teams and organisation are not realizing their potential, OD can improve the situation.

            Organisations are not static systems but keep on developing, based on the needs of the system and the opportunities that exist in the environment. While the team organisation design can be considered to connote the structural aspects of the system, that is the departmentalization, the hierarchical level, the reporting relationships, and whether the system is mechanistic or organic, the team organisation development refers to all ongoing developmental efforts which are oriented towards making the organisation and its members effective. In other words, organisation development connotes the continuous planned effects that are made to enhance the structural, processual and people aspects of the system.

Characteristics of Organisation Development

            Organisational development relates to real organisational problems. It uses experimental based sensitive training. Its change agents are almost external consultants outside of the organisation. External agents are humanist (HR- experts and consultant). The goals of the change agents seek to accomplish through OD tend to better conflict resolution, increased understanding and more considerable leadership.

Goals of Organisation Development

            OD seeks to change the organisational environment in which a manager works. It aims to improve the total system (HRM) and ensure the full potential of a manager’s abilities which are utilized to a better organisational performance. Organisational programmes are to increase the level of trust and support among the organisational members, to create better environment to increase the openness and authencity of communication, to increase the responsibility to optimize the effectiveness of the productive system to move towards high collaboration, to manage the conflicts effectively and assist managers for setting challenging and realistic goals for better performance.

Objectives and values of Organisation Development

            Organisational development is to improve the productivity, morale and satisfaction of employees in an organisation. It increases the trust and mutual emotional support among all organisational members. It increases the level of enthusiasm and personal satisfaction among the employees in the organisation. It also finds the probable solution to problems with greater frequency.

            The emphasis of organisational development on human dimensions of organisation is reflected to provide opportunities for people to function as human beings and to develop to the full potential. It attempts to increase the effectiveness of the organisation in terms of all its goals, and treat each human being as a person with a varied set of needs, all of which are important in his work and in his life.

Process of Organisation Development

Plan the change process Change the attitudes and habits Change the work climate and culture Work out new structures

      (a) Subgoals, new specialisation pattern, final authority

Solve day- to-day problems involving

a)      new demands from outside and inside

            There are several items unique to the OD concept. The focal point of attention with OD is at the top of the management hierarchy and this approach views the organisation as a total system. Management role behaviour is considered a significant variable. Learning is primarily on the job. The trainer or the initiator of changed behaviour is known as a ‘change agent’. He is one outside of the organisation who has expertise in interpersonal development. He determines the techniques to be used initially in starting the analysis and interaction of OD.

            Once the programme of OD has begun, Organisation members become highly active in investigation of their own attitudes and habits in relation to attitudes and habits of others.

Factors affecting Organisation Development

The organisational employees have fixed attitudes. They do not change their attitude and their habits. The expert (Change agent) could not convince the traditional employees. Improper execution of O.D techniques and strategies Lack of co-operation between the top management and lower employees Lack of commitment and misunderstanding among the employees Lack of leadership skills and responsibility Lack of facilities and lack of trustworthiness Lack of morale and job satisfaction Lack of Division of Labour and complex production process and working condition

Effective Organisation Development programmes

The top management communicates to the entire work force in effective manner. They get employees’ consent prior to implementation of the O.D techniques The O.D experts takes complete responsibility to develop the organisation as well as the employees The outcomes of O.D should be informed before its commencement The O.D gives significant attention to the surroundings Before adopting O.D techniques, SWOT analysis should be done.

Difficulties of Organisation Development

Non co-operation and coordination of employees Conflicts among the top people Unavailability of required resources Changing trends within short period High competition and technological changes Lack of long term applicability

Prerequisites for Organisational Development

v     HR must inform the employees the outcomes of an Organisational Development

v     HR dept role acquires bigger dimension

v     Tune training plans to gain productivity

v     Enhance analytical skills, prevent crisis

v     Resolve the interpersonal conflicts in gentle manner

v     Draw O.D agenda with staff and employee consent

v     Help people connect to actions to accomplish goals 

Different ways of O.D implementation

ü      Set clear goals, explain at the earliest

ü      Build talent pool to make succession easy

ü      Personal touch makes people happy and more involved into their work.

ü      Inner resources must be the first option for HR recruitment and development

ü      Introduce the performance and talent management systems

ü      Build loyalty

ü      Innovation

ü      Health habits makes a healthy work place

ü      Retain the talent

ü      Create a vision

ü      Recruit the right people for right tasks

ü      Training techniques used for improve the O.D intervention

ü      Reward & recognise the people ideas

ü      Encouraging people to take risks

ü      Empowering the employees redefine horizons of team performance

ü      Group mentoring disperse diverse skills sets

ü      Balance anxiety at the right level to be successful O.D

ü      Shared values and mission bring success to O.D implementation

ü      Shared vision keeps great teams in form

Impact of Organisation Development

            O.D techniques can develop the organisation and its employees in effective manner. The latest concept of O.D can improve the organisation effectiveness. It improves the productivity and quality of the product. It also create better environment to perform various tasks in a hierarchical order. O.D provides positive working definition to the difficult employees. It removes the conflicts and improve the work efficiency.

Conclusion

            In the present competitive environment, the organisations implement the O.D through efficient HR consultant because the organisation meets many practical difficulties for its day to day operation. The organisations may be a service oriented one or profit oriented productive one and so to compete with others they must appoint a efficient humanists (HR expert/ consultant). Not only the HR concern but also the other aspects of the industry, like money, machine, market, etc. Organisational development is nothing but the organisation’s resources development. It gives more attention to the Human Resources, because it has own views and attitudes.

Reference

Memoria, C.B., Gankar, C.V. Personnel Management Himalaya Publication House Ltd 2002

Kanka, S.S Organisational behaviour published by Sultan Chand publisher 2006

Prasad, L.M.Organisational behaviour published by Tata McGraw-Hill 2002

Lewin, K. (1951). Field Theory in Social Science. New York: Harper and Row.

Senge, Peter; C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers (March 2004). Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future. Society for Organisational Learning. ISBN 0974239011.

Argyris, Chris (Autumn 1982). “[1]” (PDF). Organisational Dynamics,. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.

Tucker, Kate. “The Milan Approach to Family Therapy: A Critique”. Priory Lodge Education Ltd. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.

Mohan Sharma, K. Performance Management –“A Tool for Organisational growth and Development” HRD New letter, April 2008, Vol.24, Issue: 1 P.20.

Prof.G.Srinivas Reddy, Prof.SVVS Vara Prasad “Managing Innovation –Organisational development

The Hindu” Opportunities Column” – ‘HR issues’, ‘HR Highs’, ‘Viewpoint’ from Jan’2007 to June’2008.

Submitter’s (Authors’) Details

Name                                      :           Mr.S.Sundararajan

Designation                            :           Lecturer in Management Studies,

Organization                          :           Periyar Institute of Management Studies (PRIMS)

Address                                  :           PRIMS, Periyar University, Salem – 11. Tamilnadu.

                                                            Pin: 636 011.

Tel.No (Office)                     

Mobile No                              :           (0)93671 53253

E-mail                                     :           rajanmba2003@yahoo.co.in&rajanphd2009@yahoo.com