Od Bhel

Indira Gandhi
National Open University

MS-10
School of Management Studies Organisational Design,
Development and Change
Block
5
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE
UNIT 12
Organizational Development (OD) 5
UNIT 13
Alternative Interventions 20
UNIT 14
Process of Change 55
UNIT 15
Change Agents: Roles and Competencies 80
UNIT 16
Institution Building 117
1
Organisational
Development and Change Course Design and Preparation Team (2004)
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New Delhi School of Management Studies
IGNOU, New Delhi
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School of Management Studies
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BLOCK 5 ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN,
DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE
This block consists of five units.
The first unit deals with Organisational Development (OD) in which it has
discussed about objectives and substances of OD.
The second unit describes different OD intevention techniques.
The third unit i.e. process of change discusses the types of change, process of
change and resistance to change.
The fourth unit deals with various roles of change agents and their
competencies.
The last unit of the block describes how an organisation becomes an

institution.
3
Organisational
4
Introduction to
UNIT 12 ORGANIZATIONAL Microbes
DEVELOPMENT (OD)
Objectives
After studying this Unit, you should be able to understand :
what is Organizational Development (OD) – its definitions,
the objectives of O.D.
stages of O.D.
Structure
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Definitions
12.3 Stages of Organisation Development
12.4 Essentials for Success of Organisational Development
12.5 Summary
12.6 Self-Assessment Questions
12.7 Further Readings
12.1 INTRODUCTION
There is a lot of similarity between an organization and an organism (living
things). All organisms take birth, survive, grow, impact the environment,
stabilise after some time and the start decaying and ultimately die.
Organizations also take birth and undergo similar stages as the living organisms
except the last two stages. If appropriate steps are taken, the last two stages
can be avoided in case of organizations.
Today the vulnerability of the organizations has increased. Due to rapid

knowledge and technology explosion, many organizations are becoming unviable
within no time. A number of options and new features are available to
customers, hence product-life has shortened. Newer approaches to cost
reduction, quality improvement and delivery time reduction are posing continuous
threats. Rapid changes in economic, political and social environment are
bringing new types of problems. Thus, modern organizations have no option
other than continuously striving for enhancing their coping abilities. A variety
of interventions under the umbrella of ‘Organization Development’ are available
to the modern organizations for remaining effective and growing in the rapidly
changing environment.
12.2 DEFINITIONS
Organization Development has been defined differently by different people.
Some of the definitions are given below.
a) Warren Bennis
"A response to change, a complex educational strategy intended to change the beliefs,
attitudes, values and structure of organizations so that they can adapt to new
technologies, markets and challenges and the dizzying rate of change itself."
b) Richard Beckhard
An effort (1) planned (2) organization-wide (3) managed from the top to (4)
increase organization effectiveness and health through (5) planned interventions
5
Organisational in the organizations’ ‘processes’ using behavioural science knowledge. Such
efforts are usually long term (at least 2-3years) action oriented (rather than
merely training) focused on changing attitudes and/or behaviour through
experience based learning activities primarily in a group setting.
c) Wendell L. French and Cecil H. Bell
OD interventions are sets of structured activities in which selected
organizational units (target groups on individuals) engaged with a task or a
sequence of tasks where the task goals are reflected directly or indirectly to
organizational improvement. Interventions constitute the action thrust - of OD,
they “make things happen” and also, “what‘s happening.”
d) Udai Pareek
A planned effort initiated by process specialists to help an organization develop
(a) its diagnostic skills (b) coping capabilities (c) linkage strategies (in the form
of temporary and semi-permanent system) and (d) a culture of mutuality.
e) Thomas G. Cummings and Edgar F. Huse
A system wide application of behavioural science knowledge to the planned
development and reinforcement of organizational strategies, structures and
processes for improving an organization’s effectiveness.
f) National Training Laboratories, U.S.A.
Using Knowledge and Techniques from the behavioural sciences, Organization
Development attempts to integrate individual needs for growth and development
with organizational goals and objectives in order to make more effective
organization.
12.3 STAGES OF ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT

OD efforts are made in stages. The details of activities in each stage depend
on the model being followed. Three models that may be mentioned are:
i) Lewin’s Change Model having three stages: Unfreezing, Movement and
Refreezing;
ii) Planning Model — with the stages: Scouting, Entry, Diagnosis, Planning,
Action, Stabilization Evaluation and Termination; and
iii) Action Research Model — comprising the stages: Problem Identification,
Inviting a Behavioural Science Expert, Data gathering / Preliminary
diagnosis, Feedback to groups, Joint Diagnosis of Problem, Action and
Data gathering after Action.
For the sake of more clarity, the stages followed in the OD efforts (a large
organization) have been shown in Figure 1.
12.3.1 Initiation
This stage consists of the following substages.
a) Feeling the need
Organization Development efforts are mainly initiated when a top management
person feels the need. Some times the need is felt when organization is doing
very bad and sometimes when the organization is doing very good. For
example, in a large public sector organization, the need was felt by the head
when there was continuous problems in quality of the products. It has been
observed that in many organizations, felt the need when the organization was
6 striving to define its vision and mission for coping with the future challenges.
Sometimes the need is felt by seeing other organizations especially competitors Organizational
Development (OD)
growing and prospering. Need has also been felt in some organizations when
they were making strategies for turn around or when a consultant makes
presentation giving success stories of other companies. If need is felt by
somebody at the lower levels, he has to make efforts for convincing the senior
management, because unless the CEO is convinced and assures active support,
OD activities should not be initiated.
Initiation
Diagnosis
Planning & Design of

Interventions
Carrying out the Plan

(Making Interventions)
Evaluating Results
Termination or Going for

Next Phase
Figure 1: Stages in Organization Development Efforts – A General Model
b) Inviting Consultants
Once the need is felt, consultants are invited. Consultants may be internal or
external. Due to low knowledge level of clients, some times consultants who
have a good name in management field but are not expert in organization
development get entry. Therefore, selecting a consultant for organization
development is very important.
‘Organization Development’ is a Behavioural Science based approach, hence

the first requirement is that the consultant should possess an indepth ‘process
skill’ understanding behavioural processes. ‘Accredited Behavioural Process
Facilitator’ therefore is the most desirable requirement. This is more so
because Organisation Development’ approaches are largely based on ‘Process
Consultancy’.
c) Identifying and Clarifying the Need
The consultant initiates discussions for ascertaining what the client would like to
change in his organization and what help is required from the consultant.
Interaction may be held with the Chief of the Organization and a few other top
management persons for identifying and clarifying the need. In some cases the
CEO is found to be very clear on some needs and in some organizations the
CEO completely depends on the consultant for identifying and clarifying the
needs. Unless and until the need is not truly felt by the CEO, it is advisable
not to initiate organization development efforts. 7
Organisational For clarifying the need a number of methodologies may be used like,
environment analysis - internal and external, SWOT analysis, scenario building,
developing Mission, Vision, Values and Strategies, comparison with competitors
etc. Success stories of successful organizations and Satisfaction surveys are
also some times used.
d) Exploring Readiness for Change
Inspite of the strongly felt need, it is essential to explore the readiness of the
organization to change. A process facilitator may call a meeting / workshop of
senior people and on the basis of observations on the interaction, he can get an
idea of the readiness to change. When too much fascination for the status quo
is sensed, fear and apprehensions are strongly expressed, case of failure are
cited more than success stories, resource scarcity is repeatedly presented. OD
should not be initiated in a hurry.
Some consultants conduct a few workshops for assessing the readiness.

Instruments/questionnaires are also used by some consultant. An approach
developed by J William Pfeiffer and John E Jones may be suggested. This
approach is based on 15 indicators which they have developed in the form of a
check list (instrument). The indicators are being enumerated in Table 1 under
three broad classes.
Table 1.15 Indicators for Readiness to Change
General Considerations
– Size of the organization

– Growth rate
– Crisis (situation)
– Macro economics
– OD history
– Culture
Resources
– Time commitment
– Money
– Access to people
– Labour Contract limitations
– Structural flexibility
People Variables
– Interpersonal skills
– Management development
– Flexibility at the top
– Internal change agents
Source : ‘OD readiness’ by J.W. Pfeifer and John E Jones’ in ‘The 1978 Annual
Handbook.
This instrument / check list can be served to a number of people in the

organization, including the top management and the findings should be
discussed. This will not only give an idea about the readiness, but also raise
the awareness towards some of the crucial pre-requisites.
8
e) Formulate Contract Organizational
Development (OD)
The role of the consultant and the client, and objective of the project, resources
required by consultant, the outcome desired by the client — all the important
aspects are clarified and then an MOU or contract between the client and
consultant is formulated for carrying out the OD interventions. Financial
implications should also be clarified at this point.
12.3.2 Diagnosis
Diagnosis is the process of assessing the functioning of the organization or
departments to discover sources of problems and areas of improvement
(Cummings and Huse, 1989). This stage consists the following substages.
a) Problem Identification (Preliminary)
Problems may be of many types. Some may be hidden and some apparent.
Usually, the symptoms are visible but not the causes or problems. A problem
may be there in any one of the organizational component – task, structure,
technology, human resources or prevailing in more than one component. Many
a times, the problems are experienced in the environment ( internal or/and
external).
Problems are situations in which we experience uncertainty or difficulty in what

we want to achieve. Problems arise when obstacles prevent us in reaching the
desired objective.
In problem identification, there is a high possibility of taking symptoms as

problems. Some managers have a strong tendency to look at problems from
one (technical / functional) view point only and thus the multi-disciplinary aspect
of problem is ignored. It is also a widely prevalent fact that managers,
particularly those having more experience have pre-conceived ideas about the
causes of problems but they may not be knowing the real problems. The
things in the foreground will be fully visible only when there is a background,
therefore, sometimes the study of the background helps in understanding the
problem.
How the problem is seen, experienced and perceived by different people in the
organization is very important for its solution.
The preliminary problem identification stage includes gathering and analysis of

information on the organization’s activities and performance. This can be done
by going through various reports including annual reports, types of grievances
raised, industrial relations related data etc. The most important data comes
through discussions with Senior management personnel, Trade Union leaders,
Workers, Middle management and supervisory levels. The Consultant at this
stage is not interested in details but is trying to understand the trends,
relationships, communication, decision-making, circles of influences etc.
Consultants use a number of approach for identifying important problems. In

one organization, the Consultant first had a long discussion with the CEO asking
his perception of problems the organization was facing. He identified the
problems mainly in the background of what he wanted the organization to
achieve but the organization was not achieving (i.e. gaps). When the
consultant wanted to know the causes of the gap, some of the problem areas
were identified. He subsequently talked to a few persons at different levels in
the organization and could know about various problems.
In another organization, a Top Management Workshop conducted in which

individuals first identified problems by writing on slips (confidentially) and then 9
Organisational the slips were collected and segregated. Problem identification workshops were
held for other levels also and then a few commonalties and trends were
identified.
One company tried to identify problems by a SWOT Analysis. While others

preferred to make comparison with competitors and identify problem areas, or
going for a functional approach — function by function SWOT analysis. The
use of sophisticated techniques like ‘FOCUS Groups’ and ‘Play Card Method’
is also increasing gradually.
Thus, a variety of approaches and methods are used for initial problem
identification — the main purpose is to identify some crucial areas for further
analysis.
Identification of Organizational Need
Does the organization need OD interventions? At this stage, this is
ascertained. The commitment of the CEO is crucial; the willingness of the
Senior Manager team is also crucial because OD is a ‘Top Down Approach’.
In one organization, after a long discussion with the Consultant, the CEO told
to go ahead if the consultant experiences the need and the consultant did not
initiate OD efforts in the company. Why? Because he did not sense a strong
need for OD in the CEO.
The Consultant has to make sure, whether OD is the right intervention for
solving the problems of the organization. Only after making sure he should
proceed ahead.
Identification of Areas for In-depth Analysis
OD is costly intervention. On the basis of preliminary problems identification,
and resources likely to be made available, areas for in-depth analysis may be
identified. Too many problems should not be taken up in the beginning.
b) Diagnosis
In OD, organizational diagnosis is a collaborative process between organizational
members and OD consultant leading to collection of relevant information,
analysis and drawing inferences for planning actions and interventions.
A number of diagnostic models explain the characteristics of organizational

diagnosis. But the ‘Systems Model’ showing organization as an open system is
quite fundamental. Apart from the three components (Input, Processing and
Output).
Input Processing Output Outcome
Feedback
Figure 2 : Systems Model
Feedback and interaction with boundry is also very important from diagnosis
point of view.
Indepth diagnosis can be designed for the critical problem areas identified in the
previous steps. However, normally organizational systems can be diagnosed at
three levels. The diagnosis may focus on anyone or all of the components as
each level (Table 2).
10
Table 2 : Levels of Organisational Diagnosis Organizational
Development (OD)
Organizational level :
– Goals
– Policy
– Strategy
Input – Environment
– Resources
Processing – Task
(Conversion) – Structure
– Technology/Systems
– Human Resources
– Culture
Outputs – Effectiveness/Efficiency
– Market share
– Return on Investment
– Quality
– Delivery (timeliness)
– Cost
– Satisfaction of customers
– Benefits to Society or
Outcome – Impact on Ecology /
Environment etc.
Group level :
Input – Organizational design
– Organizational norms
Processing – Task Structure
– Norms of Performance
– Interpersonal relations
– Other characteristics of Individuals
Output – Quality of decisions
– Team effectiveness
– Cohesiveness
– Collaboration
Outcomes – Organizational environment
– Satisfaction, pleasure in Work.
– Achievement orientation
– Customer satisfaction
Individual level :
Inputs – Organizational design
– Workgroup design
– Personal characteristics of employees.
Processing – Job content/requirement
– Matching of Job and employee profile.
Task identity
Skill variety
Task significance
Task identity
Autonomy / Feedback
Output Personal effectiveness
Performance level
Quality of performance
Outcome Job Satisfaction
Motivation / Achievement
Motivation
Creativity / Risk taking
Personal growth etc.
11
Organisational From the above mentioned Table, or on the basis of preliminary diagnosis, area
for in depth diagnosis is identified. For example, customer satisfaction, poor
morale and motivation, Quality / Delivery of Products and Services,
Organizational Environment, Managerial / Leadership styles etc.
c) Design of Data Collection / Survey
A variety of data collection methods may be used for this purpose. Some are
enumerated as:
Questionnaires;
Interviews; and
Observations.
Usually, a mix of these three are used
In designing a diagnosis, it is essential to collect data both in respect of content
and process aspects. Whatever method is used, it should be designed properly
and tested and validated before actual collection. It is advised to use statistical
methods in determining the sample size. A number of organizational diagnosis -
instruments are available through various sources — which may be successfully
used. A few of the approaches or organizational diagnosis have been briefly
suggested in the book “Planning, Auditing and Developing Human Resources,
By Parth Sarathi.”
d) Analysing the Data, Making Inferences
The data which has been collected through various techniques are to be
analysed systematically. A number of statistical methods like frequency
diagrams, scatter diagram, run charts, correlation and regression analysis are
useful for quantitative analysis.
For qualitative analysis techniques like Force Field Analysis, Fish-bone diagrams
(root cause analysis), Affinity diagram, Why-Why diagram, How-How diagram
are very useful.
e) Sharing of Diagnosis and Feedback
OD differs from other interventions in one way that the data, after analysis is
feedback to the population from where it has been collected.
For this, ‘Survey Feedback’ meetings are organised where the analysis of the
data collected is presented. The audience is encouraged to give their
comments / reactions. It serves two purposes — the credibility of OD group
is established because they are showing what they have collected, analysed and
infered. It also provides opportunity for seeking clarifications and
supplementary data to test the inferences. This is a very powerful intervention
because the persons get a picture of the organizational issues, perceptions and
feedback on individual and group behaviour.
Survey feedback intervention includes of collection of data / information about

organizations and giving feed back in the form of the data/information to
managers and employees so that they can diagnose problems and develop
action plans for solving them. Generally, questionnaires (standard or custom
designed) are used for data collection. The salient features of findings are
shared with people in groups starting from Top Management to the lower
levels. Both content and process observations emerging during this sharing
session are noted down and further clarity is obtained by seeking more data
whenever required.
Certain precautions are taken while interacting — mostly those which are taken
12 care of while giving feed back to an individual. The analysis should
(i) represent reality, (ii) raise some anxiety and (iii) be descriptive rather than Organizational
Development (OD)
evaluative.
For example, an organizational diagnosis was carried out in an organization and

the information contained in Table no. 3 was presented. Organizational and
personal pride, performance excellence and Team Working and Communication
were found to be the weakest dimensions, which was readily agreed by most
of the groups, but created some anxiety considering the impact on the future of
the organization. A few senior executives and also a few from the personnel
function gave some defensive replies which were thoroughly discussed.
Table 3 : Organizational Norms Score and Ranking
Norm Average Score
1. Colleague & Associate Relationships VG AA + 43.69

2. Customer & Client Relationships G AA + 37.86
3. Innovativeness & Creativity G AA + 34.06
4. Leadership & Supervision G BA + 27.4
5. Profitability & Cost Effectiveness G BA + 27.39
6. Candor & Openness G BA + 27.15
7. Training & Development G BA + 26.69
8. Team Work & Communication G BA + 26.42
9. Performance & Excellence G BA + 21.46
10. Organizational & Personal Pride P BA + 17.04
12.3.4. Planning and Design of Interventions

An intervention is a set of structured activities in which selected target group
(individual, groups, organizational unit) engage with a task or sequence of tasks
where the task goals are related directly or indirectly to organizational
improvement (French & Bell, 1983).
In other words, OD interventions refer to range of planned, programmed

activities in which people participate during the cause of a formal OD effort.
The OD interventions are focused on Individual, Dyads, Triads, Teams and

Total Organization. Some of these are enumerated in Table 4.
Table 4: Levels of OD Interventions
Level of Intervention Intervention

Individual — Education, Training for improving knowledge,
Skills and Attitudes.
Coaching and Counseling
Sensitivity Training (T-Group Training)
Dyads/Triads — Interviews (for problem diagnosis, action
planning)
Process Consultation (for interpersonal
relations, Communication) and Conflict
resolution.
Group/Team — Team Building
Improving communications
Survey feedback
Conflict Resolution
Teams/Groups — Conflict resolution
Organizational mirroring
Organization — MBO, QWL, TQM, Strategic Planning,
Change (Values and beliefs, cultures etc.)
13
Organisational OD was carried out successfully for over a decade in a large Public Sector
Engineering Company. Organizational issues, which emerged, may be presented
here for illustration:
Strategic Management Issues
Product mix - Classification of products, differential strategies for future.
Competitiveness
Customer Satisfaction
Coping with future change in environment
Organizational values / objectives
Relationship with collaborators
New products
Technical / Technological Issues
Competing on Technology front
Upgrading of machines and technology
Technology vs. Human Resource costs
Readiness for new products
R&D vs. Technology acquisition
Quality, productivity as competitive edge.
Structural
SBU / or Product Manager structure or Functional structure.
Manufacturing Companies or Project Management company.
Business Sectors - relationships
Hierarchical differentiation and interaction
Work design
HR Issues / HR Process Issues
Morale and Motivation
Retention of experts
Setting goals
Rewards
Career / Succession Planning
Leadership
Communication
Interpersonal relation
Problem Solving
Finance / Economic Issues
Unrealised funds
Huge inventory
Rejects / Return from customers
Investment vs. revenues
Resource Crunch
Unproductive assets
Delay in payments
14 Stores in transit
All of these issues may not be resolved only through OD intervention, but these Organizational
Development (OD)
issues can be brought to surface, a common understanding can be established,
issues / sub issues can be prioritised and planned efforts for resolving them
may be made under OD framework. This helps in getting the commitment and
involvement of people in resolving the issues.
Some of the typical OD interventions used in resolving the issues may be

enumerated as :
Strategic Interventions
Self designing organizations, Culture change, Open system planning, Trans-OD,
Strategic change.
Techno-Structural Interventions
Differentiation and integration
Structures — formal, collatral
Work design
Quality of work life
HR Process Interventions
Goal setting
Rewards system
Career Planning Development
Stress Management
T-Group
Third party intervention
Team Building
Process Consultation
Survey feed back
Organizational confrontation meeting
Normative approach
Inter-group relations
The activities under the ‘Planning Design and Intervention’ stage are briefly
enumerated as :
a) Selecting Areas of Improvement
After sharing the feed back, the working team of OD sits together and
prioritizes areas for improvement. For example, after diagnosis and feed back,
the following areas were identified for work in one company.
— Achievement
— Team work
— Participation
— Raising Quality Awareness
The areas are not selected randomly. Involvement of top management and
some representatives of the involved areas is essential at this stage.
b) Setting Goals
OD interventions are time bound. What output/outcomes are expected in each
of the selected areas need to be clearly identified. They should be specific,
15
Organisational measurable, flexible and time bound. The criteria for understanding and
assessing the accomplishment of goals and methods of assessment and
measurement should also be developed before making the interventions.
Complete clarity and agreement on the above is a must.
c) Developing Alternative Strategies / Interventions
For achieving the goals, alternative interventions are to be designed. Some
interventions may be common for all or many goals and some may be specific
to one or few goals.
d) Selecting Alternative Strategies
Each of the proposed alternatives are evaluated carefully to select the most
appropriate one. Some of the appropriate interventions will be situationally
determined, but considering the following aspects will be helpful.
The key variables in the relationship that will determine the success or
failure of the intervention.
The Behavioural Science Theories and concepts which will be used in
process of understanding the organization.
The basic elements of the organization (health, culture, climate) and
interventions / techniques (e.g. T-Groups, team building, organizational
mirroring, confrontation sessions) to be used to help the organization solve
its problems.
There should be complete agreement on the intervention selected and the

resources and competencies available / to be made available should also be
considered.
e) Develop Implementation Plan
A plan for implementation of the intervention should be chalked out early
identifying the activities, lead persons, facilitators, resources required, help
required and time frame.
12.3.5 Carrying out the Plan: Making Interventions

This stage consists of the following substages.
a) Preparing the Team

For carrying out the interventions, a team of internal resource persons is
prepared. Ideally, this is a multi-disciplinary team which would make the
interventions and help in its successful implementation. The internal resource
persons should be skilled in Human Process facilitation and should have
undergone intensive training programmes.
b) Conducting the Activities
Whatever interventions have been planned, are to be implemented. In many
areas, employees would pose resistance which is to be overcome. If the
approach appears to be inadequate or inappropriate amends are to be made.
The experience are to be documented highlighting both process and content
aspects. Regular interaction with the committee / task force members and
Consultants is very essential.
c) Mid Course Evaluation
After interventions have been made, periodic evaluation is required for
ascertaining whether the interventions are bringing desired results. If yes, then
further follow up is required. If not, it must first be examined whether
interventions have been made as per the plan. If interventions have been made
16 as per the plan but are not giving the desired results, the causes must be
examined and if need, alternative interventions should be designed and Organizational
Development (OD)
introduced.
12.3.6 Evaluating the Results

After all the interventions have been made, the results should be evaluated.
The criteria developed earlier should be used as the reference points. A variety
of methodologies such as comparison of the actual results (tangible) with the
planned results, interviews and survey through questionnaire and workshop etc.
may be used as per the need.
The members of the OD Task Force jointly with the Top Management and
Consultants should decide the future course of action.
12.3.7 Terminating
OD intervention should be terminated after achieving the desired results. The
termination should be done in a planned manner. If the Organization decides to
go for the next phase, again the cycle should be repeated.
12.4 ESSENTIALS FOR SUCCESS OF

ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The essentials for success of OD are mentioned below:
1) Perception of organizational problems by the Top Management and Key
persons in the organization.
2) The acceptance of the fact by the Top Management / CEO that his
primary accountability is ‘Profit’ but his primary responsibility is OD.
3) A belief in the Applied Behavioural Science profession, and willingness to
invite a consultant.
4) Active involvement and support of Top Management.
5) Willingness to do Action research: conceptualizing — implementing —
evaluating.
6) Patience in waiting for results — adequate awareness of (Behavioural)
Processes and emphasis on improvement of Process aspects.
7) A genuine belief in Human Resources.
8) An OCTAPACE climate (Udai Pareek, 2002)
– Openness
– Confrontation
– Trust
– Authenticity
– Pro-action
– Autonomy
– Collaboration
– Experimentation
9) Success in initial OD efforts.
10) Belief in Training and Development.
11) Involvement of Line Managers and HR Managers — company’s HR
Policies congruent with OD philosophy and values.
12) Identification and Development of Internal resource persons
(Facilitators for OD)
17
Organisational 13) A high level committee of Top / Senior level managers who are
knowledgeable in their functions, managerially competent, optimistic, having
a sense of inter-dependences and urgency, clarity and belief in the super
ordinate goals of the organization and a learning attitude.
14) Willingness of the members of the organization to change their thoughts and
feelings as a result of OD efforts.
15) A belief in searching for the better way of doing / managing and
adaptability to change.
16) Interventions should aim at change in the organizational climate /
environment as well as the social processes within the organization.
17) The interventions should be based on scientific diagnosis and parameters for
measurement of success should be clarified in advance.
18) Continuity of OD efforts even after change in Top Management.
19) No imposition of any thing — the interventions should be chosen by the
client from amongst many alternatives.
12.5 SUMMARY
To cope with the changing business scenario, a variety of interventions are
available under the umbrella of OD for the modern organisations. In this unit
number of definitions of OD has been discussed also general model of OD
efforts having six steps has been given.
12.6 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
1) Define OD and what are the objectives of OD?

2) Discuss the stages of OD.
3) What are the essentials for sucess of OD?
12.7 FURTHER READINGS
Bennis, Warren. Organization Development, its nature, origin and

prospects, Addison Wesley (1969).
Beckhard, R. Organization Development: Strategies and Models,
Addison Wesley (1969).
French, Wendell L. Jr. Cecil, H Bell. Organization Development, Prentice
Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi (1983).
Pareek, Udai, “The concept and the process of organization development”,
Indian Journal of Social Work (1975), 36(2).
Chattopadhyaya, Somnath & Pareek, Udai Managing Organizational
Change, Oxford & IBH publishing Co. (1982).
Cummings, Thomas G. & Huge, Edgar F. Organization development and
change (4th Ed.) West Publishing Co. New York (1989).
Adams, J.A. Theory and Method in Organization Development: An
Evolutionary process. Va: National Training Laboratories, Institute of
Applied Behavioral Science 2,1 (1967).
Kurt Lewin. Field theory in Social Science, Harper and Row, New York
(1951).
18
Pfeiffer, J.W Jones, E.J. “O D Readiness,” The 1978 Annual Handbook Organizational
Development (OD)
for Group Facilitators, University Associates, California (1978).
Sarathi, Parth Planning, Auditing and Developing Human Resources,
Manak Publications, New Delhi (2002).
Alexander Mark. “Organizational Norms Opionnaire”, The 1978 Annual
Handbook for Group Facilitator (Ed. Pfeiffer, J.W John, E. Jones),
University Associates California (1978).
Pareek, Udai “Organizational Culture: OCTAPACE Profile,” Training
Instruments in HRD and OD (2002).
19
Organisational
Development and Change UNIT 13 ALTERNATIVE INTERVENTIONS
Objectives
After studying this unit, you should be able to:
understand the meaning of an OD intervention,
learn the range of OD interventions,
learn deeply a few selected HR based interventions.
Structure
13.1 Introduction
13.2 OD interventions: Nature and Rationale
13.3 Survey Feedback
13.4 Process Consultation
13.5 Confrontation Meetings
13.6 Organizational Mirroring
13.7 Team Building
13.8 T-Group Training
13.9 Role Analysis
13.10 Summary
13.11 Self Assessment Questions
Appendix 1 : An example of Process Consultancy
Appendix 2 : Team Building Programme - A Case Study
Appendix 3 : Formats for Role Analysis
13.1 INTRODUCTION
During the course of an OD programme there are several occasions in the
organisation to collect data, initiate action, observe processes and provide
feedback. All these activities are planned and carried out jointly between the
change agent and client organisation; and in OD language are called
interventions. Interventions are the action thrust of OD and collectively
comprise the OD strategy in a programme of organisational renewal. A
strategy is basically aimed at developing organisational climate, ways of work
and relationships that will be congruent with the future needs. Needless to say,
specific interventions are designed only after the overall strategy, has been
decided based upon a systematic diagnosis.
13.2 OD INTERVENTIONS :
NATURE AND RATIONALE
OD interventions are sets of structured activities in which selected
organizational units — individuals / groups engage with a task or sequence of
tasks where the task goals are related directly or indirectly to organizational
improvement. Interventions make things happen and are “what’s happening”
(Wendell L. French and Cecil H Bell Jr, 1983).
Intervention is defined as a behaviour which affects the ongoing social

20 processes of a system (Beckhard, 1969).
Different experts have tried to classify OD interventions in their own ways and Alternative Interventions
it is not possible here to present all classifications. A few approaches which
have helped in understanding the nature and rationale of interventions are
described as below.
Organizational Cultural
Structure intervention Theory
intervention intervention
Perspective Discrepancy
OD INTERVENTIONS
Dilemma Procedural
Experimentation Relationship
Figure 1 : OD Interventions
1) Robert Blake & Mouton the pioneers of Grid OD, classify

OD interventions in the following categories.
Theory Interventions
Theory and concepts especially in the area of Applied Behavioural Science are
used to explain the behaviour and the underlying assumptions. This provides a
suitable background for understanding some of the behavioural processes
emerging during the interventions.
Discrepency Interventions
Many a times a contradiction, discrepancy or gap is observed in the behaviour
and / or attitude of the people in the organization. In such situations,
discrepancy interventions are used to focus attention and exhibit the matter.
Procedural Interventions
Such interventions focus on the critical appraisal of systems and procedures
indicating how something is being done. This is aimed at examining whether
the best methods / systems have been used.
Relationship Interventions
Inter-personal relationships are crucial in the organizational processes. Such
interventions focus on analyzing the relationships and evolving ways and means
to create conducive relationships.
Experimentation
Before taking a final decision, the proposed changes are tested for knowing
their consequences in a small area. The decisions may be modified or retained
after reviewing the results/ outcomes.
Dilemma Interventions
In dilemma interventions, an imposed or emergent dilemma is used to enable
close examination of the possible alternatives involved and the assumptions
underlying them.
Perspective Interventions
These are aimed at drawing attention away from immediate actions and
demands, and allow a look at the historical background, context and future
objectives in order to assess whether or not the actions are still functional.
21
Organisational Organizational Structure Interventions
By examination and evaluation, structural causes for organizational
ineffectiveness are identified and suitable interventions made under such
interventions.
Cultural Interventions
Such interventions help in examining the traditions, precedents and practices
existing in the organization’s culture and appropriate efforts are made to bring
desired changes.
2) Blake & Mouton further developed a typology called Consulcube, a 100-

cell cube depicting all consultation situations. The three dimensions of the
cube are —
What the consultant does:— the type of interventions consultants use:
– Interventions used to give client a sense of worth, value,
acceptance and support - acceptant.
– Interventions for helping the client generate data and information in
order to restructure the client’s perceptions - catalytic.
– Interventions for pointing out the value / attitudinal discrepancies in
the client’s beliefs and actions - confrontation.
– The interventions telling the client what to do to solve the problem -
prescription.
– Interventions used for teaching the client relevant behavioural
science theory so that the client can learn to diagnose and solve his
or her own problems.
The focal issues causing the client’s problems.
– Power - authority
– Morale / cohesion
– Norms / Standards of conduct
– Goals and objectives etc.
The targets of change
– Individual
– Group
– Inter group
– Organization and larger social systems.
3) Another simple approach to classification is based on the focus on
i) Individual - group; and
ii) Task process.
Individual - group:– the interventions are aimed at individual learning,
insight and skill building.
Task - Process:– The interventions focus on task, what is being done or
Process – How it is accomplished? How people relate to each other and
what processes and dynamics are occurring ?
4) Another way of classification is HR based interventions, Techno- structural
Interventions and Socio-technical interventions. In the table given below all
the interventions except those in italics are HR based interventions.
5) If all the approaches are combined together, OD interventions can be
classified into the following typology may be with some overlaping.
22
Table 1 : HR Based Interventions Alternative Interventions
Individual. Dyads/ Teams Inter Total

Triads Groups Group Organization
Role Analysis * *
T-Group (Sensitivity Trg) * *
Education & Training &
Development * * * *
Job Enrichment * *
Grid OD * Ph I * PhI,II * Ph III * Ph IV,V,VI
Transactional Analysis * *
Process Consultation * * * * *
Third party peace making *
Team Building / (Task or
Process focused) * *
Survey Feedback * * *
Socio technical system *
Techno-structural activities *
Confrontation meetings * * *
Organizational Mirroring * *
Strategic Planning Activities *
Life planning, career planning *
OD has tremendous potential — it may encompass all change efforts and

enhance the competence of the organization in facing challenges. Being a
Behavioural science based approach, developing internal resource person
assumes top priority. It is a medium to long term intervention, hence no magic
in the short term should be expected. This enhances the self-renewing ability
of the organizations. OD efforts ideally take care of all aspects of growth and
development. However, a proper balance and interrelationship between
OD(HRD) efforts and strategic management efforts should be ensured to have
a growing, developing ,healthy and dynamic organization.
OD is essentially a Behavioural Science based approach, therefore human

process interventions are the core OD interventions. Some of these
interventions are quite unique but many have some overlap with others. It is
very difficult to describe the interventions, because variations are common. In
this unit, an attempt has been made to present the salient of some of the
commonly used Human Process interventions. A few of these interventions
have been described with the help of actual examples also. The interventions
discussed here are:
— Survey feedback;
— Process Consultation;
— Confrontation meetings;
— Organizational mirroring;
— Team building;
— T-Group training; and
— Role analysis.
Each of the interventions have been briefly described below.
23
Organisational
Development and Change 13.3 SURVEY FEEDBACK
This is the most widely used OD intervention involving data collection (through
questionnaire), analysis and feedback of findings to the organizational members.
Through Survey feedback, the managers and employees are provided with
analysis of data collected from them for better diagnosis, prioritization of issues
and planning of further activities. The steps are described below with an
example.
i) Feeling the Need of the Survey
A feedback survey is conducted after some significant person feels the need
of identifying and understanding the problem. In the present example, the
Personnel Chief at the Head Office of a large multi unit company was keen on
improving the organizational climate. He called an internal OD facilitator who
advised to go for a preliminary diagnostic intervention to know the perceptions
of executives on certain important dimensions. It was decided to cover all
executives working in different departments at the Head Office.
ii) Deciding Objectives (purpose of the survey) and Scope of the Survey
Before conducting the survey, it is essential to decide and clarify the objective
of the survey. The Consultant, client and his representatives meet together and
discuss different aspects. In this study the main objective of the Survey was
defined as “To find out the perceptions of the executives on various dimensions
of organizational norms with the aim of identifying areas for improvement of
organizational environment.”
The study was confined to Executives working in various departments of the

Head office.
iii) Selection of Instrument (Questionnaire)
Normally data is collected through questionnares (instruments which are
designed specifically) since design and testing of a questionnare is a complex
task needing high expertise, redesigned questionnaires are commonly used.
Considering the likelihood of debate on the validity of questionnaire, it was

decided to go for a standard questionnaire (Organizational Norms Opinionnaire
developed by Marks Alexander). Organizational norms develop gradually and
informally as the employees learn what behaviours are necessary for the group
to function more effectively. In this instrument, Alexander has tried to enable
the understanding of environment on the basis of the organizational norms.
‘Norms’ (oughts of behaviour) are the behaviours which are considered to be
acceptable behaviours as prescribed by groups and organizations.
Positive norms support organization’s goals and objectives and negative norms
have the opposite effect. There were 42 one line statements in the
questionnaire covering the 10 dimensions of norms; the responses were scored
on the basis of the key.
The following scale was used for interpretation.
- 40 and below - Extremely negative

- 40 to - 20 - Very negative
- 20 to - 10 - Moderately negative
- 10 to 0 - Low negative
- 0 to 20 - Poor
20 to 40 - Good
40 to 60 - Very good
60 and above - Exceptional
24
The theoretical range of scores was from - 100 to + 100. Alternative Interventions
iv) Methodology of Data Collection

A variety of methods are used for data collection— interviews, Emails, semi
structured questionnaires, workshops, secondary sources etc.
In this survey, it was decided to serve the questionnaire personally to all

executives in the Head Office except the Top Management (Directors, EDs).
Wherever the population is large, statistical sampling methods are used to
determine the sample size.
The questionnaires were collected back from who had responded. The
response was over 40%.
v) Scoring and Summary of Findings
Some questionnaires are direct and some concealed type. In the later type, it is
difficult to understand the dimensions of data collection, hence scoring key with
instruction is used. It also gives some framework for interpretation.
After scoring, the data was analysed by the internal consultant to find out the
status and patterns. The highlights of findings (at the H.O.) level are given
below.
a) Ranking and Relative Status
Frequency Distribution for the whole division is shown in Table 2. In actual
report the same for different departments were also shown in different tables.
Table 2 : Frequency Distributions
Norm Average Score

1. Colleague & Associate Relationships VG AA + 43.69
2. Customer & Client Relationships G AA + 37.86
3. Innovativeness & Creativity G AA + 34.06
4. Leadership & Supervision G BA + 27.4
5. Profitability & Cost Effectiveness G BA + 27.39
6. Candor & Openness G BA + 27.15
7. Training & Development G BA + 26.69
8. Team Work & Communication G BA + 26.42
9. Performance & Excellence G BA + 21.46
10. Organizational & Personal Pride P BA + 17.04
Note : VG - Very Good

G - Good
P - Poor
AA- Above Average
BA - Below Average
The above table shows that all the norms perceived by the employees are
positive in nature. This means all the norms support the organization’s goals
and objectives and are able to foster behaviour directed towards achievement
of the desired goals, but the range of the overall scores vary from 17.04 to
43.69. The average of the two (mean) scores comes out to be 30.365, on the
basis of which the average score for individual norms have been evaluated as
AA and BA. The score above 40% has been achieved only in case of
Colleagues and Associate Relationship norms.
25
Organisational b) Strong Norms
The ‘Colleague & Associate Relationship’, ‘Customer & Client
Relationship’ and ‘Innovativeness & Creativity’ have been perceived as
strongest positive norms in descending order.
i) The overall rating of the colleagues & associates relationships has come as
‘Very Good’ and the scores are ‘Above Average’. This shows that strong
interpersonal relations exist in the organization, but the relatively low ranking
of Team work raises some questions. One hypothesis may be drawn that
on a ‘personal’ level relationships are very good and cordial but when the
question of working together comes, it is not very good. Leadership &
Supervision style and Reward system may have important bearing on this.
ii) The second very positive norm has been identified as customer & client
relationships. The high concern for customer & client satisfaction is a very
healthy sign for the company and if sustained and increased, it will go a
long way in achieving corporate objectives.
iii) The third higher ranking is of ‘Innovativeness & Creativity’. It shows that
to a large extent, original activities and creative behaviour are considered
important in the organization. Efforts for planned change have a good
potential of success. If somebody has the will and desire, he can do new
experiments and implement things, but since the overall score is only
‘Good’ such efforts may not succeed without sufficient preparation in
raising awareness & breaking the inertia.
c) Weak Norms
One of the most striking findings is the lowest position (10th) of ‘Organisational
& Personal pride’. Overall rating of this norm is ‘Poor’ and ‘Below average’.
This indicates a poor identification with or sense of belongingness in the
organization. This also shows the presence of ‘we-they’ attitude. This also
indicates that the employees feel a lack of compatibility between their own and
organizational ‘needs’. For a reputed organization, it should be a matter of
concern.
The next weak dimension is of ‘Performance and Excellence’ (9th). This

shows that the behaviour of striving towards productivity and quality is not
strong but in other words, the quest for excellence or improvement is weak.
This may have very wide ramifications. The reward system is specifically
under question mark. In a climate, where rewards are based on objectively
assessed performance, people value this dimension.
d) Not so Strong Norms
The remaining four dimensions i.e. ‘Leadership and Supervision’, ‘Profitability
& Cost Effectiveness’, ‘Candor and Openness’ and ‘Training and
Development’ fall in between.
i) ‘Leadership and Supervision’ has been perceived as ‘Good’ but the score is
‘below average’. This shows that supervisors are seen as helpers, trainers
and developers but to a lesser (varying) degree. Therefore, there is a
great scope or need to improve the quality of Leadership & Supervision.
ii) The ‘Profitability and Cost Effectiveness’ has been evaluated as ‘Good’ but
the score is below average. The positive score shows that there is a good
climate to encourage people to save money and reduce costs, but it needs
to be further improved.
iii) The organizational norm on ‘Candor and Openness’ has also been similarly
placed i.e. ‘Good’ and ‘Below average’. This shows that the environment
of trust does not prevail to a greater degree. People see threats in sharing
the feelings & information freely and openly.
26
iv) The 7th rank has been received by ‘Training and Development’. The Alternative Interventions
overall scoring of 26.69 shows the presence of positive norms in the
division, and indicates that there is encouragement of training and
development activities to some extent.
Department wise and level wise analysis was also carried out and findings
were also given.
v) Presentation of Feedback
A meeting of the representatives from various departments along with the
senior / top level executives was convened in the Conference Hall. The
Consultant gave a brief presentation on OD and Organizational Environment.
He also talked about some of the challenges the company was facing and the
need of improvement. He gave a brief talk on ‘how to give and receive
effective feedback’ to prepare a climate of positive listening and exploration .
This helped in creating a non-defensive (Supportive) climate before presentation

of the findings.
He encouraged the participants for free and frank interaction and presented the
highlights of the findings. Many expressed their shock on ‘Organizational and
Personal Pride’ and ‘Performance Excellence’ taking the lowest rank. They
had a sigh of relief by observing that ‘Colleague and Associate Relationship’
was at the top although the score was not very high.
Department level findings created much interaction and concern – many

defensive responses started pouring in but were nicely facilitated leading to
acceptance and exploration.
After the presentations, there was a consensus to work for improvement on

certain dimensions especially those, which have been placed in the lower ranks.
They selected:
Organizational and personal pride
Performance and Excellence
Team work and Communication
Training and Development
vi) Action Planning

Four Cross functional teams were constituted for preparing the
recommendations and action plan to be presented in another workshop 4 weeks
later: One of the suggestions was to prepare a hand book giving ‘helpful’ and
‘restraining’ practices for each of the norms.
The Survey feedback workshop served as an effective intervention because the

awareness of the status and implication raised a lot of interest and desire for
improvement. Some improvement would have been initiated in some corners
only by the effect of listening the findings of the survey.
vii) Follow up
A core group of 3 Senior level managers from 3 different departments was
constituted for follow up action.
Concluding Remarks
Designing instrument for Survey feedback is the most important task and should
be carried out only by trained persons. The methodology of data collection and
sampling plans also need be decided professionally. The samples should be
statistically valid. 27
Organisational Standard questionnaires should be used if adequate expertise for questionnaire
design is not there. The findings should be developed only after in depth
analysis of the collected data. The presentations should be designed and
organized in an effective manner. A Survey feedback session motivates the
listeners to come together and work for problem solving and improvement.
13.4 PROCESS CONSULTATION

According to Schein, Process Consultation is a set of activities on the part of
the Consultant, which helps the client to perceive, understand, and act upon the
process events occurring in the client’s environment. Expert help (solutions to
problems) is not directly provided to the clients, rather on the basis of
observations of functioning of the group, they are helped to diagnose the nature,
dimensions and extent of the problems and evolve their own solutions. Process
Consultants do not give solutions (contents, subject matter, techniques etc.)
themselves but emphasise on and facilitate behavioural processes to enable the
clients come out with their own solutions.
Process consultancy is different from other models of consultancy and have

following distinguishing characteristics:
Facilitation of communication — a free and frank exchange of information
and expression of feelings, apprehensions, fears by the clients and his
personnel. etc.
Enhancing problem solving abilities of the client so that they are able to
solve their problems.
Developing a process based relationship with the personnel involved.
Develop open and authentic relationships with clients and their people.
Generally, the organizational processes such as communication, leadership, group

norms, problem solving and role and functions are of primary concern in
Process Consulting.
Process Consultancy is useful when (i) the client experiences the effect
(symptoms) but is not aware of the problems (ii) he does not know what
specific help is required (iii) he understands that problems are attitudinal and
behavioural but is not able to intervene and (iv) the client is motivated to learn
and develop problem solving abilities in himself/his people.
According to Schein, a variety of interventions may be used in Process

Consulting:
Interventions aimed at making the group sensitive to its processes and
enhance their interest in analysing the problems.
Interventions aimed at problem identification and analysis (diagnosis).
Interventions aimed at giving feedback.
Interventions aimed at helping individuals / groups to observe and process
their own data, learn giving and receiving feedback and solve the problems.
Coaching and counseling also are frequently used.
Interventions aimed a structural measures like job allocation, role changes
etc.
An example of process consultation is given in Appendix 1.
28
Alternative Interventions
13.5 CONFRONTATION MEETINGS
Originally developed by Beckhard, this OD intervention is used for identifying
and prioritising problems in organizations and beginning the working on the
solution of the problems by involving many people. The typically used steps
have been indicated as given below.
1) Convening a meeting of representatives of all departments in the
organization.
2) Assuring and motivating the participants to be open, free and frank in
communication, and giving a brief presentation on the need and importance
of problem identification and working for solution in groups.
3) Dividing participants in small groups (5-7) and asking them to identify
problems which are inhibiting their own and organizational performance.
4) Convening all groups together and make presentations of the identified
problems.
5) Distributing copies of problems to be given to each participant and using an
appropriate method. Problems are classified into different groups such as
Human, Economical, Structural, Technological etc.
6) Prioritising the problems involving the entire participants arranging and
synthesizing the problems for more meaningful understanding.
7) Facilitating the participants to collectively select a few problems for solution.
8) Dividing participants into groups according to the classification and nature of
the problems and assigning them time to bring an approach for solution (or
solution) with an action plan.
9) Convening the groups and making presentations by each group.
Incorporating modification wherever required.
10) Getting the approaches and solutions examined by the top management
and getting their decision on future course of action . Making a follow up
and implementation plan and formal communication in this regard.
11) Preparing follow up plan.
This intervention is very simple and needs a good internal or external facilitator.
The climate building is crucial for success because a conducive environment
will encourage the participants to give their ideas without any fear.
Confrontation meeting can be held for Department / Function level and/or

organization problems identification and solution. Different techniques may be
used for problem identification, generation of alternative solutions, prioritization
of alternative solutions and choice of appropriate solution etc. Generally such
meetings are of 6-8 hours duration but depending upon the nature of problems,
may be of longer durations having a few days gap between two meetings if
one is not adequate.
13.6 ORGANIZATIONAL MIRRORING

This is an intervention, which is used by a section (department / function etc.)
of an organization to collect the perception of other relevant sections of the
organization with the aim of improving its performance, image and relationships
with other sections.
In a large multi unit company the Corporate Personnel Department wanted to

know the perception of the unit Personnel Department and a few other
significant departments. For this a Consultant (in this case internal) was invited 29
Organisational and briefed. With the help of the Consultant and senior executives of
Corporate Personnel, a few significant clients (customers) of Corporate
Personnel Department were identified —
– Corporate Finance
– Personnel Department of Major Units
– Personnel Department of a few sites
– Shop Floor (Production) Deptt.
– Training Department
– Trade Union representatives
Representatives (2-3 from each of these departments) were invited for a

Workshop on a specified date. From Corporate Personnel, the head along with
group leaders and a few others were the hosts. The Consultant had separately
interviewed some representatives of each of the client group including the host
group and collected relevant information regarding expectations from host group
and their perceptions about the host group.
In the beginning of the Workshop, the Head of the Corporate Personnel

welcomed all representatives and explained that the Corporate Personnel
wanted to bring in improvement in their performance and satisfaction of the
internal customers. He assured that all the perceptions and impressions will be
taken in a real positive way and requested to give free and frank opinion.
The Consultant divided the representatives in 7 groups and asked them to

discuss and bring out their perceptions about functioning of the Corporate
Personnel covering both the positive and negative aspects. He also emphasised
that the perceptions should be data based, objective and should be prepared
keeping in view the requisites of effective feedback.
The host groups were also asked to bring out their perception of their own
performance.
After 40 minutes, all groups were called in the hall and the representatives of
Corporate Personnel (group leaders) sat in the Centre and around them, the
members of other groups were made to sit. The host group requested outside
groups to tell them their perceptions. A person was assigned the task of
noting down the points on white board. By turns each group shared their
perception. In case of confusion, the host group was seeking clarification.
Members also interacted with each other in a controlled manner.
After completion of sharing by every group, the hosts summarised and divided
the main themes of perceptions in three parts:
a) positive perceptions (appreciation)
b) negative perceptions and
c) main expectations (from Corporate Personnel)
Once again, the total participants were divided into 4 groups by the Consultant
and every group was asked to identify and prioritize issues / areas of
improvement of the performance of Corporate Personnel.
After 30 minutes, the groups were once again convened and presentations
were made by the representatives of each group.
Thereafter, a core group was constituted which identified key issues and
30 presented to the whole group. Once the issues were discussed, consensus was
arrived at and an action plan was prepared for implementation. The method Alternative Interventions
used in this exercise is a simple example of ‘Organizational Mirroring.’
‘Organizational mirroring’ intervention is very effective in improving

performance and optimising the inter-departmental / inter-functional relationships.
The facilitator (Consultant) intervenes for creating a conducive, non-threatening
climate, eliciting desired information, making process observations to make group
process more effective and crystallizing the issues.
13.7 TEAM BUILDING

‘Team building’ is the most commonly used OD intervention. It takes different
forms and emphasises different aspects depending on the need and expertise of
the Consultant and Trainer.
A team is widely understood as a group of people working together to

accomplish common goals. Thus there are two important aspects in the
working of any team:
Task aspect: What is to be achieved or carrying out and the related
aspects; and
People or Relationship aspects: How do the members feel while
interacting and working with each other? How do they communicate with
each other? How do they respond? Who is trying to dominate any
leadership issues? Are there conflicts? How conflicts are resolved?
The ‘Task aspects’ are covered by ‘Content’ aspects and ‘People or

Relationship aspects’ by ‘Process’ aspects.
Any team exists in environment and has interaction with several other teams
within and outside the organization. Thus the teams may have different issues/
processes within the organization and focus may also be different like:
Intra-team task (content) focus;
Intra team people (process) focus;
Inter team task focus – within the organization; and
Inter team people focus – within the organization
A team may have interactions with team(s) external to the organization like:
Inter-team task focus — with team(s) outside the organization;
Inter-team people focus — with team(s) outside the organization.
Team building programmes under OD efforts are carried out using interventions
for release of pent up emotions, clarifications and strengthening perceptions,
confrontations involving examination of one’s own and others’ assumptions,
resolution of conflicts, problem solving and concept based approaches and
strengths for bringing synergy.
Thus, team building issues have a wider implications and all aspects should be
explored while deciding interventions.
There are a variety of approaches but generally content based approaches,

process based approaches and mixed approaches are used.
Depending upon the diagnosis, the theme and competence of the facilitator,
methodologies are chosen. Sometimes, ‘Problem Solving’ approach is used in 31
Organisational team building intervention where the team / teams are facing some difficult
problem.
Here the design of a ‘Team building’ programme conducted for a leading

2-wheeler manufacturer is being outlined briefly. The proceedings of this
programme presents an in-depth explanation, it is available in the book
“Planning, auditing and developing Human Resources,” Parth Sarathi.
As a result of phenomenon increase in the awareness of the benefits of ‘Team

Work’ many organizations are organising training programmes on ‘Team
Building’. Some programmes are organised as a sequel to diagnostic exercises
or as a part of on-going OD activities and others as independent events.
Various approaches are also being used to design such programmes. The use
of process-based interventions in Team Building programmes is increasing. One
major parameter for the choice of interventions is the orientation of the HRD
Head / Consultant or the faculty engaged for such programmes. Another
important constraint is the duration of the programme.
It is believed that ‘Team Building’ programmes based on T-group methodology

are most effective, however, the batch-size (of maximum 10 participants) and
the programme duration (minimum 5 days ) impose a serious limitation on using
this methodology. Another constraint is the availability of professional T-Group
Trainers; as such only accredited facilitators should facilitate programmes.
The use of process based ‘Structured experiences’ along with appropriate

instruments in Team Building programmes helps in overcoming these constraints
to a great extent. Such experiences may be designed or adapted from
‘Structured experiences’ available in some books. Prior diagnostic exercises,
indicating the strong or weak dimensions of team working are of great help in
designing short-duration team building workshops. The structured experiences
are able to simulate the real life situation, raise the feelings and provide suitable
opportunities for making appropriate interventions at the de freezing, learning
and refreezing stages. Such experiences create less hostility, give desired pace
of movement to the group, create a situation where all participants are involved
and facilitate giving and receiving feedback effectively.
An experience is narrated in Appendix 2, which shows how ‘structured

experiences’ supported by instruments and facilitated through process skills can
make the need based ‘Team Building programme’ for Engineers truly effective.
13.8 T-GROUP TRAINING

Introduction
T-Group (Training Group) is a small unstructured group in which the
participants learn from their own inter-actions and evolving dynamics about
issues pertaining to inter-personal relations, group dynamics and leadership.
This is also primarily known as Sensitivity training and is a training approach
based on experiential learning.
In a group, around 10-12 participants assemble together and work with a

facilitator to discover something about themselves — their strengths, styles,
inter-personal relationships, participation in the group, how they are perceived
by others etc. The group does not have any pre-determined agenda and
evolves its own agenda over the time. The participants act as a resource to
each other and help in creating a climate, which is conducive to discovery
through the data generated in the group. The group evolves like a laboratory
32 where learning takes place mainly through experiencing, reflecting,
hypothesizing, experimenting and conceptualising rather than through lectures. Alternative Interventions
The individual is encouraged to express oneself and increase one’s personal and
inter-personal effectiveness in the group setting.
T-Group Training normally adopts two paths (directions):

i) To gain deeper understanding about self and personal growth
(inter-personal focus); and
ii) to explore group dynamics and relationship between members. This leads
to team building interventions (Interpersonal and organizational focus).
Objectives
Every T-Group is organised with some objectives. The following are some of
the objectives frequently set for T-Groups:
Enhance understanding about self, gain insights into one’s own behaviour
and its impact on others including the ways in which these are interpreted
by others.
Enhance the understanding and awareness about others’ behaviour
(thoughts, feelings and actions).
Enhance the understanding and awareness of group and inter-group
processes; processes that facilitate and inhibit group effectiveness.
Identify and develop greater awareness of behavioural processes associated
with one‘s life.
Increasing diagnostic skills in inter-personal and inter-group situations.
Experimentation of new behaviours initiated during the lab.
Improve one’s effectiveness in inter-personal situations so as to derive
greater satisfaction from them.
Discover one’s dormant potential to live more effectively and meaningfully.
Increase ability to transform the learning into action etc.
Benefits of T-Group Training
The benefits of T-Group training may be enumerated at individual, group and
organizational levels.
Individual Level
Many benefits of undergoing T-Group training have been reported and observed
at the individual level.
With the venting out of feelings bottled since long, the person becomes more
spontaneous, tension free and is able to perceive things in more unbiased
manner. The stress level decreases and thus the physical and mental health
increases. He becomes more sensitive to himself, and is able to own up his
feelings. This causes decrease in defensive behaviour and clarity in perception.
The hopefulness increases; the latent strengths and limitations become known
which result in realistic and achievement oriented goal setting. One is able to
look into and examine his self-concept realistically and takes appropriate steps
for strengthening it. This enhances self-esteem.
The capability to explore options increases and therefore the decision-making

becomes more effective. The internal locus of control gets strengthened and the
motivation to make efforts for achieving individual and organizational goals
increases. The willingness to change and coping abilities increase.
33
Organisational Inter-personal Level
Due to increase in the insights to understand others, and enhanced self-esteem,
communication with other persons becomes supportive resulting in productive
relationships. Since the self-disclosure increases, one is able to get more feed
back which keeps on increasing the arena (open) resulting in creation of a
trusting and open relationship with others. Aggression and defensiveness
decrease which help in developing better relationships and increased influence.
People want to work together and thus the teamwork improves. The
assertiveness (concern for self) and cooperativeness (concern for others)
undergo enhancement resulting in collaborative behaviour. Over dependence
and counter dependence reduce and inter-dependence increases. It becomes
easy to praise and give positive feedback to others, reduce the hostility towards
others and receive feedback from others in a positive manner. All these
aspects facilitate personal growth and effective inter-personal relations.
Organizational Level
T-Group training increases openness, trust realisation and inter-dependence
which helps in creation of a conducive climate where everybody strives for
realizing his potential. Hostility reduces and new and better ideas become
available. The change interventions are better appreciated and if a large
number of persons have undergone this training, the capability to cope with
future challenges increases. Due to increase in the influencing ability, empathy
and assertiveness, the leadership styles become more effective.
The T-Group Training is not beneficial to Corporate Sector alone, it has been
observed to be equally effective for persons engaged in the areas of Education,
Health Services, Social Work and Industry. There are some Management
Institute where the Postgraduate students compulsorily undergo T-Group training
or Human Processes Labs or Personal Growth Lab.
It should not be misunderstood that this training is useful for Trainers/HRD

Professionals only. This is one of the most effective interventions for Self
Development / Personal Growth and is useful to all persons irrespective of their
education or level in the organizational hierarchy. The leaders in various
sectors who are instrumental in influencing and developing others will be
especially benefited. Persons who are finding it painful and difficult to cope
with the inter-personal, team, family, social or organizational set-up will
experience this training as a unique opportunity.
It is essential for those who are in the role of facilitators in various

organizational efforts such as - HRDI, Organization development, Total Quality
Management, Business Process Re-engineering, Quality Circle, Productivity
Circles etc.
A Brief Outline of Working of T-Group
There are 8-12 members (participants) in a T-Group. To start with the Trainer
(called facilitator) informs the group that he is a member and a resource to the
group and after brief introduction vanishes into silence. There may be spells of
silence, the participant start inter-acting with each other, a leadership agenda
may be created and the group keeps on struggling to work and its own
methods for proceeding further. Whatever goes on, the group generates “here
and now data for learning experiences”. Individual members try out different
roles successfully or unsuccessfully as the group struggles with procedures.
Sometimes, members become very active, involved, and aggressive and
sometimes there a long patches of silence, withdrawal and sulking. The
facilitator remains a member of the group and makes different types of
interventions depending upon the purpose of the laboratory, his own style and
34
the stages / processes within the group. The members are desired from Alternative Interventions
bringing outside data and emphasizes on here and now data. The facilitator,
through his interventions, encourages members to understand what is going on
in the group, their feelings, behaviours and impact of the behaviour on
themselves and others.
An open, supportive and caring atmosphere where all members and facilitator
are at the same level - is created which ultimately enhances experimentation,
observation, sharing of data (thoughts and feelings and actions), processing of
data with others for driving inferences, generalising the inferences (learning)
and then applying it again and again. This facilitates greater insights into their
own and others behaviour and understanding of group dynamics.
Many a times, individuals undergo tremendous emotional pressure and

turbulence and the bottled feelings find a venting out in the form of intensive
emotional outbreaks. The individual gets a unique experience, which brings in
clarity in their thoughts and feelings. They are able to perceive and respond
more clearly and objectively. The facilitator does not teach them and never
imposes his decisions.
Some Basic Assumptions
T-Group function under few assumptions :
a) Learning is the responsibility of participants;
b) The role of trainer is to facilitate the examination and understanding of the
experiences in the group;
c) Learning is largely a combination of experiences and conceptualisation and
uses the experiential learning cycle:
“experiencing - publishing - processing - generalising - applying -
experiencing ………..”;
d) People’s learning is optimised when they establish authentic relationships
with others; and
e) The development of new skills (in working with people) is maximised as
they examine the basic values, acquire concepts and theories, practice new
behaviours and obtain feedback.
T-Group Trainer
A T-Group Trainer is called a ‘facilitator’. A facilitator is a process guide and
makes a process easier or more convenient and guides the group towards a
destination. It is difficult to enumerate the roles of a facilitator. One of the
initial challenges in the role of the facilitator is his own leveling with the
participants they should consider him a member of the group and not on a
higher pedestal. He manages group by providing opportunities, alternatives,
direction, setting standards and directing the communication. He ensures that
the members understand the contents and processes actively and encourages
them to reflect, interpret and explain what they are thinking and feeling. He
helps them in processing and also occasionally in inferring and in this own way,
gives meaning to their experiencing.
Members get emotionally charged, become aggressive, sad, angry, excited and
in the state of emotional turbulence quite often, the facilitator may also have
similar experiences. In such situations, the role of facilitator in handling his
own and others’ feelings become critical. He may have to stimulate / manage
the emotions by challenging and confronting; facilitate release of strong pent -
35
Organisational up emotions and playing a catalyst for interactions. He has to design and use
a variety of interventions, which would encourage venting out of bottled
feelings, dispelling apprehensions, and facilitate a free and frank sharing.
In order to ensure that all these happen, a conducive group atmosphere will
have to be created. Thus, relationship building is another important role of
facilitator.
Developing Facilitators
Becoming a facilitator needs a lot of vigour and time. There is no academic
qualification, which makes a facilitator; becoming facilitator is a tedious and
time-consuming project. Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science is the
only Organization in India which develops accredited T-Group Trainers through
different stages of a systematic programme.
The stages for being an accredited T-group trainer (facilitator) are:

1) Basic Human Process Laboratory (One Week)
2) Advances Human Process Laboratory (One Week)
3) Professional Development Programme - Phase A (2 Weeks)
4) Professional Development Programme - Phase B (2 Weeks)
5) Internship (2 Weeks)
A lot of inter-phase work is to be completed before progressing to the next

stage right after stage No. 2. The progression to next stages is based on
evaluation and recommendation.
Concluding Remarks
T-Group training, in spite of its limitations is spreading fast. It is an
indispensable intervention for Team Building and OD, HRD professionals with
process competencies have been found to have a definite edge over others
who have not acquired such competencies; and therefore T-Group training has
become one of the most important training outputs for them. Most of the Line
Managers, who have undergone even one Laboratory (Basic Human Process
Laboratory) have acquired some basic process competency and developed
reasonable insights for understanding self and others, have become more
proactive, their relationship with others has increased and they have become
better team leaders/members.
Many of the ex-participants have reported that they are facilitating HRD / OD /
TQM / BPR initiatives more successfully after undergoing these laboratories.
Increase in the coping skills, assertiveness, leadership effectiveness,

persuasiveness, stress relieving etc., are some of the other benefits which have
been reported. There are many individuals who have come out of their agonies,
frustration and stagnation and are facing the challenges of life happily and
successfully after undergoing process training. T-Group is the basic process
training. At the organizational level - this has contributed tremendously in
managing change. There are many organizations who have achieved their turn
around, growth development and self renewal through process based
interventions.
One of the severe limitation of T-Group training is availability of competent and

Accredited Facilitators. ISABS has so far not produced more than 100
facilitators. Conducting T-Group Labs by non-accredited facilitators may
not only jeopardize the effectiveness but also cause immense harm to the
others.
36
Alternative Interventions
13.9 ROLE ANALYSIS
Role analysis is a technique used for clarifying and prioritising the expectations
of significant ‘role senders’ from a ‘role occupier/holder’. A ‘role’ is the
pattern of behaviour expected by others from a person occupying a certain
position in an organizational hierarchy. A ‘role holder’ is a person occupying a
role, and ‘role senders’ are those persons who have some significant
expectations from the role occupier. Dr. Udai Pareek and Dr. TV Rao have
clarified a few related terms. According to them, a position or ‘office’
becomes a ‘role’ when it is defined by various expectations from that position.
Some terms commonly used in this context are:
Task - basic element of a job;
Job - a module of work;
Work - productive activities; and
Position - a point in an organization structure, role tasks expected
(in a position) by self and others.
Thus, the role definition is different from job description, the latter is static
and impersonal but role definition is dynamic and personal. Personal
qualities, growth, perceptions, motivations, ambitions, values, environmental
instability are some of the factors determining a role. Success of an
individual in a role largely depends upon the clarity of objectives. Role
analysis helps in establishing this clarity. An approach for conducting role
analysis has been given in this unit. The block diagram shown in Figure 1
can be referred for knowing various stages.
Decision to carry
out Role Analysis Constitution of the
Core Task Force
Selection of Persons/
Positions for Role Analysis Constitution of
Specific Task Forces
Identification of
Role Sender Collection of Role
expectations and
preparation of Summary
Identifying
Key Performance Identification of
Areas (Role Definition) Competencies
required for the role
Identification of
Gaps in capabilities Plans and activities
for development
Figure 1: Role Analysis : Block Diagram
Decision to Carry Role Analysis

‘Role Analysis’ is a complex exercise affecting many persons and activities, and
therefore, should be initiated after ensuring the support of Top Management.
Some important aspects to be divided are:
– Coverage in terms of function and level; 37
Organisational – Time frame for conducting the studies;
– Engagement of consultant;
– Identification and training of internal resource persons;
– Commitment for
a) Budgets and resources;
b) Development/updating of systems/procedures, work instructions;
c) Changes in delegation of powers, if required; and
– The Core Task Force Coordinator.
Constitution of the Core Task Force
The role analysis exercise should always be carried out by a group of
managers, as such, it is essential to constitute a Core task force. This ‘Core
task force’ should bear the approval of the top management and consist of
members from different functions. For multi unit organizations, the Core task
force will be overall responsible for role analysis exercise through out the
organization but at each unit and division, a separate core task force will be
constituted. The members of the core task force should be given adequate
training in role analysis by some internal or external consultants if required.
Selection of Positions / Persons for Role Analysis
Role analysis exercise preferably should be conducted for top / senior level
positions in the beginning and gradually it can come down to lower levels of
management. A list of positions/managers selected for role analysis exercise
should be made indicating their names, staff numbers and place of posting.
The job descriptions of the executives / managers (positions selected as above)
will be carefully prepared. This will indicate the main work areas and
responsibilities for each of the position.
Constitution of Specific Task Forces
Depending upon the coverage, specific task forces should be constituted for
carrying out the Role analysis activities in specific levels / positions. Task
forces should be constituted with some members from the Corporate Task
Force and some from the concerned area and important interfacing area.
Identification of Role Senders
For each of the positions selected for role analysis, role senders should be
identified. Role senders are those persons who have some work related
expectations from the position or role. A list of role senders for each of the
positions selected should be prepared.
Collection of Role Expectations
A format* (No. 01) will be prepared for each of the positions/roles to be
studied. A copy of this format should be sent to all the role senders identified
for that position. The role senders may be superiors, colleagues, subordinates,
customers in his own department or other departments. The role senders will
be requested to send the filled up format by the specified date.
For each of the positions/roles, the formats duly filled up by the role senders
will be collected and the task force members will discuss the same. A
summary for each of the positions/roles will be prepared in format No.02 after
resolving the discrepancies and discussions with the role senders and their
superior. Thus, the main functions/activities required to be carried out by the
concerned role occupier will be outlined and prioritized in the format No 02.
38 * All the formats are appended at the end of the unit in Appendix 3.
Defining Key Performance Areas (Role Definition) Alternative Interventions
Activities which are bearing highest priority will be identified from the above
mentioned format and entered into format no. 03 in decreasing order of
importance. These are the key performance areas for that specific role. This
will be done by the task force members but the concerned manager will also
be involved. These key performance areas provide the role definition for that
particular role.
Identification of Competencies Required for Carrying out the Roles
Effectively
Effectiveness of a person in the role depends on so many factors and one of
the major factor is the competencies possessed by the person occupying that
role. ‘Competency’ is a word which has been used by different people with
different meaning. Here the term competency has been used to include all the
characteristics which are related to effective and or superior performance of a
person in a role and includes the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities.
Abilities include qualities, attributes, sets of values and beliefs and attitudes
which would lead to effective performance in that role.
For managerial positions, the competencies can be identified in each of the

following aspects.
Technical/Functional requirements:
Methods, Systems, Procedures, Techniques
Managerial/Administrative requirements:
– Planning, Organizing, Coordinating, Monitoring, Controlling, Supervising.
– Strategic / Conceptual requirements.
– Envisioning, environmental understanding, analysing and prioritising,
resource allocation and mobilisation, decision making, developing
strategies.
Behavioural:
Personal/inter-personal effectiveness, Leadership, Team Building, Goal
setting, Motivating, Counseling, Developing, Delegating.
Identifying the Gaps between the Capabilities Possessed and Required
After identification of the important competencies for a particular role, gap in
competencies will be identified by comparing with the competencies possessed
by the role occupier. This can be done by the self analysis by the role
occupier, use of some bench marks or instruments, assessment centres or
evaluation by the superior. If there is an appropriate HRD climate, this
exercise will be quite easy, otherwise, people will experience various types of
difficulties and differences. The HRD Department normally have experts in
Personnel assessment and their contribution would be valuable in carrying out
this activity. Gaps will be thus identified and prioritized for each roles. An
inventory of gaps for each of the roles will be prepared as shown in format no.
04.
Plans and Activities for Development
After prioritising the gaps in competencies for various roles, strategies for
enhancing those competencies would be prepared jointly by the role occupier,
his superior and the HRD professional. Various alternatives for enhancing the
competencies may be education, training, deputation to another activity,
nominations in cross functional teams, coaching etc.
39
Organisational Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, the concept of role is dynamic. As such, periodically, the
role definition should be updated. If implemented sincerely, role analysis will
become a valuable tool for identifying suitable incumbents for placement on
important jobs, career planning and succession planning. This will also prove to
be one of the most effective methods of identifying the training and
development needs and infusing achievement orientation in the role holders.
Role analysis can also trigger efforts for organizational restructuring, Job
redesign, Process re-engineering and design, outsourcing of managerial activities,
review of Personnel policies, Delegation of Powers etc. This will be most
useful for other HRD activities.
13.10 SUMMARY
At the outset of the unit, we discussed the meaning and scope of OD
intervention. Subsequently a selected set of such techniques like survey
feedback, process consultation, confrontation meetings, organisational mirroring,
team building, T-Group training and role analysis have been discussed with the
help of relevant case studies and illustrations.
1) Explain the meaning of OD Intervention.

2) Write short notes on:
a) Process consultation
b) Organisational mirroring
c) Role analysis
d) Team building
Blake R, Mouton J. The Managerial Grid, Gulf (1964).

Becknard R “The Confrontation Meeting” in Harward Business Review 45
(1967).
Blake R, Mouton J. Consultation, Reading Mass, Addison Wesley (1976)
Schein E. Process Consultation: Its role in Organization Development,
Addision Wesley (1969).
French, Wendell L. Jr, Cecil H Bell, Organization Development, Prentice
Hall of Indian Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi (1983)
Beckhard, R. Organization Development: Strategies and Models,
Addison Wesley (1969).
Alexander Mark. “Organizational Norms Opionnaire”, The 1978 Annual
Handbook for Group Facilitator (Ed. Pfeiffer, J.W John, E. Jones),
Schmuck, R.A, Miles M.B. OD in Schools, Pfeiffer & Co. San Diego
(1971).
Frohman, Mark. A. et al. Action-research as applied to Organization
Development in Organization Development and research (Ed. Wendel, L.
French etal, Business Publications Inc Dallas (1978).
Pareek, Udai Rao, T. Venkateshwara. Designing and Managing Human
Resource Systems, Oxford IBH Publishing Co. New Delhi (1981).
40
Appendix 1 Alternative Interventions
AN EXAMPLE OF PROCESS CONSULTANCY

After joining the Corporate Office, one of the Directors was not feeling
comfortable. The Director had been a dynamic Unit head in one of the large
manufacturing units of the company and in the Corporate Office, he was
responsible for another function (Personnel). There were a good number of
personnel executives at different levels who had been in the office since long
and had developed their own way of working and inter-acting which was
largely bureaucratic in nature. In a few formal meetings and inter-actions, the
new Director asked the executives about their problems but no response.
After spending a few months, in one of the Departmental meetings, he
expressed his uneasiness and also told that he wanted the department to work
differently. During this period, different executives had different types of
experience with him but largely he was seen as a strong and autocratic type
management personnel. Some persons have been treated very harshly on
occasions and there was a fear in everybody’s mind and therefore, they were
not interacting with him openly. During the meeting, one of the executives told
that there were problems but nobody was sharing because of fear. On this,
the Director proposed to invite an external Process Consultant for identifying
the problems and doing the needful for their solutions.
The Consultant was briefed of the situation and he preferred to interview

executives at all levels over a time period. After the interview, he arranged a
Workshop in which he gave some inputs like FIRO-B, Johari Window and also
introduced the ‘Win as much as you can’ exercise for looking into the
collaborative behaviour. With the help of these inputs over the two days, the
executives started looking into themselves, trying to understand other persons in
a better way and also the value of interactions. After some gap, another
Workshop was organised in which the executives except the Head of Personnel
and Director (Personnel), everybody participated. Some behavioural science
based inputs were given here also followed by task of writing perceptions of
different levels of executives. For example, executives were divided into
different groups and each group were given the task of writing :
a) How do they perceive themselves?
b) How do they perceive their superiors ?
c) How their superiors perceive themselves ? and
d) How do the superiors perceive other officers ?
The Consultant collected the perceptions of the Director and the Head about
their executives and also about themselves. In the next part of the Workshop,
all were invited and with the permission of all present, the Consultant shared
the responses of the previous exercise. This perception sharing identified the
commonality in perceptions and also the sharp differences. The differences
were discussed and gradually all including the superiors started expressing their
thoughts and feelings openly. Much of the venom, which had been collected
over time was out and after some time calmness prevailed. A number of
interventions for the future were designed jointly and one of the most effective
interventions was to have a morning meeting from 9.15 to 9.30 everyday where
all executives will be present and would share anything, which they consider
significant. This meeting ultimately proved to be the means of major break
through in the sense that there was tremendous increase in openness, trust and
concern for each other amongst the executives.
The role of the Consultant was that of a Process Consultant as he made his
process observations right since the stage of interview and based on his 41
Organisational observations, he chalked out future interventions and initially the interventions
were focused on enhancing the competence of the executives to understand
their own and others behaviours, experiencing the need of an open and trusting
relationship, sharing mutual concern, empathy and moving towards collaboration.
Based on the understanding of the human process, the facilitator created an
environment which was desired by everybody and the clients evolved the
necessary interventions leading to improvement / solution of problems.
Concluding Remarks
A survey is useful only if it is prepared in an unbiased manner, the concerned
persons receive the findings in a non-defensive manner and ‘action’ follows
the diagnosis. In order to keep it perfectly unbiased a standard fully validated
questionnaire has been used and identity of the respondents has not been
disclosed.
It is a natural tendency in human beings to first ‘deny’ the medical diagnosis

report and then get into a state of shock. The same is true in case of the
organizational diagnosis reports also. Hence a conducive climate will have to be
made before presentation. This should be seen in totality and any attempt to
present a ‘segmental view’ may be disastrous. The Process Consultation
interventions are highly helpful in achieving this. Since everything comes from
the clients, their confidence increases gradually and they start owning up the
diagnosis. Since they are actively involved in designing the interventions,
implementation becomes easier and their problem solving abilities also increase.
It is expected that it will be received by the top management in the right
perspective with the ultimate aim of bringing in improvement in all facets of
organizational working.
42
TEAM BUILDING PROGRAMME – A CASE STUDY

Background
During the course of the ongoing organizational development efforts in the two
wheeler company under reference, it was diagnosed that poor team work was
one of the major problems in two main areas of the Factory. Although the
problem appeared to be more intense in the other area but considering the
willingness of the Head of the department (HOD), to participate, it was decided
to hold the programme for this area first. It was expected that by the success
of this programme, the HOD of the other area will be motivated to hold the
programme for this area.
A preliminary diagnosis based on the “Building blocks questionnaire” (Team

Development Manual by Mike Wood Cock) was conducted and the following
were identified as the comparatively weaker dimensions —
Regular reviews
Cooperation and conflict
Appropriate Leaderships
Openness and Confrontation
Support and Trust
‘Sound intergroup relations’ also was perceived as a weak dimensions but
less in comparison to the above mentioned five dimensions.
Another diagnostic exercise had revealed the following aspects needing

improvement.
Inadequate team organization
Unconstructive climate
Inappropriate leadership
A few other dimensions needing attention for improvement were identified as :

Soft critiquing
Lack of creative capacity
Low achievement orientation
Insufficient group commitment
Negative intergroup relations
Discussions had also been held with the heads of departments and the Chief
Production Executive (CPE) of the factory who had some conflicting
perceptions and unanimity on the opinions appeared to be difficult.
Keeping in view the dwindling sales position, the company had drastically cut
down the production; the cash position was not satisfactory, still the CPE
decided to hold the Team Building workshop for one of the main areas.
However, keeping in view the financial and operational constraints the duration
was limited to three days and one evening. The most encouraging aspect was
that all executives in that area were requested to attend this workshop. The
CPE himself was very much keen to attend but opted out because of the fear
that his presence would inhibit others from an open participation.
Designing the Programme
Based on the diagnosis and discussions, the following broad objectives were
identified : 43
Organisational Broad Objectives
Identification / appreciation of the factors inhibiting the performance of
executives.
Providing an opportunity to experience the joys, frustrations, inhibitions of
working in group.
Sharing their concerns and feeling about each other and top management openly.
Realising the impact of their behaviour on others.
Bringing out an action plan for improving their performance as individuals
and group.
Bringing in synergy in the group.
The executives had earlier been exposed to interventions in the area of

Interpersonal Relationships (FIRO - B) and a few had undergone Personal
growth Lab based on T-group methodology etc. hence these inputs were not
included in this programme.
Duration of the programme
The duration of the programme was 3 days full time on residential basis. The
participants had been asked to report on the previous day evening (7.00 PM)
so that approximately 2 to 3 hrs might be utilised on the opening day also.
Broad structure of the programme
The broad structure of the programme as planned before the commencement
of the programme was as given below. Some changes occurred subsequently.
Micro Lab (One Hour)
The objectives were :
To have an informal introduction, defreezing and giving a glimpse of what is
likely to happen during the programme and
To get an indication of the energy level and inertia of the participants.
The methodology was planned to be — interactive consisting of short

instructions for sharing various personal and organisational perceptions, feelings,
closeness to each other— sandwitched between interesting spells of activities.
Group Status Awareness (One and a half hour)
The objective was to set the norm for group working that the whole
programme would be centered on data generation, collection, analysis, open
sharing and inference making and future planning will be done on that basis.
It was also aimed at facilitating the awareness of the participants about the
purpose of the programme and looking into the willingness and optimism about
such interventions.
The methodology included, data collection through a simple questionnaire, joint

analysis and discussion. This session was planned to be initiated with a brief
introduction to the background of organising this programme.
A questionnaire (instrument), ‘TORI’ — developed by Gibbs was also planned

to be filled up by each participant for capturing current and unbiased data to be
analysed and discussed in one of the forthcoming sessions.
Agenda Building (3 Hours)

This module was proposed with the aim of involving the participants in
44 identification of major issues to be dealt in the programme and also to become
aware of their perception of the factors inhibiting and facilitating their Alternative Interventions
performance.
It was planned to prepare a force field diagram by groups of participants

showing the inhibiting and facilitating factors. It was also planned to process
interpret and exhibit the outcome of the ‘TORI’ instrument to give them the
individual and group status of TRUST and its associated attributes like Trust,
Openness, Realisation and inter-dependence.
Group Working Experience (3 Hours)
This session was designed to provide an opportunity to the participants to have
an awareness of the content and process aspects, task and maintenance
factors, the individual’s impact on others and vice-versa, leadership roles and
resource utilization, problem solving etc.
A structured experience called “STRAW & PINS” modified to make it

appropriate for the theme was proposed as means to have these experiences
and emerging observations.
Decision Making Process in Group (2 Hours)
For giving further experience in group working, especially in the context of
decision-making where achieving ‘synergy’ is very important, an exercise called
‘LOST AT SEA’ similar to the famous ‘NASA’ or Desert Survival’ exercise
was planned. This exercise was expected to enable them to get a quantified
type of feedback regarding their performance in such situations.
Conflict Management (4 Hours)
This session was planned considering the need of increasing awareness about
different types of conflicts, strategies for conflict resolution, to get a feedback
on their predominant style of conflict handling etc. The focus was kept on
interpersonal conflict, intergroup conflict and conflict management style. This
session was also expected to enhance their collaboration and cooperation
besides helping them to adopt the appropriate styles in conflict resolution and
problem solving.
The methodology to be used was experience through fantasy, instrumentation

and lecture.
Trust Building (1.5 Hour)
In order to give them an experience of how trust builds up, a structured
experience was planned.
Interpersonal Relationships (3-4 Hours)
Keeping in view the fact that participants had been earlier exposed to
interventions like FIRO-B earlier, the session was kept as an optional one, to be
taken up only if found to be necessary. The following interventions were kept
in mind.
FIRO - B
Johari Window / Giving and Receiving Feedback
Interpersonal effectiveness profile
Survey Feedback (1.5 Hour)
Since all the participants had responded to the diagnostic questionnaire as
mentioned in the paragraph No. 2.0, it was planned that a brief presentation
would be made on the findings of the study.
45
Organisational Image / Perception Sharing (2 Hours)
The perception of one class of employees about the others play the crucial role
in interpersonal relationship and team work. This session was included for
providing an opportunity to different groups of participants to crystalize and
share their perceptions about each other. It was also envisaged to practice
giving and receiving feedback, and also to get an idea of the learning through
the previous sessions.
Action Planning (Three Hours)
In order to develop an individual and collective action plan for bringing in real
improvement not only in terms of “Team Work” but related matters, this
session was planned. It was also thought that it would provide a very good
opportunity to motivate them to apply the learning to their work.
The preparation and implementation of Action Plan would be accompanied by a

guide document especially prepared for this programme.
Feedback / Closure
This session was planned for taking the feedback of participants on various
aspects of the programme and closing in appropriate manner.
Alternative inputs were also planned to be given depending upon the emerging
needs and direction of movement.
The Programme Deleiberations
The programme deliberations were documented thouroughly and available in
the book “Planning and Auditing Human Resources”. Here deliberations on the
“Action planning” “interaction with top management” and ‘Closing’ sessions
are being briefly outlined to give a better appreciation.
Action Planning
The participants were divided into the same two groups as in the Image
sharing exercise. Each participant was asked to prepare an action plan for (i)
becoming more effective individually and (ii) making the work group more
effective.
a) Individual Action Plan for Being More Effective
The participants prepared their individual action plans in the background of the
experiences in the previous sessions, especially the session on ‘open house’ and
‘image sharing’.
The format was as below:
Sl. Activity What specific support Name of the

No. (to be initiated/ is needed from others person / post
to be continued/ to expedite the from which
to be stopped) activity support is needed
46
b) Action Plan for Making the Group More Effective Alternative Interventions
The participants initially worked in the same group. They were asked to first
respond individually in the format similar to the individual Action Plan and then
try to arrive at a consensus action plan. Then 2-3 representatives of both
groups sat together and brought out a common Action Plan. Although
discussions were held at length but the Action Plan gave only an outline. It
was clarified that the group will further refine their action plan to make it in
more detail, explicit and workable. The senior most manager (Mr. Prabhakar)
volunteered to coordinate this activity.
c) Individual Growth Goals and Support
Keeping in view the time constraint, this action plan could not be made and
discussed. However, the exercise to identify the most important Training and
Development needs by the individual participants was carried out and they were
advised to discuss with their superiors. The superiors were requested to objectively
assess the subordinate‘s needs and do the needful to satisfy these needs. They
were advised to do it thoroughly at the time of detailing out the Action Plan.
d) Other Actions
The participants were given another document called “for reference in course
of preparation of action plans.” Salient features of the outline are enclosed.
On the whole, the Action Planning session was quite useful, as it provided them
an opportunity to quickly scan through the 3 days experiences, introspect within
themselves and also take each others’ help. The process was quite satisfying
which gave a clear indication of the movement of the group on the dimensions
of cohesiveness, giving and receiving feedback, tolerance to ambiguity,
recognising others resources, arriving at consensus, resolving conflicts and
sensitivity to each other. All these reflected a significant improvement in their
problem solving approach.
Interaction with Top Management
It had been planned that the CPE will be invited at the end of the programme
at about 3.30 P.M. to meet the participants and get the feedback.
The interaction was started with a brief welcome. The CPE wanted to have a
brief account of the deliberations. One of the participants nicely explained in a
chronological order, the content as well as the process aspect, which was
supplemented by the facilitator and a few other participants. The CPE was
some times asking brief questions, otherwise he was making the notes. This
presentation brought to the notice of the CPE many sensitive and controversial
issues like—
i) Not inviting Ashok, a one senior executive (who had submitted his resignation).
ii) By passing the seniors and talking to juniors directly.
iii) Tolerating one of the heads (Mr. Prabhakar) carrying out manual
production work instead of supervising the managers.
iv) At times being harsh on managers
v) Too much monitoring
vi) Meetings - a ritual.
The CPE first commended the participants for the hard and sincere work put in
by them and also the facilitators. Then he started responding to each of the
issues. Initially, he was quite humble and polite. Gradually, he became
assertive and for quite some time, when he was deeply in touch with his
feelings, especially while describing his own and the superiors expectations and
the tough situation the company was facing. He had become ‘aggressive’ also 47
Organisational for some time which made the facilitator quite worried for some time, as it
was likely to result in an inappropriate ‘reinforcing’ at the end of the
programme. But gradually the pent up feelings were vented out and his
communication became normal, friendly but assertive.
The open and frank acceptance, owning up of a few lapses on his part and the
authentic explanations of the CPE brought a number of significant issues to light
and induced a spirit of authenticity in the participants. The common perception
of managers about the Head (Mr. Prabhakar) about the issue of his spending
time on manual work; proved to be wrong. The CPE told that he was recruited
by him, but has consistently failed to satisfy his expectations, has remained
ineffective inspite of periodic feedback, therefore, there were only two options:
i) to sack him or
ii) to put him on a job where he could contribute — and hence asked to
function in that area where production is a bottleneck. Thus, Mr.
Prabhakar was working in the shopfloor like a skilled worker in order to
preserve his job and utilize his specific skills.
This statement, probably in such clear words was not desired, because it would
have been definitely embarrassing and having a demoralising effect on the
concerned person. (The CPE after a few days was given a feedback on this
by the consultant). The consultant and facilitator met Mr. Prabhakar alone after
the programme and made an effort to make him comfortable.
Many of the deeply seated beliefs or value issues surfaced when he (the
CPE) was speaking of the discipline and commitment issues. These were also
received by the participants in the right perspective. This could happen
because of the fact that the CPE was open, frank, data based, had a high
degree of commitment and was showing an exemplary patience in listening.
This resulted in a truthful acceptance, owning up and realisation on the part of
the participants, and many openly come out to confess their lapses and casual
approach. The CPE assured his full cooperation in further developing and
implementing the Action Plan.
End of the Programme
The programme ended with a closing intervention symbolising experiencing of
synergy. All participants, facilitators and administrative support personnel
alongwith the CPE assembled in the centre of the Hall, formed a circular chain
joining hands with each other, moved in the circle for a few rounds and
stopped holding the hands of each other. Facilitator made a few statements —
regarding feeling of closeness, flow of energy from one person to another, and
told the group members to experience this feeling. After a few minutes, he
coined a resolution — let our energy, feelings, competencies, learnings — to be
channelised to develop an ideal work team in organization and contribute
towards progress and prosperity of the organization and the country. Then all
dispersed. The joy of achievement and pain of separation could be
experienced by all while telling ‘good bye’ to each other.
Conclusion
This programme, satisfied the objectives to a very great extent. The approach
of experiential learning proved to be quite effective, and it was a thrilling
experience to use a number of structured experiences and instruments. The
theoretical input by way of lecturing was minimal. The participation and
involvement gradually rose to the optimum level. Although no specific
interventions were planned on interpersonal relationship and self awareness,
these aspects were indirectly touched upon. The group had earlier been
exposed to ‘FIRO-B’ ‘Johari Window’ concepts, perhaps, this helped in using
48 the resources on other factors contributing to Team Work.
FORMATS FOR ROLE ANALYSIS
Format No. 01
ROLE EXPECTATION FORM
1. Name of the Executive :

(Role Occupant or the person
being studied)
2. Designation :
3. Deptt./Function :
4. Present responsibility/ :
brief job description
5. Name of the Role Sender :
6. Expectations of Role Sender :

(to be filled-up in the table given
below)
S.No. Functions/Activities Relative % time Remarks

suggested for the role importance (to be spent)
(i.e. expectations of the ranking
role sender) (start from
1 the highest
rank)
Item No. 1 to 3 to be filled up by the HRD Head’s representative
Item No. 4 to be filled up by the concerned executive (role occupant)
Item No. 5 should be filled up by the concerned executive after consulting

his superior/tasks force members or coordinator.
Item No. 6 to be filled up by the role sender. 49

Organisational Format No. 02
ROLE EXPECTATIONS FORM SUMMARY

(Role Occupant)
2. Designation :
3. Deptt./function :
4. Present responsibility/ :
5. Summary of Expectations :
(to be filled-up in the table
given below)
S.No. Functions/Activities Ranking (start Degree of Modified

for the role... from 1 the agreement/ rating
Highest rank) Disagreement
Item No. 1 to 4 will be filled up by the concerned executive.

50
Format No. 03 Alternative Interventions
KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS

(ROLE DEFINITION)

(or role occupant)
2. Designation :
3. Deptt./Function :
4. Present responsibility :
5. Main activities in order of :

importance :
(to be filled up in the table
given below)
S.No. Functions/Activities for the Role (KPAs) in decreasing Remarks,

order of importance if any
51
LIST OF COMPETENCIES REQUIRED

(or role occupant)
2. Designation :
3. Present responsibility / :
4. Main activities :
(to be filled up in the following table)
Sl.No. Key Performance Areas Competencies for the KPAs

in order (in order of importance)
Knowledge / Skill / Abilities
1.
2.
3.
4.
Overall priority for next 2-3 years:
Priority No. 1 __________________

2 __________________
3 __________________
4 __________________
52 5 __________________
Format No. 05 Alternative Interventions
COMPETENCY INVENTORY FOR

VARIOUS ROLES (SUMMARY)
Unit ____________________________________
Deptt. ____________________________________
Section/Group ____________________________________
S.No. Title of the role & Competencies required for various roles
Name of role occupant
Knowledge Skill Abilities
53
LIST OF COMPETENCIES TO BE
DEVELOPED FOR EACH EXECUTIVE
Unit ____________________________________
Deptt./Function ____________________________________
Section/Group ____________________________________
Role No/ Name of Executive Competencies identified for Development

Description (Role Occupant)
(Title of During Within Within
Role) 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02
54
UNIT 14 PROCESS OF CHANGE
Objectives
After studying this Unit you should be able to understand:
what is change ?
types of change
alternative strategies of change
process of change, a few models of change
resistance to change
commonly used interventions of Managing Change.
Structure
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Drivers of Change in Business
14.3 Alternative Strategies of Change – at a Glance
14.4 Process of Change
14.5 Change Models
14.6 Phases of Planned Change
14.7 Resistance to Change
14.8 Overcoming Resistance to Change
14.9 Some Principles of Change
14.10 Reducing Resistance to Change: Few Suggestions
14.11 Commonly used Interventions for Managing Change
14.12 Summary
14.1 INTRODUCTION
The dictionary meaning of change as a noun is — ‘making or becoming
different, difference from previous state, substitution of one for another,
variation’ etc. Change is also a verb meaning — ‘to undergo, show or subject
to change, to make or become different’. We are experiencing changes in all
spheres of our lives — food, drinks, clothing, relationships, ambitions, living
standard, work, tools, techniques. The changes are occurring so fast that people
say ‘in this rapidly changing world change is the only constant’.
There are numerous visible and invisible forces , which are constantly affecting
changes in organizations, a few of them may be enumerated as follows:
Technology — Tools, techniques, instruments, methods, procedures.
Work force — Knowledge, skills, ambitions, expectations, needs.
Economy — Liberalisation, globalisation, privatisation, breaking the

barriers resource imbalance.
Competition — Mergers, acquisitions, entry of new organizations, new

products, lowering prices, better services.
55
Organisational Social trends — Nuclear families, working couples, late marriages, one
child norm.
Political — Warning ideologies, new equations, transitory

relationships, coalition Govts etc., single superpower.
Financial — New types of Finances and Financial Institutions
All changes are not similar in nature. Some changes keep on happening on
their own and some are planned. There are three types of changes.
Evolution
Revolution
Planned change
When people are not willing or / and not prepared for facing the change,
change comes gradually as a natural process, in small adjustments or shifts in
response to emerging problems — this type of change has been called
Evolution.
When people reach a state of readiness to resolve conflicts by applying force

on others to comply through coercion or suppression, revolution takes place.
When efforts are made to make others experience the need of change and
determine the ideal or desired situation and striving to achieve the ideal or
desired state through planned actions — planned change takes place.
Social and Behavioural scientists have made diverse approaches to understand

explain change process.
Marilyn Ferguson has described four types of change in his “Aquarian conspiracy”
Exceptional Change
A particular change is accepted as an exception; there is no change in ongoing
aspects. The existing beliefs are not changed but specific change is introduced
separately, as an exception. In THE R&D division of a large organization flexi
time was introduced as an exception — all other divisions were continuing the
ongoing system.
Incremental Change
A gradual change, those who are affected do not experience it initially.
Computerisation in offices has been introduced as an incremental change in
most of the organizations.
Pendulum Change
Change from one extreme point of view to the opposite — pendulum change.
In a Company elaborate procedures of open tender was in practice for
engaging Consultants; suddenly they decided to go for single tender on
negotiation basis.
Paradigm change
The new information about an event, object, behaviour, image is integrated and
the ‘picture shifts’ or enlarges, emergence of a new belief — such a change is
called paradigm change. A ‘paradigm’, in simple words may be understood as
a cognitive model of how things are or a standard for how things should be.
For example, the consideration for the success of a PSU today in comparison
to those in the seventies.
56
Change also has been explained as a continuum — the two extremes being Process of Change
No Desired Constant
Change (Productive Change) Change
No Change Position
The ‘no change’ position indicates the ‘0’ condition of ‘inertia’ — sticking to
traditional view, valuing the past conservative thinking that ‘new’ is definitely
bad. Any change or deviation from the past is perceived as a threat — a
threat to beliefs, habits, preferences, norms and prevailing order. An example is
— evolving a performance management system, constantly sticking to the
previous method — where boss does it alone.
The major benefit from this position is ‘stability’, less efforts, comfort, less risk
but it also brings no growth, boredom, dissatisfaction, conformity and stagnation.
Constant Change
The extreme ‘right’ indicates the state of ‘constant change’ and presents a
dynamic approach having a constant focus on future. It considers the ‘new’ as
always good. Any change is seen as positive and resistance is seen as bad —
not moving with times and an opposition to the norms and values and progress.
A restlessness for knowing what is new and adapting the same without our
objective assessment of the strong and positive aspects of what is the past or
the present, not even the existing capabilities. In order to convince or
implement the changes not much regard to the affected people is given, and
effort to convince has much jargon and force and excitement. Some times, the
focus on what is important and crucial is lost. This state provides energy,
excitement and a Zeal to go ahead of the traditions.
Productive (pragmatic) Change
Between the two extremes is another approach ‘the Pragmatic approach’ of
change — which is focused on the existing state (what is happening) and
change seen as inevitable. The emphasis is on explaining the need for change
and making a conscious choice without having a fascination or inertia for the
past nor a compulsion for a rapid change.
14.2 DRIVERS OF CHANGE IN BUSINESS

There are many visible and invisible factors, which may compel a business
organization, how to effect changes of various types. A few general change
drivers are — increased competition, Price cuts, Technology, Laws, Customer /
user demand.
Change Targets
There could be a Variety of possible targets of change in an organization.
A few are :
Vision, mission task, and goal
Structure
Strategy
Systems, procedures, technology
Organizational Values
Management styles
Culture
Human resource : knowledge, skills, attitudes, values 57
Organisational Table 1 : Factors Effecting Change
DRIVERS CHANGES
Manufacturing : Reduced cost as a result Cost control efforts;

Company of competition. Man-power cuts,
contract, employee,
automation.
High manpower cost Buy (Import) rather

manufacturing,
outsourcing, manpower
reduction
Cheaper imported products Setting up manufacturing/

unit in other countries.
Obsolete product due to Change products,

technology change materials, technology,
main equipments
Pollution Control Laws Technology import /

product substitution.
Putting units in areas
having lenient laws.
Retailing : Change in choice of Customer (market)

Company consumers (semi-cooked research lined
food, electrical/electron retailing.
kits in place of fuel based
equipments) Advertisement
Time constraint, ease Departmental stores in

in shopping. place of small scattered
stores.
Health awareness -- Low Healthy products,

cholestrol oils vs. traditional substitutes
oils.
Time constraint Home delivery, internet /

tele shopping, automation.
14.3 ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES OF CHANGE :

AT A GLANCE
Change has been a matter of great interest to the Sociologists and Behavioural
Scientists. A number of theories and models have been postulated. Olmosk
has presented a comprehensive view of a number of Change strategies and
called them ‘Seven pure strategies of change’. Each of these strategies have
been briefly summarised and explained.
The Fellowship Strategy
The assumption underlying this strategy seems to be, “If we have good, warm
inter-personal relations, all other problems will be minor.” Emphasis is placed on
getting to know one another and on developing friendships. Groups that use this
model often sponsor discussions, dinners, card parties, and other social events
that bring people together.
58
The fellowship strategy places strong emphasis on treating everyone equally; Process of Change
this often is interpreted as treating everyone the same way. All people must
be accepted; no one is turned away. When the group is making decisions, all
members are allowed to speak, and all opinions are weighed equally. No fact,
feeling, opinion, or theory is considered inherently superior to any other.
Arguments are few, because conflict generally is suppressed and avoided.
The Political Strategy
Political Strategists tend to believe that “If all the really influential people agree
that something should be done, it will be done.” They emphasise a power
structure that usually includes not only formally recognised leaders but informal,
unofficial leaders as well. Much of the work done under the political strategy is
the result of the leaders’ informal relationships.
The political strategy emphasises the identification and influence of people who
seem most able to make and implement decisions. It usually focuses on those
who are respected and have the largest constituency in a given area. One’s
level of influence is based on one‘s perceived power and ability to work with
other influential people to reach goals that are valued by one‘s constituency.
The Economic Strategy
Economic strategists believe that “Money can buy anything or any change we
want.” They emphasise the acquisition of or — at the very least, influence
over — all forms of material goods, such as money, land, stocks, bonds, and
any other tradable commodity. This strategy is widely used in the United States
and the Western world and is used most often by large corporations and by the
very rich.
Inclusion in a group that espouses this approach usually is based on possession

or control of marketable resources. Influence within the group is based on
perceived wealth. Most decisions are heavily, if not completely, influenced by
questions of profitability as measured by an increase in tangible assets. This
approach is highly rational, based on the assumption that all people act more or
less rationally from economic motives. As a result, such groups often have
high needs for control and for rationality.
The Academic Strategy
The academic strategy assumes that “People are rational. If one presents
enough facts to people, they will change.” To this end, academic strategists
undertake an unending series of studies and produce thousands of pages of
reports each year.
Inclusion in a group that plans to use the academic strategy to solve problems
or to make changes is based primarily on one’s expertise in a given area or on
one’s desire to acquire such knowledge. Leadership and influence within the
group generally depends on the degree to which the person is perceived as an
expert. Newcomers to the field are considered to have little to contribute, while
those with advanced degrees or many years of specialized study receive a
great deal of attention.
The Engineering Strategy
Users of this strategy try to bring about behavioural change without dealing
directly with the people involved. The underlying assumption is, “If the
environment or the surroundings change enough, people will be forced to
change.” Therefore, engineering strategists may spend a great deal of time
studying physical layouts, patterns of interaction, and role descriptions in work
places and classrooms without ever speaking to the employees or students.
Groups that approach change in this way often recruit members based on their 59
Organisational technical skills. Group needs often are defined in terms of technical skills,
which are considered more important than interpersonal styles.
The Military Strategy
The military-style approach to change is based on the use of physical force.
The name military has been given to this approach because it conveys the
appropriate connotation to most people, not because the military is the sole user
of this approach. Police Departments, “revolutionary” student groups, and some
teachers, for example, employ the military strategy.
The basic assumption behind this approach is, “People react to genuine threats.
With enough physical force, people can be made to do anything.” Therefore,
considerable time is spent in learning to use weapons and to fight. Physical
conditioning, strength, and agility are valued.
Membership in military-strategy groups often is determined by one‘s physical

power and by one‘s willingness to submit to discipline. Both within the group
and in its dealings with the external environment, influence is exerted primarily
through the fear of authority and through the threat of punishment. Members
of military-style groups need control, status, and security. They often tend to
view most problems and relationships in terms of power, authority, threat and
exploitation.
The Confrontational Strategy
The confrontational approach to change is based on the assumption that if one
can mobilise enough anger in enough people and force them to look at a
problem, the required changes will follow. Although conflict is stressed, this
strategy emphasises nonviolent conflict rather than physical force.
Membership in such a group is based on one’s ability to deal with and to use
conflict in ways that benefit the group.
The Applied Behavioural Science Model
Most problems are extremely complex; a cut-and-dried approach to problem
solving is not always the most effective or thorough. This is the basic
assumption of the applied behavioural science (ABS) model.
Groups that use the ABS model tend to believe that as many people who will
be affected by the decision as possible should be included in the decision-
making process. Within the group, one’s level of influence is based on one’s
own knowledge and the degree to which one will be affected by the decision.
Ideally, the person with the most knowledge about the problem and/or the
person most affected by the decision should have the most influence.
The ABS model considers any information or theory that will shed light on the
situation and help the group to reach a decision to be valuable. Group
members’ emotional needs are regarded as existing primarily for emotional and
intellectual integration.
14.4 PROCESS OF CHANGE

Change is process of moving from the current state to the desired state (vision)
of future. Making a change involves, moving the organizations people and
culture in line with the strategies, structure, processes and systems to achieve
desired state (vision).
60
Process of Change
Existing Change (Transition) Vision
Situation Desired
Situation
The existing situation is the status, which is prevailing at the moment, what the
organizations looks like now. The desired situation is the status which one
desires to prevail; it is also called vision. A vision helps in clarifying—
What do we want to become?

How much needs to change?
What the Organization should look like when the change is completed?
The transition state may be defined by ascertaining the activities and processes
necessary to transform the organizations from its current state to the desired
state — a road map — for specifying the activities, crucial interventions and
events during the transition period. For making an organization move from the
existing state to desired state some ‘force’ is to be applied.
Some forces applied by the individual(s) undergoing the change oppose the
force applied for moving to the desired state — this is called resistance. This
also supports Newton’s third law of motion- “Every action / force creates an
opposition (resistance)”.
Successful change—the three stage model
According to Lewin’s three step model, successful change in organizations
should follow three steps :
Unfreezing Intervening Refreezing

(moving)
i) Unfreezing
Newton’s first law of motion states “Every object remains in state of rest or
uniform motion in a straight line unless and until an external force is applied to
it.” In the organizations also similar situations exist. When a product, service
or profit is at a deteriorating stage but with the rapid changes there maintaining
a ‘steady state’ is not possible as the situations are bringing many types of
forces, usually inhibiting forces which block the pace. For example, for a
stagnant product, every product will remain stagnant and non-competitive
leading to decay vertically down unless and until an external, innovative and
relevant technology is proposed to cause its growth vertically upwards.
Thus for making any change some thing has to be done in a planned way to
disturb the status quo: this is called de freezing (unfreezing). This stage aims
at disturbing the existing equilibrium and creates motivation to change using
mechanisms like — (a) lack of confirmation or disconfirmation (b) sharing one’s
concerns and perceptions openly, looking in to feelings, removal of barriers of
communications, induction of guilt and anxiety and creations of threats by
reduction of psychological safety, presentation of alternative scenarios etc.
In case of any change, the effort is going to face individual resistance and
group conformity. These change efforts for overcoming the pressures of both
individual resistance and group conformity.
61
Organisational Two types of forces emerge and at the status quo, both are in balance
a) Forces prompting the change — forces that direct the behaviour away
from the status quo — “Driving forces”
b) Forces hindering the movement away from the status quo — Restraining
forces.
Restraining forces
Driving forces
FORCE FIELD
Figure 1 : Forus and Change
For affecting the change :

The Driving forces should be identified, assessed and intensified / added.
The Restraining forces should be identified, assessed and weakened /
removed.
Both strategies are followed simultaneously.
The technique described is called ‘Force field analysis’. The method includes
the following steps:
1) Identify the problem, which you want to work and describe it.
2) Define the problem clearly indicating the present situation.
3) Define the situation desired after the problem is solved.
4) Identify the forces working for the change i.e. driving force by way of
individual listing, brainstorming or any other means.
5) Identify and list forces likely to work against the desired change
(restraining forces). These forces can be related to human resource,
time, money, technology, customer requirements or any other internal,
external factors.
6) From the list of driving forces and restraining forces, prioritise the forces
and identify 3-4 most significant forces under each of the both categories.
7) Make a force field diagram showing both types of forces after
prioritization. The arrows should be proportional to their priority / strength.
8) Discuss and list possible action steps for reducing or eliminating the
effect of the restraining forces and add or increase the effect of the
driving forces.
9) Determine the most effective steps under both the categories of forces
and outside which once to implement.
10) Examine the resources available for carrying out each action steps.
11) Develop a comprehensive action plan, sequence of activities and assign
responsibilities for implementation.
62
12) Implement the plan. Process of Change
13) Evaluate.
ii) Moving / Intervening
The steps to be taken for making the desired change should be planned
considering all aspects — Tasks, Technology, Structure and Human Resource.
Since any organization is composed of these four inter-related and inter-
dependent components, the impact of the changes should be anticipated and
examined. Since the organizational environment is a resultant of three or four
components — and any organization exist in environment analysis of internal
and external environment is essential.
This step aims at developing new responses by providing new information.

Cognitive redefinition is a mechanism, which is achieved by identification
(information) through a single source and scanning (information through multiple
sources).
Refreezing
The change interventions start making the desired status in due course. These
are to be stabilised. Refreezing stabilises a change intervention by balancing the
forces which have created the desired (driving forces) and those, which are
inhibiting the changes to occur (restraining forces).
Here also, Newton’s Second Law is quite helpful in understanding — “The rate
of change of momentum is proportional to force applied and change takes place
in the direction in which the force acts”. Hence, for rapid and deep change,
forces applied should be strong, direction should be clear and force applied in
the right direction.
This stage helps stabilising and integrating the changes. This is gained by
integrating new responses into persons and into significant ongoing relationships
through reconfirmation.
14.5 CHANGE MODELS

1) C.D.S. Model
This is a very simple 3 stage model developed using the work of Bechhard and
Horns (1987). The three stages are:
i) Assessment of current state (scenario)
ii) Developing the desired State (scenario)
iii) Formulating the strategy / plan to move the organization (or system) from
current state to the desired state.
Assessment of Current State
At this stage, efforts are made to explore, analyse and identify the problems
and unused opportunities, understanding the causes visualizing the effects. For
this, a climate is to be created where people share their views, opinions
experiences openly and the management is willing to admit the gaps, slippages,
wastages and other problems.
Normally, a long list is generated and it is essential to prioritize and identify

‘points of leverages’ — problems, which have high priority.
63
Organisational Developing the Desired State (Preferred Scenario)
At this stage, efforts are made to determine how the organization or
organizational unit, project or the programme would look like after making the
changes. For preparing the scenario, alternative possibilities or preferred
scenario are developed by using techniques like brainstorming, fantasy or a
variety of structured exercises. Efforts are made to stimulate both right brain
type thinking and left-brain type of thinking so that both conventional and non-
conventional ideas are captured.
A few indicators or criteria are also developed to indicate the achievement of

desired state. These criteria would help in future to determine to what extent
the desired scenario has been arrived at.
Evaluate each of the scenarios by using different evaluation methods and select the
most visible one. At this stage, left-brain type of thinking will be quite useful.
Anticipate the difficulties likely to be experienced while making action steps to

reach the desired scenario. Examine if appropriate steps can be taken and
resources will be adequately available. Otherwise, examine the feasibility of
implementation of the next preference.
Re-work on the selected preferred scenario to make it more explicit and inspiring.
Getting the commitment for the change initiatives and resources, the commitment
of the key persons in the organization and outside should be assured.
Formulating the strategy action plan to move the organization from the current
state to the desired state
These states deal with how the movement from the existing to the desired
state would be accomplished. Thus, this stage would indicate how the results
would be accomplished. For this, a wide range of strategies to reach the new
stage or preferred scenario would be identified. Using the right brain type
thinking, the alternative strategies are identified, then evaluation of each of the
alternative strategies would be made and that appropriate strategy would be
selected which would help in achieving the desired outcome. These strategies
would next be translated in the form of workable plans.
2. ADPI Model
This Model is based on the work of NR Jones. It consists of the following
stages.
Organizational
analysis
Implementation
Designing Change
Intervention
Planning the Change
Figure 2 : ADPI Model

64
Organizational Analysis Process of Change
This phase aims at developing an understanding about the organization, its

culture and readiness for change. Efforts are made to understand the tasks,
structure, strategies, systems, procedures and management practices, morale,
motivation and internal and external environment. Different research
techniques, interviews, brainstorming and workshops are used.
Designing Change Intervention
At this stage, vision or the desired state of the organization is prepared. Active
involvement of Top management and a wide agreement on the interventions are
essential.
The key resource persons and other team members must be identified and
some team building initiatives are taken to ensure shared vision and commitment
to change. Role of each member should be clarified.
A number of workshops, training sessions, meeting and presentations are usually

held at this stage.
Planning for the Change
The objective of this stage is to plan for effecting the desired changes for
achieving the vision. An action plan is prepared indicating the activities,
responsibilities, time frame, counting huge measures and required resources.
Implementation
This is the most crucial stage. The action plan has to be implemented. The
involved persons are to be educated and convinced about the gains. Extensive
communication is required and high orders of leadership skills especially
persuading skills are required. A number of presentations, meetings, workshops
are to be held. The success depends on the internal resource persons or
facilitates who would work in tandem with the change agent / consultant. It is
difficult to get successful implementation without Project Management skills.
3) Action Research
A change process based on systematic collection and analysis of data is called
action research. In this approach, data is collected to diagnose the problem and
action steps are identified on the basis of the analysis of the data. It is a five-
step process. These steps have been enumerated as follows.
Diagnosis
Under the guidance of a change agent / consultant, data is gathered about the
problems, perceptions, concerns and the expected changes from the employees
of the organization. Questions, interviews, secondary records and a variety of
techniques are used for collection of data.
Analysis
At this stage, analysis of the data collected in the previous step is carried out
to identify the problems, patterns of behaviours etc. The change agent or
consultant draws inferences and identify the primary concerns, problem areas
and expectations.
Feedback
Action research is a collaborative process and therefore emphasises deep
involvement of the employees likely to be involved. Therefore, the highlights of
the analysis in terms of concerns and problem areas are shared with the
employees specially those cross sections from where data had been collected.
65
Organisational With the help of representatives of employees, action plan for bringing about
needed change in the specific areas is carried out.
Action
Actions planned in the action plan mentioned above are set to motion in line
with an explicitly prepared implementation plan.
Evaluation
At the planned intervals, an evaluation is carried out to know to what extent
implementation has taken place and desired changes have been arrived at.
Necessary steps may be taken for collection, modification or further work.
4) OD models
As discussed in Unit 13, OD efforts are comprehensive change efforts
comprising a variety of focus. The model mentioned in Unit 13 with examples
of different OD interventions may be referred.
14.6 PHASES OF PLANNED CHANGE

For getting the enduring results, change cannot be left to choice; rather planned
efforts will have to be made. Consolidating various models, a general approach
of making planned change may be evolved —
– Creating awareness and disturbance.
– Feeling the need of change
– Exploring the readiness
– Diagnosis
– Designing and planning interventions
– Intervening — managing the transition
– Evaluation and
– Follow-up
Creating and Communicating Awareness
It is a well-known fact to many that frogs are amphibious creatures having
tremendous adaptability. They have survived all ages because of this — they
can survive in all climates, in all situations, all temperatures. Some experiments
carried on frogs in laboratories are highly shocking.
In a few shallow pans, frogs were kept in water at normal temperature. The
pans were kept on Bunsen burners which were heating the water in pans very
slowly. Even if the water became very hot the frogs did not jump out of the
pans — quite surprising. The water started boiling — the frogs got boiled!
Pans with room temperature water once again put on the bunsen burners.
When the water became quite hot (but not boiling) around 60 - 70 Degree C
temperatures frogs were dropped in the pans. Within flash of moment frogs
jumped out and save themselves.
Many of us are like the frogs — we develop tolerance and adaptability and
ignore the “temperature” and end up boiling. ‘Awareness’ therefore is the first
stage. A process of enhancing the awareness of self by considering the aims,
goals, vision, mission and the state of their achievement, future environmental
scenarios, extrapolations and forecast is useful for enhancing awareness.
Bench marking and competitor intelligence are two other triggers of enhancing
66 awareness.
The awareness creates anxiety to create future scenarios, — likely gains and Process of Change
problems — and therefore generates energy in those who become aware. For
example, in BHEL in 1983, the HR Manager was trying to project the role of
Personnel function in achieving the Corporate objectives (1985-90) and could
realise that if the manpower strength and turnover/sales keeps on increasing at
the previous rate, then in 1990 the company will be in red only because of
Manpower strength. He got alarmed and made a series of presentations in
different fora. After initial reaction, the top Management also became aware
and alarmed of the impeding situation. This created planned efforts of
Manpower Planning in the leadership of the HR Manager. After 2 years, the
Manpower strength started decreasing — today the strength is 43,000 against
the strength of 78,000 in 1983-84. The turnover during the period has
increased from Rs. 800 crores to 8000 crores.
A variety of strategies, such as presentation, publications in Newsletters,

workshops, Quiz, sessions and presentations in Management Development
programmes may be used for enhancing awareness.
This awareness creates an imbalance and disturbs the status quo. People
become uncomfortable and respond in different ways. Usually energy level
increases for denial and opposition of the issues.
Feeling the Need
Once the awareness spreads and increases, the involved people start feeling the
need of the change of elimination of the unhealthy situations. They start
thinking about ways and means to avoid this undesired situation.
People start thinking about the consequences if no change is made.
When the actual / projected results are not in line with expectations, needs are
intensely felt.
Any person at any level can feel the need, but sharing will help enhance the
clarity.
Exploring Readiness for Change
In spite of the strongly felt need, it is essential to explore the readiness of the
organization to change. A process facilitator may call a meeting / workshop of
senior people and on the basis of observations on the interaction, he can get an
idea of the readiness to change. When too much fascination for the status quo
is sensed, fear and apprehensions are strongly expressed, case of failure are
cited more than success stories, resource scarcity is repeatedly presented —
resistance to change efforts is likely to be high. OD should not be initiated in
a hurry.
Some consultants conduct a few workshops for assessing the readiness.

Instruments / questionnaires are also used by some consultant. An approach
developed by J William Pfeiffer and John E Jones may be suggested. This
approach is based on 15 indicators, which they have developed in the form of a
check list (instrument). The indicators are being enumerated below under three
broad classes.
General Considerations
Size of the organization
Growth rate
Crisis (situation)
Macro economics 67
Organisational OD history
Culture
Resources
Time commitment
Money
Access to people
Labour Contract limitations
Structural flexibility
People Variables
Interpersonal skills
Management development
Flexibility at the top
Internal change agents
This instrument / check list can be served to a number of people in the

organization, including the top management and the findings should be
discussed. This will not only give an idea about the readiness, but also raise
the awareness towards some of the crucial pre-requisites. For details ‘OD
readiness’ by J.W. Pfeifer and John E Jones’ in ‘The 1978 Annual Handbook
for Group Facilitators may be referred.
A few questions may be considered for examining various aspects —

Commitment / support of the Top Management for desired changes.
Sense of urgency advisable in the top management.
The perceived Power of Top management.
Clarity of vision in Top management.
Shared vision — to what extent the vision is shared by stakeholders.
Congruence of targeted change efforts with ongoing change efforts in the
organization.
Decision making style and quickness.
Hierarchy in organization — flat and flexible more conducive to change.
Super ordination — Willingness of Line Managers to sacrifice their personal
interest for the good of organization.
Customer focus of the organization.
Monitoring of competitors by the management.
Risk taking — the extent to which managers / employees are rewarded for
taking risk.
Innovativeness — the extent to which innovativeness is encouraged.
Communication channel — both directions.
History / experience of past change efforts.
Trust level between employees and management
Availability of Resource persons (change facilitators — internal / external)
Cooperation / Collaborative attitude.
Sharing the benefits of change enhances readiness of change.
68
Diagnosis Process of Change
This has been discussed in Unit 13.

Planning Interventions
This is also discussed in Unit 13.
One should be able to agree on defining

What are the specific goals of change?
Who are the involved people (stake holders)?
What are the restraining and driving forces?
What contingency measures to be considered for emergency situations?
What interventions will be made?
How the success will be measured? etc.
Intervening — Managing the Transition
Preparing the Team
For carrying out the interventions, a team of internal resource persons is
prepared. Ideally, this is a multi-disciplinary team which would make the
interventions and help in its successful implementation. The internal resource
persons should be skilled in Human Process facilitation and should have
undergone intensive training programmes.
Conducting the Activities
Whatever interventions have been planned, are to be implemented. In many
areas, employees would pose resistance which is to be overcome. If the
approach appears to be inadequate or inappropriate amendments are to be
made. The experiences are to be documented highlighting both process and
content aspects. Regular interaction with the committee / task force members
and Consultants is very essential.
Mid Course Evaluation
After interventions have been made, periodic evaluation is required for
ascertaining whether the interventions are bringing desired results. If yes, then
further follow up is required. If not, it must first be examined whether
interventions have been made as per the plan. If interventions have been made
as per the plan but are not giving the desired results, the causes must be
examined and if needed, alternative interventions should be designed and
introduced.
Before making the interventions, the management / facilitators should be clear

about.
a) What is the change going to be made?
b) What are the reasons for benefits of the organization?
c) How will change affect the individuals – who experience it?
d) What supports and tools are needed to manage transition?
While making interventions the involved persons force different types of

problems.
The processes at the transition stage are quite important. Whenever managers
suspect that the change is likely to come — their initial reaction is that of
“shock”. Their performance starts receding and they give different negative
comments. This shock starts spreading. In a multi unit public sector undertaking,
69
Organisational when the Top Management decided to introduce a KRA based Performance
Management System, there was an initial reaction of shock. It affected their
sense of well-being and perform adversely.
Soon after, a strong tendency to deny that there is anything wrong in the
prevailing system emerged and managers tried to show an enhanced
competence (ability) to protect the existing status. They started showing that
the present system was quite good. Very soon, there was a realisation that the
average is imminent and they have to bear the pangs of change. This
realisation was spread and managed positively for enhancing the readiness of
change by introducing planned efforts by introducing mechanisms for awareness
generation, training, involvement of users, interest and support of senior and top
level managers. All these created strong emotions — at one side fear of
unknown — on the other side benefits of the new system, pressure on roles,
future possibilities, benefits, losses, implications etc. The pressure for unlearning
the existing ways and learning the new ways created different types of fears
and anxieties.
The ensuring uncertainty created frustration in many leading to sliding down

sense of well-being and performance level. The intensified training sessions,
realization of possible losses and benefits, envisioning of future gradually led
executives toward acceptance of the system. The sense of confidence, well
being and performances started climbing upward. The desire and effort of
experimentation started getting reinforced. They accepted the challenges and
started efforts for adopting the new system. There were slippages and
mistakes — which got rectified. Communication enhanced and people started
sharing their experiences — feelings, hopes, successes, failures. The leadership
helped people to get a better understanding.
The evaluation of the emerging situation, feedback amendments and enhanced

communication, helped integration of the efforts and the system got
implemented.
Evaluation / Follow up
The results of the change initiatives should be measured periodically — the gap
between the planned and desired. For this, a befitting feedback mechanism is
to be set up — to gather information by survey, focus groups, interviews etc.
Usually, it has been found that even if encouraging results are obtained in the
beginning, with the passage of time, it starts deteriorating. Managers intervene
by way of providing support, appreciation and training etc. Special meetings,
celebrations, support groups and certain types of reinforcements are needed for
sustaining and enhancing the results.
14.7 RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

According to Newton‘s third Law of Motion “to every action there is an equal
and opposite reaction.” Resistance to change, is therefore, bound to be there.
Real change will be effective only when -
Driving forces > Restraining forces
Resistance is ability to avoid what one does not want from the environment.
Resistance to change is a behaviour designed to discredit, delay or prevent the
implementation of a change.
Resistance is of two types — Individual resistance and Organizational

70 resistance. Resistance is not always harmful.
An individual poses resistance to all those efforts, which are against his/her Process of Change
‘Self Concept’— a response to protect one habits, beliefs, values. Resistance
prevents from getting hurt, guards one’s effectiveness, heightens one’s
awareness to oneself and keeps one from becoming distracted. It provides
stability and predictability of one‘s behaviour. If there is no resistance, there will
be a ‘chaotic randomness’ in organizations. Resistance stimulates discussions
and re-examination.
In organizations resistance helps in differentiating talents, providing new

information, producing energy and making the work environment safe (HB
Karp). Resistance, thus, gives both benefits as well as problems.
Individual Resistance
Resistance in different situations has varying intensity. The idea itself generates
the first level of intensity — it is the initial or the first response when a person
comes to know about the proposed change. This is primarily because of the
natural liking for the ‘status-quo’. This is also due to lack of awareness about
the desired change — its importance, impact, costs and benefits, their own
concept and view of the changes. Some times even if the change is derived,
there is a dislike for the timing, the change agent, the cost factor or the extra
efforts required.
There are some issues, which are not observed or experienced initially. These
are the deeper issues. The issues may not be found to cause resistance initially,
but it is experienced and becomes visible while discussing or working on the
issues. These appear in different ways:
Mistrust
Punishments
Rewards
Need for respect, reward, recognition
Fear of loss (monetary or status)
Lack of resilience.
The level 3 issues are deeply imbedded — entrenched. This is caused by

conflicting values, visions, life goals, historical animosity etc. This may be as a
result of the combination of some factors described at previous two levels.
Resistance to change does not always becomes explicit or observable. Mostly

these are hidden and come out indirectly, therefore, it is not easy to observe
and anticipate.
Some causes of individual resistance:

- Increased work load — loss of comfort
- Loss of security (the unknown)
- Loss of belongingness (with new people)
- Failure (loss of esteem)
- Loss of interest (boredom)
- Change in habits (loosing ease and spontaneity)
- Loss of income (economic facts)
- Loss of change in perceptions — inner disturbance and lack of communication.
The resistance of change is of different types:

Logical, Attitudinal and Sociological.
71
Organisational Logical resistance is based on rational gaps or disagreements with facts,
reasoning and conceptual differences. Attitudinal resistance is due to emotional
or psychological reasons like fears, lack of trust etc. Sociological resistance is
due to group / social aspects like politics, vested interests, sharing of benefits of
a particular group, presentation of group‘s identity, value report etc.
To summarise, individuals resistance to change is due to one or more of the

following reasons as enumerated by R. Likert and others:
Selective Perception
Employees perceive same events / things differently — as such the change
objective and outcomes are not perceived exactly in the same way. Also
persons are more interested in seeing how they would be affected personally,
rather than seeing the big picture.
Fear of Unknown
People prefer familiar actions and events; change brings in new patterns, which
disturb the habits.
Lack of Information
Lack of knowledge or information about what is expected or why the change
is important or how change will effect and whom results in resistance.
Hostility towards Change Initiator
The image / relationships with the change initiatives causes some resistance.
Organizational Resistance
Organizations, by nature, are conservative and resist change. A few sources of
organizational resistance have been enumerated below :
Inertia
Threats to Power
Group norms
Organizational
Resistance to
change
Resource Threat to Limited

allocation expertise focus
Figure 3 : Organisational Resistance
Inertia
Due to the Task, Structure, Strategy, Technology, Systems, Procedures and
familiar people, organizations get frozen or are in a steady state. The idea of
bringing in charge creates the feeling of disturbance in the equilibriam. Hence
resistance.
Limited Focus
All organizational systems are inter-related, therefore change in one causes
stress and strain on others. Therefore, if a change is carried out in one system/
sub-system, there is a natural tendency in the other components to resist the
ensuing changes — as these do not want to get disturbed.
72
Group Norms Process of Change
By way of the past interactions working, a group norm settles in. Change
questions these norms and seeks establishment of other norms — hence
resistance.
Threat to Expertise
People have acquired a degree of expertise and specialisations which make
them comfortable and self esteem is high — due to change in organizations —
there is a danger of getting some of the expertise obsolete and acquisitions of
new expertise /specializations. This needs a lot of personal / group effort — as
such resistance.
Threat to Power
Change may bring in new structure, new technology, new systems, procedures,
new delegation of powers, new relationships that may cause a threat to some
of the sources of power, hence resistance
Resource Pressure
All the above-mentioned changes may create pressure on various types of
resources including manpower resources. This perception causes resistance.
Many Scholars and Professionals have conducted research for understanding

causes of resisitance in organizations. Some of the important causes of
resistance to changes have been enumerated as following :
The proposed change has not been described through documents, written
down description not available.
Lack of clarity on the purpose of the change.
Lack of involvement of the people affected by the change.
Change efforts initiated on the basis of a personal appeal.
Group norms and organizational culture have not been considered.
Lack of information to employees about the change
Sharp increase in workload during implementation.
Non-additional and resolution of the worries and concerns and fears of the
affected persons.
Non-clarification / resolution of the issues and anxieties relating to job
security, transfers redeployment etc.
14.8 OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

As mentioned earlier, resistance is a positive force and provides opportunities
for having a thorough understanding of contextual factors as well as issue
directing and emerging out of the interventions.
Some managers use strategies to break the resistance using coercion or

emotional appeals — which prove to be dysfunctional. Some managers try to
avoid or bypass the resistance by ignoring the opposition views, opinions and
feeble signals. They don‘t confront the issues or do some thing to deflect the
resistance by some gimmicks and tactics — ultimately fail to deliver results and
create a number of dysfunctional processes in the organization. Other
dysfunctional strategies used by managers for overcoming resistance are — the
efforts of minimising the resistance by calling on traditions, attributing the cause
of change to group or Top Management and hiding the emerging issues
highlighting some thing of the past or future.
73
Organisational Overcoming resistance to change calls for a positive approach towards
resistance. One may try to agree to the assumption — Resistance is a positive
force and needs to be honored rather than suppressed, avoided or minimised.’
Another assumption is ‘encourage the free expression of resistance and capture
the key ideas’. The positive approach suggests that the Resistance should be
encouraged to be brought to surface, it should be honored rather than showing
reaction or defensiveness. The issues (resistance) should be explored and
emotional and tangible issues should be separated. Then the issues and
understandings should be reviewed and real issues identified and clarified. The
cause and effect diagram will be useful.
14.9 SOME PRINCIPLES OF CHANGE

Change has been one of the most interesting and intensive issues before social
and behavioural scientists. On the basis of their research and experience a
number of principles / rules have been formulated. Some of these collected
through various sources are:
Organization is a system comprising many inter-related / inter - dependent
components. Change in one component affects others.
Accepting ownership in the change process best facilitates change.
Any change upsets the equilibrium of the organizational system — hence it
will be resisted. Change interventions should be made in a planned way,
otherwise the system would return back to its past patterns
People really don’t resist change; they resist the pain or threat, which they
anticipate for themselves or others out of it.
An enlightened self-interest of stakeholders helps in changing.
There is a high significance of ‘timing’ in change — time should be ripe
while making changes.
An accurate and comprehensive design diagnosis is essential for designing
appropriate interventions.
Through Power, one gets what one wants to get, by posing resistance one
tries to avoid what he does not want to get or do.
Change agents are required for affecting changes. They must know how to
analyze and manage the restraining and driving forces.
High adaptability helps change agents and change plans.
High self-awareness is required in change agents, which helps the planning
for change.
Honoring it, rather than suppressing, avoiding or minimising it best manages
resistance.
The people affected by change should actively participate in making the
change.
A person can work best with other‘s resistance by first understanding and
accepting his own resistance.
The acceptance of organizational change will increase if the people
affected are invited to contribute to the change process, communicated
honestly about all facets of change, given concrete feedback about the
change and recognized appropriately for their specific contributions.
74
Process of Change
14.10 REDUCING RESISTANCE TO CHANGE :
FEW SUGGESTIONS
To reduce resistance to change in the key steps, few suggestions are discussed
below:
i) Initiation of Change
Resistance will be low if the persons involved perceive the change project
as their own, rather than imposed on them by others.
Resistance will be low if the whole hearted support from Top Management
is available.
ii) Type of Change
Resistance will be low if the involved persons are convinced that the
difficulties experienced in their job would come down after implementation.
Resistance will reduce if the change is likely to bring interesting and
satisfying experience, to the concerned individuals.
Resistance will be less if the change is congruent and supports the values
and ideals of the concerned individual.
The perception that the power autonomy, and security will not be adversely
affected.
iii) Process of Change
If the persons likely to be affected have taken part in diagnosis, and have
agreement on the basic change problems and felt its importance —
resistance will be less.
Resistance will become low if the change makers (or sponsors) (i) see the
opponent‘s view points empathize with them and (ii) take steps to remove
their perceived fears.
Resistance will be reduced if feedback is taken from the affected persons
and they are apprised of the steps to be taken.
If there is enough change flexibility and project is kept open to revision and
amendment on the basis of evaluation and feedback.
14.11 COMMONLY USED INTERVENTIONS FOR

MANAGING CHANGE
It is very difficult to enumerate and explain all interventions for managing
change effectively. However, a few important techniques commonly used are
enumerated below :
Communication
Authentic and complete communication on the objective, coverage, timing, costs,
individual and organizational implications and change methods and the
consequences of not going for change and post change benefits is most
essential for managing change.
At the Corporate office of a large organization, as prelude to making change, it

was diagnosed that the executives numbering 15 were not communicating with
each other. The communication climate was hostile and top management was
perceived as autocratic. Enhancing Communication climate emerged as one of
the major concerns. As one intervention, the executives were asked to sit
75
Organisational together for 15 minutes in the conference hall around the round table. Initially
executives resented it but gradually they started sharing some of the operational
problems they were facing and others started responding by giving their
comments and solutions. They started opening up and sharing their feelings,
concerns, agreements and disagreements etc. Within a few weeks, this meeting
became the most liked forum of communication and sharing. Often they had to
extend the timing. This forum became the initiating and facilitating platform for
the major changes the function made for next few years.
There is no standard plan for communication, but pre intervention diagnosis

should attempt to understand the communication climate, styles and barriers.
Creation of a supportive communication climate is highly useful in making
change interventions.
Education and Training
All involved persons may not have the desired environmental, organizational,
functional, technical, financial, strategic, behavioural knowledge and skills.
Education and training is very essential at all stages.
In the pursuit of designing and commissioning a comprehensive Performance

Management system in a large PSU, almost two years were spent in educating
and training the senior management personnel and users to make them
understand the concept, realize the need, express their satisfaction and
dissatisfaction from the existing system, define their expectations from the
proposed system. Even the design of the proposed system was prepared in
training and developments programmes using Behavioural Science based
interventions. After the programme was approved for implementation, a series
of training programmes were conducted for the users. Background support was
provided through internet and publication of literature. Over 200 Performance
Management Systems trained separately or ensuring smooth implementation
could multiply the efforts. Even an interactive website was installed for
resolving the doubts on line. All this helped in covering a large section of
widely prevalent executives in a short time and fear of change could be almost
eliminated.
Participation and Involvement
The persons likely to be affected need to be involved right since the initial
stage. Their active involvement in all stages of the processes not only will
provide valuable ideas at every stage; rather it will inculcate a sense of
ownership.
In installing an incentive scheme in a medium size Engineering company, the

line managers and worker representatives were involved right since beginning
i.e. from the stage of feeling the need, identifying the benefits and problems,
collecting and analysis of data and designing the system and developing the
earning table.
Facilitation and Support
The change initiatives are to be facilitated by skilled Facilitators (change
agents). This helps in surfacing the issues, proposal — resolution of conflict,
team building and development of a conducive change climate.
Facilitation is a process in which a person, acceptable to all members of the

group, substantially neutral and having no decision making authority intervenes
to help a group improve the way it defines and solves problems and makes
decisions in order to enhance the effectiveness of the group.
76
To intervene, according to Chris Argrysis, means to enter in to an ongoing Process of Change
system for the purpose of helping those in the system.
The main task of a Facilitator is to help the group increase its effectiveness by
improving its processes.
A process refers to how a group works together and includes how members
talk to each other, how they identify and solve problems, how they make
decisions and how they handle conflicts etc.
Normally in a group, without a Facilitator, members focus on contents and

ignore the processes. Content refers to what a group is working on, what is the
subject matter, task, methods, procedures, cost, time, controls etc.
Facilitation is of two broad types- basic facilitation and developmental facilitation.
In basic facilitation, it is expected that the Facilitator would guide the group
using the principles of effective group processes -observing both contents and
processes.
In developmental facilitation, group members expect the Facilitator to monitor

and guide the group‘s processes and teach them how to accomplish this goal.
Negotiation
In dealing the resistance, negotiation is quite useful as the change agent has to
exchange something of value for reducing the resistance. This also is useful
when resistance comes from a powerful person. Three basic types of
Negotiating Styles have been described — Tough battler, the Supportive
Facilitator and Cognitive Reasoner. A negotiator should understand these 3
styles and should be well versed in using all the three styles as each style is
effective in a particular situation. There are a few other models also
describing different styles of negotiation. Although Collaboration is the most
desirable strategy, other strategies - avoidance, accommodation, Competition
forcing and compromise also have their limitations and benefits.
Co-opting
Assigning a key individual member a desirable role is quite effective in
managing change. The co-opted person becomes a Key Resource Person in
charge of project and by way of his power base, is able to influence others.
His involvement and contribution helps the change process.
Two other interventions mentioned below are not positive interventions,

however, in critical situation, these interventions are also useful.
Manipulation
It is a covert influencing tactics which uses twisting and distortion of facts to
make them appear more attractive and potent. This also includes hiding or
withholding undesirable information, and creating rumours. Cooptation also
sometimes is used as manipulative tactics.
Coercion —Implicit and Explicit
This involves application of direct threats or force on those who are resisting or
are likely to resist. In situation of crisis it is often successful, otherwise not so
effective.
77
Organisational
Development and Change 14.12 SUMMARY
In this rapidly changing world change is the only constant. In this unit we have
tried to define change, understand the concept of change and types of change.
Drivers for change and alternative strategies of change has also been
discussed. Different models of change are described followed by the concept
of resistance to change and how to overcome resistance to change.
1) Consider your present job and indicate which benefits emerging out of an
effective change management is most important to you ?
a) Career advancement
b) Improved prospects
c) Job Security
d) Increased job satisfaction
e) Respect and recognition
2) a) Which of the changes at your work place you experienced in the
recent past —
— new boss — new system / procedures
— new work group — new products / services
— new position (responsibility) — new customer
— new equipment — new location
— new suppliers
b) Which change was most difficult for you ?
c) What were your thoughts and feelings before the change? Did you
have any fears ? What were those ?
d) How did you cope with the change ?
e) What would have helped you to cope with the changes better?
3) Complete the following sentence by writing as many adjectives / phrases as
you can think of
Change is ---------------------------------------
e.g. painful, agonising --------------------------
4) Complete the following sentence by writing as many adjectives / phrases as
you can think of
Change is -------------------------------
e.g. refreshing, energetic, profitable ---------------
5) Think of a change which would be beneficial to your company /
organization and respond to the following four questions --------
a) What is the change you have thought of ?
b) What are the reasons / benefits of the change ?
c) How would the change affect the involved persons ?
d) What support and tools should be provided to the involved persons for
managing the transition ?
6) A large scale company is to introduce a new Performance Management
System. Presently, the company practices an annual confidential report type
of appraisal system, which is done by the superiors annually.
78
Process of Change
Fergusan, M. The Acquarian conspiracy: Personal and Social

Transformation in the 1980s. (Ed. J.P. Tarcher) LosAngels (1980).
Olmosk, K.E, Seven. Pure Strategies of Change in The 1972 Annual
Handbook of Group Facilitators (Ed. Pfeiffer & Jones), Pfeiffer &
Company San Diego(1972).
Kurt Lewin, Field theory in Social Science, Harper and Row, New York
(1951).
Beckhard, R. Harris, R.T Organizational transitions: Managing Complex
Changes, Addison Wesley (1987).
Jones, Neil Russel, The Managing Change, Research Press, New Delhi
(1997).
Eager G., Change Agent Skills: Assessing and Designing Excellence,
Fohman, Mark.A. et al. Action-research as applied to Development, in
Organization Development and Research (Ed. Wendell L French et al)
Business Publications Inc., Dallas (1978).
The 1978 Annual Handbook of Group Facilitators, Pfeiffer and Company
San Diego (1978).
Lilkert, R. New Patterns of Management, McGraw Hill, New York (1961).
Likent, R, The Human Organization, McGraw Hill, New York (1967).
Retaining Professional Nurses: A planned process Vogt. et al. The C.V
Mosby, St. Louis (1983).
Ross, Kubler, Elizabeth., Transition Curve in Creating Culture Change :
Successful Total Quality Management. Atkinson, E., Philip, Productivity
Press (India) Pvt. Ltd., Aladran (1990).
Chris Argyris, Management and Organization Development: The Path form
XA to YB, McGraw Hill, New York (1971).
Chris, Argyris, Intervention theory and method: A Behavioural Science View.
Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley (1970).
K. Thomas, Conflict and Negotiation process in Organizations in
Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Ed. M.D
Dunnette and L. M Hough), Consulting Psychologists Press Alto CA
(1992).
Karp, H.B., The Change Leader, Pfeiffer & Company, San Diego (1996).
Lewin, Kurt. Field theory in Social Science, Harper & Row, New York
(1951).
Beckhard, R. Harris, R.T Organization transitions: Managing Complex
Changes, Addison Wesley (1987).
79
Organisational
Development and Change UNIT 15 CHANGE AGENTS:
ROLES AND COMPETENCIES
Objectives
After going through this unit, you should be able to deeply understand:
various roles of Change agents
the competencies, especially the skills required for the effectiveness of
change agents.
Structure
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Role of Change Agent
15.3 Competencies of Change Agents
15.4 Summary
Appendix 1. Designing and Implementing Performance Management System :
The BHEL Experience
15.1 INTRODUCTION
Change is enevitable in the history of any organisations. Organisation that do
not change or keep pace with the changing environment suffer from entropy
and soon become defunct. Organisations have an internal environment, but exist
in an external environment. The internal environment is in terms of the task,
structure, technology, social (people) and economic variables, while the external
environment is in terms of the larger social, political, economic and cultural
factors. To function effectively, organisations have to achieve an equilibrium
within the internal variables in active interaction with each other and also with
the external environment. However this equilibrium is not static but dynamic.
Hence organisations have to modify and change to adapt to the changing
internal and external environment. Thus no organisation can stand still and
“tread water” for very long.
Different people have given different definitions. A few have been reproduced
below :
“Persons who act as catalysts and assume the responsibility for managing
change activities.” — Anonymous
“People who stimulate, facilitate and co-ordinate change within a system while
remaining independent of it.” — Newstorm and Davis
“Persons who act as catalysts and assume the responsibility of managing

change activities in an organization.” — Robbins, P. Stephen.
Managers, non-managers, employees and outside consultants can be

change agents
80
Change Agents:
15.2 ROLE OF CHANGE AGENT Roles and Competencies
Change agents have diverse roles. They create a state conductive to change
and also produce desired change.
Some professionals consider three main roles of change agents, of course
somewhat overlapping and with varying focus and emphasis. These three main
or primary roles are:
Consultant;
Trainer; and
Researcher.
These three roles are have been briefly described below :
Consultant
A Consultant is a professional (internal or external) who applies behavioural
Science knowledge in an ongoing organization (or client system) with clear
objectives of managing change and improving effectiveness.
A consultant is a professional assisting managers and organizations in achieving

organizational purposes and objectives by solving management and business
problems, identifying and seizing new opportunities, enhancing learning and
implementing changes.
According to Curtis Mial : “The Consultant may serve as the exhaust value,
enabling the client to let off steam : as the ignition to spark action; as the
accelerator to buildup momentum; as the break for too quick action; as the radiator
absorbing some of the heat of the controversy; as the shock absorber when the
going is rough; or as the fog lamp when the future is hazy. The Consultant
may fulfill a variety of functions, but one thing he/she is not the driver”.
If we see the definition, we find that ‘Change agents’ and ‘Consultants’ have many
roles in common, and that’s why, these two words are used interchangeably.
The role of a Consultant may be ‘content role’, ‘process role’ or a combination

of both. In other words, a Consultant may have ‘Task orientation’, ‘Process
orientation’ or a combination of both.
In the fully ‘Task oriented’ or ‘Technical expert’ role, the Consultant identifies /
verifies the problem as an ‘expert’ or through an expert, helps in problem
solving by giving his/her ideas and opinions. His/her involvement is temporary
and confined to specific problem solving, relationship with client short-term and
problem focused.
In ‘Process oriented’ consultation, the Consultant is a Process facilitator not a

solution (context / content) provider. He helps problem identification and
verification by sensing and facilitating expression of feelings and attitudes, helps
in problem solving not by providing (solutions / contents) but by enhancing
problem identification and solving capability. The involvement, in Process
Consultation, is with people and groups in the organization, relationship is
personal, involved, process oriented and of long term perspective.
The Consultant’s role will merge with the role of ‘Change agent’ ultimately.
Trainer
A Change agent needs to be a trainer and educator. He has to educate people
on the need and importance of change using a variety of methodologies —
lectures, presentations, films, group discussions, role-plays and instruments, cases
and experiential learning etc. 81
Organisational
The trainer role is most widely and intensively used at all stages of a change
project : unfreezing, changing (intervening) and refreezing.
Training is required for enhancing knowledge, skills and change in behaviour ,

attitudes and beliefs. Training is used both in ‘content orientation’ and ‘process
orientation’.
The Change agent, many times has to provide instruction, information on other
kinds focused learning opportunities for the client. In many helping situations,
particularly when the client is expected to acquire competence in certain areas,
the ability to train and educate is indispensable. A Change agent must be able
to assess training needs, write learning objectives, design learning experiences
and educational activities and use a variety of training / learning techniques for
transfer of learning.
Researcher
A Change agent has to carry out some research activities for the purpose of
generating valid information prior to and during the change process. Data
collection, diagnosis, generation of new behavioural science knowledge, evolving
best strategies for change by assessing alternatives and the important stages in
a change project where the Change agent has to be a Researcher. Useful
hypothesis are to be formulated and tested. A Change agent also searches and
studies literature, new developments and experiences of past interventions.
Change agents also generate new, useful knowledge about the process of
change, about specific change methods or techniques about specific changes of
a technical, structural, or process nature, or about the means of resolving
certain problems.
Goodstein and Pfeiffer consider managing change as a problem solving activity,

and enumerate five roles of a Change Agent :
– Catalyst;
– Process Helper - Facilitator;
– Solution provider;
– Resource Linker; and
– Stabiliser
Catalyst
‘Resistance’ is most common response to any change effort; therefore one of
the tasks of the Change agent is to break the inertia by causing dissatisfaction
with the status quo. Change agents sense the hidden problems and get
dissatisfied with the status quo; start challenging the usual status or way of
doing things and, thus, gradually intensify the need for change. They use
statistics, facts, examples, projections, comparisons for drawing attention to the
need of change. By sensitising people, they make them move toward
systematic steps in the change process.
Process Helper
A process helper / Facilitator, is a person who is acceptable to members of the
group, substantially neutral, with no decision-making authority, intervenes to help
the group improve the way it defines and solves the problems and make
decisions in order to increase the group effectiveness. To intervene means —
to enter within an ongoing system for the purpose of helping those in the
system (Argryris). Their main task is to help the group increase its
effectiveness by improving the process. ‘Process Consultation’ is based on this
82
role. ‘Process’ in simple words means how group works together and includes Change Agents:
Roles and Competencies
how members talk to each other, how they identify and solve problems, how
they make decisions, how they handle conflicts etc.
‘Content’ refers to what a group is working on e.g. finding ways and means of
providing the desired service to customers. Content is the subject matter or
activities / efforts made for completion of a task. The status of a situation,
group or problem has to be observed both in terms of ‘content’ as well as
‘process’. For an in-depth understanding, an article titled “What to observe in a
group” by Edgar Schein in ‘NTL Reading book of Human Relations Training’
(1982) may be referred.
A Process helper / Facilitator can help the group in all the stages of Change
management i.e.
– Recognising and defining needs (for change)
– Analysing problems and getting change — goals.
– Augmenting required resources
– Generating alternative solutions
– Evaluating alternatives and selecting the appropriate solution
– Installing the solutions
– Carrying out evaluations to ensure that the desired changes are helping.
Problem solving skills and Process Facilitation skills are highly used in this role.
Solution Provider
In many situations, the expectation of the group facing a problem is to get an
appropriate solution. The Change agent, in such situations, by way of his being
an expert (technical / functional) provides appropriate solution. But this is not
enough; he has to understand the explicit and implicit need of the people
(users) and have to convince them about the solution, how it will satisfy their
needs. The Change agent has to motivate them for adopting the solution. If
needed, the Solution provider will make them learns how to use the new
solution and make it really effective. In most of the organizations, this is the
main expectation from a Change agent.
Resource Linker
In this role, a Change agent brings out people together, helps the organization to
discover and make optimum use of the resources — inside and outside the
organization. The resources may be money, specialized knowledge and/or skills,
tools, techniques, ideas, experiences etc.
Stabiliser
Although the change process is initiated by creating a disturbance in the
equilibrium, after successful change process the equilibrium has to be regained
once again — the newly learnt mechanisms and behaviours have to get
stabilized and become normal. A dynamic interplay between ‘change’ and
‘stability’ is required continually in any organization. The successive change
efforts, it is the experience, should be initiated only when the previous changes
have stabilized. This does not happen on its own, the Change agents have to
make this happen again by using their process and other skills.
All these roles are overlapping as mentioned earlier, the role of ‘Consultant’ is
all inclusive and that is why many persons use ‘Consultants’ and ‘Change
agents’ as synonyms.
Each of the roles may have many sub roles; the role of Consultant has been of 83
Organisational maximum interest. There are a variety of models but two models appear to be
quite necessary for a better understanding. In a change project, the clients and
Consultants (Change agents) have different influence and involvement. This
difference in the degree of involvement and influence of activity gives rise to
different types of consultancy styles or models.
One model is based on the involvement / influence of the consultant vs.

Influence / involvement of the client in the change project.
The different styles or models may be enumerated here by broadly dividing the
influence / involvement in ‘low’ and ‘high’ degrees :
i) Low Influence / Involvement of Client and Low Influence /

Involvement of Change Agent:
This model is known as the ‘Marking Time Model’ or “Survival Model”.
The change process is a formality without much seriousness.
This model is based on low mutual influence between client and Change
agent. When a Change agent is imposed on a disinterested client, the
relationship becomes that of co-existence and there is no mutuality or
meaningful inter action. The Change agent is seen as an intruder marking
time with the client system and no real change may be expected.
ii) Low Influence / Involvement of Client and High Influence/
Involvement of Change agent:
This gives a ‘Clinical model’ — like a Doctor diagnosing and treating a
patient.
The relationship is determined by the quality of professional expertise of the
Change agent, the diagnosis and the diagnostic ability of the Change agent
is a distinguished characteristic in this model. The client provides data
responds to questions and helps the Change agent to find the way for him.
The consultant diagnoses and articulates the problem, structures the situation
and suggests way for solving the problem. The ‘expert power’ of the
Change agent generates commitment for change in the client. Consultant is
more like a Guru.
iii) High Influence / Involvement of Client and Low Influence /
Involvement of Change Agent:
The resulting model is called ‘Engineering Model’. The Change agent gives
ideas and broad direction when needed and the Clients on their own work
for the solution.
In this model the client determines the freedom to be given the consultant
accepts the assignment as given to him .He carries out the study, collects,
analyse the data and presents a report generally comprising facts, analysis
and recommendations. It is up to the client to implement the
recommendations. The main assumption behind this model is that the client
needs information and analysis and the job of the Change agent is to
satisfy it.
iv) High Influence and Involvement of the Client & High Influence /
Involvement of the Change Agent:
The model is collaborative model popularly known as ‘Process Consultancy’.
In this model, relationship between the Change agent and the client is based on
mutuality; there is a mutual influence and joint identification of goals. Consulting
is seen as a learning experience for both. Problem solving is conducted in a
spirit of enquiry where either party can terminate voluntary relationship. This
model encourages open exploration, which facilitates generation of valid data
84 not possible in other models. The interventions are to help the client, perceive,
understand and act upon events, which occur within the organization or in its Change Agents:
inter-phase. The main assumption is that collaboration between client and
consultant economises the time, speeds up diagnosis and commitment to action
helps the client to learn how to recognise the problem when they re-appear,
contributes to the transfer of consulting skill to the client and knowledge of
organization to the consultant.
The second model (Lippit and Lippit, 1980) also presents a variety of roles
depending upon the level of consultant and client activity in problem solving.
The model starts as a continuum, starting from the least level of consultant
activity (corresponding to the highest level of client activity) to the highest level
of consultant activity (corresponding to the minimum level of client activity).
The roles on the continuum are given in Figure 1.
High Low
Client Consultant
activity activity
Objective observer
Process Counselor
Fact Finder
Identifier of alternatives / Linker to Researcher
Joint Problem Solver
Trainer / Educator
Information Specialist
Advocate
Low High
Client Consultant
activity activity
Figure 1: Roles of consultant and client
15.3 COMPETENCIES OF CHANGE AGENTS

Competency is an underlying characteristic of a person that results in effective
and/or superior performance (Boyatzis, 1982).
After going through various roles of Change agents, it would have become
clear that they have to be master of many competencies. It needs to clarify
here that it is not possible for a particular Change agent to be the master of all
skills / competencies, that is why, Change agents also engage other Change
agents / Consultants. It is very difficult to make an exclusive list of Change
agent competencies — the roles themselves indicate many of them. The
competencies include knowledge, skills, attitudes, traits, value, motives and it is
difficult to draw a line between theses. A skill is used for applications or
working for performing a task / satisfying a role, which is a result of a number
of visible and invisible competencies. In general, competencies for Change
agents may be broadly classified into :
– Cognitive Competencies;
– Functional / Technical Competencies;
– Personal (Effectiveness) Competencies
(Self-control, attitudes, traits, values etc.); and
– Inter-personal Competencies.
85
Organisational In addition, ‘Consulting’ / Problem solving competency comprising of all the
above mentioned competencies is also essential for Change agents. Each of
these competencies have been briefly explained in the following paragraphs.
15.3.1 Cognitive Competencies

Cognitive competencies are required for perceiving and thinking and are again a
combination of a number of competencies. For simple explanation, these can be
divided in two types of thinking :
Analytical thinking; and
Conceptual thinking.
Analytical Thinking enables a person to understand a situation by breaking it

apart into smaller pieces, or tracing the implications of a situation in a step-by-
step causal way. It also involves organising the parts of a problem or situation
in a systematic way, making systematic comparisons of different aspects or
features, setting priorities on a rational basis, identifying time sequences, causal
relationships or ‘If .......... then ...........’ relationships.
According to Spencer and Spencer (1993), the main underlying dimension of

Analytical thinking is ‘complexity’: the number of causes, reasons,
consequences or action steps included in the analysis ranging from a ‘simple list
making’ to a ‘complex multi layered analysis’. The second dimension is
‘breadth’ or the size of problem analysis. This may range from the lowest level
-- ‘concerns one or two people’s performances’ to the highest level - ‘concerns
long term performance’ — relating to a major division or entered in a complex
environment (economic / demographic changes and major improvements).
Common behavioral indicators of ‘Analytical thinking’ dimension in a person
are:
Setting priorities (for tasks) in order of importance.
Breaking down systematically a complex problem / task into manageable
parts.
Identifying / recognising likely causes of events or different consequences
of actions.
Anticipating obstacles and thinking ahead about future / next steps
Using a mix of analytical techniques to identify several solutions and weighs
the value of each.
Conceptual Thinking involves understanding a situation or problem by putting

the pieces together and seeing the large picture. It includes identifying patterns
or connections between situations that are not obviously related and identifying
key or underlying issues in a complex situation. Conceptual thinking uses
creative, conceptual or inductive reasoning for applying the existing concepts of
defining novel concepts.
According to Spencer and Spencer (1993), there are two main dimensions of
Conceptual thinking :
i) The complexity of thought processes and their originality — ranging from
‘using basic thumb rules’ to ‘creating new theories explaining complex
situations’.
ii) The breadth or the size of the problem analysed.
A few behavioural indicators of conceptual thinking are :

Using ‘thumb rule’, common sense and / or past experiences to identify
problems and situations.
86
Comparing the crucial differences between the existing situation and Change Agents:
previous happenings.
Applying and modifying complex concepts, which have been learned, and
methods in appropriate manner.
Identifying useful relationships among complex data from unrelated areas.
By the above mentioned narration, the importance of cognitive competencies
might have been clear to a great extent.
15.3.2 Functional/Technical Competencies

These are the skills required to perform effectively in a particular discipline,
functional or technical area such as — Heat Treatment, Corrosion, Investment
analysis, Designing a wage and salary administration system, Organization
Development, Structural Design etc.
The Change agent, who is working for identifying or resolving problems, must
have the necessary knowledge particularly as Problem identifier or/and Solution
provider. Technical / professional competencies include mastery on a body or
field of Job related Knowledge and skills and also the motivation to enhance,
use and disseminate work-related knowledge/skills to others. According to
Spencer and Spencer, there are four main dimensions to Functional / Technical/
Professional competencies:
i) Depth of Knowledge and Skills : This is described in terms of formal
educational qualifications, training , expertise gained through informal study
or working experience.
ii) Breadth of Knowledge and Skills : It is the managerial and organizational
expertise necessary to manage, coordinate or integrate diverse people,
organizational functions and units for achieving common objectives.
iii) Expertise Acquisition Motive : The efforts to maintain and acquire
expertise ranging from simple maintenance to extensive efforts to attain
mastery in new areas.
iv) Distribution / Dissemination of Expertise : This ranges from ‘no special
knowledge’ to ‘share the knowledge/skill to the highest level’ or ‘publishing
new technologies or new methods in professional/ technical journals’. A few
behavioural indicators are :
Striving to keep abreast with emerging knowledge and skills.
Exhibiting curiosity by exploring beyond one’s immediate fields.
Readiness for helping others in resolving their problems.
Interest for studying new subjects
Volunteering to go out to share the expertise for disseminating new leanings.
Change agents / Consultants are engaged for solving problems, and all problems
apparently will emerge in one or more of functions/departments/ processes of
the organizations. Functional / technical knowledge provides a perspective to
perceive in a holistic manner and also quite essential for interacting with and
convincing the client. It adds to the confidence and credibility of the Change
agent. The author, as an interval consultant was processing the manpower
proposal of a large Engg company. While discussions one of the line managers
was insisting for additional Manpower for the newly installed 8000 Tonnes
press. Knowing the designation of Dy Manager (Personnel), he thought him to
be a non-technical person and asserted quite arrogantly that only an Engineer
would understand the issue. The author challenged him to come to the press
and told that being an Industrial Engineer (and Metallurgical also), he had
assessed manpower for a similar press 10 years ago in my previous
87
Organisational organization, hearing this, the manager became embarrassed and agreed what I
was telling.
15.3.3 Personal (Effectiveness) / Self Management Competencies

These competencies help a person to be effective in achieving his goals,
actions even amidst environmental difficulties and pressures. For effectiveness
of Change agents / Consultants, the following personal / self management skills
are quite essential.
Self Control
It is the ability to keep emotions under control and retain / enhance one’s
effectiveness even when faced with hostility and severe stress. This
competency is described by the intensity, and resulting scope of the control
exerted by a person on him/herself indicating a wide range of controls ranging
from the individuals’ minimal control of self by avoiding negative actions —
controlling self in order to improve the situation to controlling or calming others
as well as one’s own reactions.
A few behavioural indicators are :

– not being impulsive;
– resisting one self from aggressive involvement;
– remaining calm even in hostile and stressful situations;
– exploring and using functional way of restraining stress; and
– responding to problems constructively even in hostility/
and stressful situations.
Self Confidence
It is an individual’s belief in one’s own capability to accomplish a task. It also
includes the individual’s expression of confidence in highly challenging situations,
in making decisions, forming opinions and handling failures constructively. A
positive self-concept perpetuates self-confidence.
Two main dimensions of Self-confidence have been enumerated as :

i) Intensity indicating how much challenge or risk the individual has confidence
to face — ranging from ‘simple independent functioning in a normal work
situation’ to ‘taking on extremely risky tasks’ or ‘challenging the boss or
clients’; and
ii) Dealing with failure — ranging from ‘blaming others for failure’ to
‘admitting own mistakes to others’ and ‘acting to correct problems’.
A few behaviours have been observed as :

– Making decisions / acting in spite of disagreements from others;
– Presenting oneself assertively;
– Making statements telling confidence in one’s own abilities and judgment;
– Stating one’s own positions explicitly and confidently even while in
conflict with superiors;
– Taking or accepting/personal responsibility in case of failures, mistakes or
slippages;
– Using mistakes as learning opportunities; and
– Analysing one’s own performance for knowing the causes of failure and
work for improvements.
A Consultant, very often has to face hostile clients or their employees, and
88 very uncertain and new problems, which he would not have handled earlier,
Self confidence helps in retaining ones poise and facing the situation Change Agents:
optimistically and permeating confidence in others.
Flexibility
Ability to adapt to and work effectively in a variety of situations with different
individuals or groups. Understanding and appreciating opposing and alternative
perspectives on an issue, trying to adapt to an approach in changing situations
and readiness to change or accept changes in one’s own work or organization —
are crucial for flexibility. Flexibility may be assessed on two dimensions
(i) Breadth of change — ranging from own opinions to adapting organizational
strategy; and (ii) Speed of action ranging from slow to instantaneous.
A few indicators are :

– recognising the meaning in opposing view points;
– adopting easily to changes at work;
– flexibility in applying rules / procedures depending on the situations and the
super ordinate goal; and
– changing one’s own behaviours to suit the situation.
Organizational Commitment
The individual’s ability and willingness to align one’s own behaviour with the
organizational needs, priorities and goals indicate organizational commitment.
According to Spencer and Spencer, it may be assessed on the dimension

‘intensity of commitment’ indicated by the amount of sacrifices made for the
organization’s benefits.’
A few behaviours indicating organizational commitment are :

– Willingness to help colleagues to complete their tasks.
– Aligning one’s own activities, priorities, goals to meet organizational needs.
– Demonstrating cooperation to achieve larger organizational objectives.
– Meeting organizational needs rather than one’s own professional needs.
If the clients sense organizational commitment in Change agents, their credibility

shoots up and much of the resistance starts giving way.
Initiative
Initiative indicates a preference for taking action; doing more than is required or
expected in the job, doing things that no one has ordered or requested.
Improving or enhancing the results and avoiding problems or finding or creating
new opportunities on one’s own without anybody’s orders or instructions are
indicative of initiative.
According to Spencer and Spencer, there are two main dimensions for
understanding and assessing initiative (i) time dimension — ranging from
completing decisions made in the past to acting now on problems or
opportunities that will be realized only in distant future; and (ii) Discretionary
efforts like self motivation or the extra or unrequited effort put forth to
complete a task or goal.
Initiative is visible when a person refuses to give up after facing obstacles,

recognises and seizes opportunities of improvement, performs far more than the
job requirement and anticipates and makes efforts for seizing an opportunity
which is not visible to others.
89
Organisational A few other Personal competencies may be enumerated as :
communication — written / oral presentation;
assertiveness;
visioning;
thoroughness; and
persuasion
15.3.4 Inter-Personal Competencies

These competencies are essential for dealing with other people effectively.
Inter-personal competencies are a bunch of different skills largely overlapping
with each other. It is very difficult to clearly enumerate all such slots.
However, some of the inter-personal skills may be enumerated as :
Inter-personal relations;
Helping a person; and
Developing and maintaining smooth, co-operative working relationships
with colleagues, superiors, customers, clients etc.
In their behaviour, persons having such competencies show awareness of and

consideration for the opinions and feelings of others. Such skills put people at
ease. These skills can be interpreted, understood and assessed at different
levels.
Some of the characteristics behaviours used for assessing the IPR

competencies are :
Maintaining composure in interacting even under stress;

Demonstrating good judgement, poise and maturity in interactions with
employees and customers;
Interpersonal style serving to enhance rather than undermine relationships
with others;
Treating others with respect and dignity;
Exhibiting empathy seeing things accurately from the emotional perspective
of others, and caring about their well being;
Understanding own feelings and expressing them functionally;
Showing genuine respect for the wishes, preferences and confidentiality of
clients, and advocating for them when appropriate;
Managing conflicts constructively by searching for areas of common
agreement;
Recognising and acknowledges the feelings of others, and demonstrates
respect;
Showing empathy, sees things accurately from the emotional perspective of
others, and cares about their well being;
Using formal networks to accomplish tasks;
Manages conflicts, dealing with others appropriately in difficult situations;
Respecting confidentiality and exercising discretion when sharing
information;
Developing and leveraging a network of relationships / contacts with people
and institutions capable of impacting business performance;
Using social events to improve and strengthen professional relationships;
90
Using the network to identify opportunities, gather market intelligence and Change Agents:
seek input into problem with a view to increasing the work effectiveness;
Participating actively in relevant business fora and taking steps to best
represent the organization positively;
Working effectively with relevant stakeholders to expand common ground
and maximize buy-in into organizational priorities;
Understands unique desires and preferences of significant others / external
bodies and uses personal touch to strengthen key business relationships.
IPR competencies, as mentioned earlier are a cluster of different skills /

competencies. A few important ones are briefly explained below.
Communication
There are three purposes of communication :
i) Ensuring that the message conveyed has been fully understood;
ii) Ensuring that the conveyed message has been accepted by the receiver;
and
iii) Ensuring that the receiver of the message has got motivated to act for
doing what he has accepted to do.
Communication includes grasping, processing and articulating thoughts and ideas

to convey and use information in a meaningful manner. These skills also can be
understood and interpreted at different levels. A few of the important
communication skills are :
— Speaking;
— Writing;
— Asserting;
— Listening;
— Questioning;
— Paraphrasing;
— Giving feedback;
— Receiving feedback; and
— Empathising.
Inter-Personal Understanding
For having effective inter-personal relations, a desire and capability to
understand other person is essential. The ability to listen accurately and
understand is not only for the spoken words but also for unspoken or partly
expressed thoughts, feelings and concerns of others. Inter-personal
understanding is often expressed by understanding the moods and feelings of
others, developing an understanding based on listening and observation to predict
and prepare one self for others response. The IPU includes (i) Understanding
the interests, attitudes, needs and perspectives of other people and
(ii) Understanding the cause of others behaviour or patterns of behaviour,
attitudes etc.
There are two key dimensions for assessing the inter-personal understanding
(Spencer & Spencer, 1993):
a) Depth or complexity of understanding others ranging from — understanding
meanings of the statements and actions / feelings of the communication to
understanding complex hidden reasons of the behaviours; and
91
Organisational b) Listening and responding to others. This also has a very wide range of
behaviours beginning from simple listing to going out of the way to help
people with personal or inter personal problems.
Help / Service Orientation
These competencies are oriented towards a desire to help or serve others to
meet their needs. By these skills, a person is able to focus his / her efforts on
discovering, understanding and meeting the other person’s customers’ or clients’
needs.
Some of the indicative behaviours of this skill are :

a) Seeking information for understanding the explicit or underlying needs of
other persons beyond those expressed superficially by the person.
b) Taking personal responsibility for solving others problems promptly and
undefensively.
This competency also can be deeply analysed and assesses on two dimensions-
(i) focus on others’/clients’ needs behaviours ranging from expressing negative
expectation of clients to acting as a trusted advisor or advocate of the clients
and (ii) taking initiative to help others / clients; behaviours ranging from
blocking others actions to taking extraordinary efforts.
Influence and Impact
These skills help in expressing an intention to persuade, convince influence or
impress others in order to get what one wants to get from them or getting
them support one‘s agenda or the desire to have a specific effect on others.
A few of commonly observed indicators are :
Anticipating the effect of action on others.
Making efforts to give reason, data, facts and figures for convincing others.
Using examples, experience, demonstrations, audio-visual aids for better
understanding.
Building behind the scenes support for the ideas.
Using strategy in giving or withholding information for having the desired effect.
Using group process skills for leading or directing the group.
This competency may also be assessed on two dimensions : (i) number

(frequency) and complexity of the actions taken to influence others; (ii) breadth
of the impact starting from one person to the whole organization and even
outside organizations.
Understanding and Using Power Dynamics
For developing effective inter-personal relationships, the understanding of the
prevailing power relationships in the organization or between people is essential.
It means the ability to identify who are the key decision makers and centers of
influence. Also predicting who will be able to influence the situation better and
how.
The capabilities range from an awareness and impact within the individuals own
section / department to that on outside organization, customers, clients, suppliers,
government etc.
Common behaviours indicating the competency may be described along a scale

for the lowest to the highest levels :
Misunderstanding organizational hierarchy/ structure.
92 Concerned only with one’s own work, and ignores others signals or needs.
Understanding formal structure. Change Agents:
Understanding informal structure.
Understanding organizational policies.
Understanding organizational issues.
Understanding longer underlying issues.
The breadth of understanding ranges from one or two parts to the international
organizations as enumerated in the previous competencies.
Relationship Building
With the help of this competency, a person is able to build and maintain
friendly, warm and trusting relationship with people and need work within and
outside one’s organization for achieving work related goals. Some of the
behaviours indicating this competency are :
Regularly and consciously working for building rapport and extending one
self to build rapport with others.
Establishing rapport with others easily.
Sharing personal information to others for creating a common ground for
widening the arena.
Establishing friendly relationships with many people who may be useful in
future.
This competency has two main dimensions :

i) Closeness of relationships; and
ii) Spread or the extent of relationships / network.
Closeness of relationships building have a number of behavioural characteristics

and levels :
Avoiding contact with others
Accepting invitations
Making formal contacts for expediting tasks or work activity
Making informal contacts occasional
Building rapport
Making social contacts
Making firmly level
Making close personal friendships.
The spread of relationships also has different levels :

One or two persons
Work Team / group
Department
Division
Entire organization
Other organizations in similar to other business
Political / Governmental, organizations.
Relationship building is one of the most valuable skills as much of the

formalities in selection and identification of Change agents are eliminated due to
a feeling of trust and mutuality. The diagnosis also becomes easy and perfect
due to openness. 93
Organisational Negotiation
This competency also is referred as a cluster of traits and competencies and
enables an individual or groups with differing / opposing wishes or views to
reach a mutually satisfactory agreement. This skill can be observed in wide-
ranging behaviours as indicated below :
Being aware of the importance of negotiation and understanding the
principles behind it.
Realising that winning at all costs is not important and a win-win solution is
most effective in the long run.
Arguing persuasively for getting what one should get.
Preparing well for every negotiation .
Researching the interests of the other side and uses own understanding to
make position stronger.
Finding ways of gaining commercial intelligence in respect of leading
competitors, and getting complete relevant information both about the
organization and the individual that he will be negotiating with.
Using different approaches and styles (i.e. avoidance, forcing, accommodating,
collaborating and compromising) - to achieve the desired objectives.
Demonstrating the need to plan for all major areas of the deal in the preparation
phase, so that it is possible and plan the use of possible concessions.
Using existing or new documentation to accompany the negotiations, and
using an agenda as a positive aid to negotiations.
Gathering as much information as possible during the negotiation process
and tries to assess the other sides negotiating style and level of conviction.
Using informal and formal networks to accomplish tasks or objectives.
Understanding what is meant by carefully analysing what is said, and the
importance of identifying the other side‘s non-negotiable items.
Communicating the potential loss to both parties due to failure of negotiation
process and ensures that the discussion does not end in a deadlock.
Creating a win-win situation and influencing others to make sincere efforts
for this.
15.3.5 Consulting Competency

Although Change agents are also considered to be Consultants, however, in this
section, this is being taken as a specific competency of Change agents. These
are needed to complete the various phases of a change project and adapting
the consulting role as needed for a variety of situations.
General Skills
These skills are necessary for selecting and expediting different roles as a
consultant. These include :
– Self awareness about critical traits / competencies possessed,
– Understanding one’s own motivations in assessing need for change and the
drive to bring out the change.
– Understanding philosophy and ethics and process of change.
– Anticipating and predicting the relation of one possible change to other
possible changes.
– Understanding the desired (coverage, character, structure of changes /
group of changes.
– Determining the barriers, resistance and readiness to change.
94
Determining the resources a valuable for change. Change Agents:
Ability to determine his own role in changing situations.
Understanding group processes.
Distinguishing work and personal issues.
Active Listening
Handling Emotions, Emotional Intelligence
Conflict Resolution
Building a conducive climate — trust and openness.
Contracting Skills
It is the skill needed for building a verbal agreement with a client and includes :
Communicating the understanding of problem — what problem has been
perceived by the consultant.
Clarifying the client’s needs
Expressing one’s own needs
Documenting main decisions and commitments
Obtaining clear agreement on the tasks (problems), scope, objectives, time
frame and financial implications
A few other contracting skills may be enumerated as :

Promising only what can be delivered.
Saying ‘no’ without guilt and fear.
Setting realistic goals for self and client
Working comfortably with authority figures.
Letting some one else take the glory.
Working with people one does not like
Assessing personal needs that affect acceptance of the contractor.
Sensing and Diagnosing Skills
These skills may be split up into :
Helping the client to discover and clearly understand the problem.
Questioning — putting appropriate questions for explicit understanding.
Helping in finding answers to questions.
Inspiring trust of the client in the abilities of consultant
Helping client generate solutions
Skills to diagnose problems
Determining the methods, which the clients believe, should be used for the
change.
Creating awareness of the need for diagnosis and change in clients.
Creating a perception of the potentialities for change expectations.
Understand the values and cultures of the organization.
Assessing readiness for change.
Obtaining multiple perspectives on the problem / situation.
Ability to gather and summarize huge volumes of complex data and to
involve the client in understanding and interpretation.
95
Organisational Problem Solving and Decision-Making Skills
Involving others in problem solving and goal setting.
Understanding the business environment and operative and the effect of
problems thereon.
Stating the problems and objectives explicitly.
Setting one’s ideas effectively.
Enclosing clients to generate alternative solutions — summing discussions.
Evaluating alternatives — considering effects of various alternatives on the
derived outcome and effect on other organizational components.
Making sound timely decisions using appropriate styles — even amidst
uncertainty and risk.
Challenging ineffective solutions
Seeking help from others
Using a variety of techniques for creative problem solving.
Implementing Skills
These skills are essential for successfully carrying out a project of planned
change.
Conceptualisation and articulation of the activities required for implementing
the plan.
Defining objectives in such a way that it needs to easy definition of
methods.
Attending to details
Taking responsibility
Helping clients use their strengths and resources optimally.
Changing plans in case of emergency
Controlling one’s anxiety while performing
Intervening at appropriate time
Admitting mistakes and working for rectification
Building and maintaining morale and motivation of clients and users and
project team.
Prioritisation of activities / use of resources.
Time management
Project management
Team working / Team building
Understanding the impact of change activities
Deciding upon the amount of action to be made before making an
assessment of the progress.
Evaluating Skills
For determining the success or failure of a change initiative / project, evaluating
skills are necessary.
Diagnosis of cases when group action becomes inefficient using different
techniques — instrument, interiors, focus groups etc.
Assessing one’s own contributions.
Project Evaluation.
Soliciting formal / informal feedback from appropriate persons.
96 Measure the success / status in comparison to the stated objectives.
Evaluate content (what was done) and process (how the work was done). Change Agents:
Acknowledging / accepting failures in a decent manner.
Feeling comfortable in receiving the feedback / evaluation of the client.
Ability to deal with unprecedented changes.
Devising / using evaluation tools.
Use of score cards, rating scales and other means.
Rapport preparation.
Leave the project gracefully after the task is finished.
Attributing reasons of failures.
Motivating the client / Team for rectifications / improvements.
Maintenance Skills
Creating a sense of responsibility, passion for the new system, procedures
etc., after change.
Motivating for active participation.
A sense of collective responsibility for ensuring continuity and spread of the
change initiative.
Developing a strong support for the change initiatives.
Acknowledgements, recognition, rewards, reinforcements.
Menzel has interacted with a large number of consultants and Change agents
and has summarised the following list of Change agent skills.
Educating
Researcher
Writer
Designer
Teacher
Instructor
Trainer
Advocate
Conference Leader
Life / Career Planner
Diagnosing
Action Researcher
Diagnoser
Survey Designer
Data Analyst
Evaluator
Consulting
Role Model
Relater
Expert in Processes
Confronter
System Analyst 97
Organisational Inventor
Designer / Planner
Adaptor
Linking
Resource Linker
Internal Linker
External Linker
Theorist - Experts for action research
Referrer
15.4 SUMMARY
This section provides a good exposure to the roles of Change agents and
various competencies. Most of the competencies are not very unique to the
Change agents, rather they are required for any manager because today the
managers are expected to be Change agents. Many organizations have made
planned efforts for developing internal Change agents, Bharat Heavy Electricals
Ltd. is one of them who have as, a part of their OD efforts succeeded in
developing a few Change agents of national and international repute. These
Change agents have not confined themselves to only specific OD activities,
rather they have contributed in identification of change opportunities and
facilitation in many organizational, technical, functional and personal and
interpersonal areas. They are also contributing in HRD policy formulation,
introduction of new mechanisms and of course, as valuable trainers. There are
mutual benefits and limitations of internal and external Change agents, but the
roles and competencies are mostly identical. The internal Change agents have
to face additional problems for getting recognition and working within the
hierarchy of power sector of the organization making their task more difficult.
In order to get an outline of a real life change initiative highlighting the change
process as well as various role Change agents are to play, paper entitled
“Designing and Implementing Performance Management system : The BHEL
Experience” is enclosed in the Appendix 1.
1) Write an essay on role of change agent citing suitable examples.

2) What are the skills required for becoming a successful cahnge agent.

The author gratefully acknowledge the following authors and sources :
Spencer, Lyle M.Jr., Spencer Signe M, Competence at Work, John Wiley &
Son, Inc. (1993).
Sarathi, Parth, Planning, Auditing and Developing Human Resource,
Manak Book, New Delhi.
Sinha, Dharni, P, Consultants and Consulting Styles (Unpublished paper),
COSMODE, Hyderabad.
Robbhins Stephen P, Organizational Behaviour, Prentice Hall of India, New
98 Delhi.
Shein, E, H, Process Consultation: Its Role in Organization Development, Change Agents:
Addison Wesley.
Schein, E, H, ‘What to observe in a group’ (paper) in NTL Reading book of
Human Relations Training, NTL, Bethel.
Lippit, G, Lippit R, The Consulting Process in Action, University Associates,
Dan Diago.
Boyatzis, R.E, ‘Competence at Work’, in Motivation and Society, Jossey-Bass,
San Francisco.
Rees, Fran, ‘Consultant Effectiveness Pyramid,’ in The 1998 Annual: Volume
1, Training, Jossey-Bass.
Garavaglia, Paul L, ‘Change Agent Gap Analysis’ in The 2000 Annual, Vol. 1,
Training; Jossey Bass.
Saskein, Marshall, ‘Models and Roles of Change Agents’ in The 1974, Annual
Handbook for Group Facilitators, University Associates, San Diego.
Block, Peter, Flawless Consulting, Pfeiffer & Company, San Francisco.
Sarathi, Parth ‘Designing and Implementing Performance Management Systems
- The BHEL experience’ (unpublished paper).
Timothy, M. Nolan, ‘Consulting - Style Inventory : A Tool for Consultants and
others in Helping Roles’, in The 1003 Annual: Developing Human
Resources, Pfeiffer & Company.
Newstrom, J.W, Davis, Keith, Organisational Behaviour
- Human Behaviour at Work, Tata McGraw Hill - publication.
Chartier, M.R. ‘Functional roles for facilitating organizational change,’ The 1985
annual : Developing Human Resources’, Pfeiffer & Company, San Diego.
Sarathi, Parth. ‘Preparing Job description’ in Annual Handbook of Human
Resource Initiatives 2003, Initiatives and Interventions, Manak (Pub), New
Delhi.
99
Organisational
Appendix I
DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING PERFORMANCE

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM : THE BHEL EXPERIENCE
1.0 BACKGROUND
BHEL is the largest Engineering Company of India having over 47000
employees in 14 manufacturing and a dozen services divisions catering to the
needs of Power, Industry, Defense and Transportation sectors. It is one of the
leading Navaratna PSUs of Govt. of India and has been giving profits
continuously since over 30 years. In 2001-2002, the company registered a net
profit of Rs 4679 Million ( equivalent to 98 Million US $s) on a Turnover of Rs
72866 Million(equivalent to 1518 Million US$s). BHEL to day has its export
presence in over 50 countries.
BHEL was the first organization to start Corporate Planning in a systematic

manner in 1973 and has been pioneer in formulation and implementation of
HRM / HRD policies. Developing Human Resource has been the key concern
right since inception. Performance Appraisal System has been in use for all
categories of employees. For Corporate Cadre executives (E5 to E7 level i.e.
for Sr. Managers, DGMs, Sr. DGMs and AGMs), there was a uniform
Performance Appraisal System throughout the Company, managed centrally by
Corporate
Personnel. For General Managers, EDs and Board Members, Appraisal System
issued for Govt. of India was in vogue. The author has played a key role in
developing new Appraisal systems for Board level positions in Navaratna PSUs
which have already been implemented since 2000. For Executive levels (E1-E4)
also, the Appraisal systems in most of the units / divisions was uniform. A new
comprehensive Performance Management System has been developed and
implemented for all levels of executives w.e.f. 2000-2001. This paper discusses
some of the experiences of designing and implementing this System.
2.0 MAJOR AREAS OF SATISFACTION AND DISSATISFACTION
WITH THE PREVIOUS SYSTEM
The previous system continued for many years in spite of a mixed feeling of
satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The salient features of the positive and negative
aspects of the previous System (Performance Appraisal System) are
enumerated below :
2.1 Satisfaction, Positive Aspects
Very simple, takes very less time to fill up.
Non-threatening to both Appraiser and Appraisee.
Able to fulfil the administrative requirements.
Does not lead to confrontation between Appraiser and Appraisee.
Could sustain for a long time.
Personnel Deptt. was the sole custodian of formats.
Able to maintain a high degree of confidentiality about appraisal ratings.
Provides opportunity to Appraisee to indicate his achievements and Training
needs, help required.
2.2 Dissatisfaction, Negative Aspects
A Performance appraisal system only.
100 A passive system having no involvement of subordinates.
No feedback either on performance or on training needs, helps solicited etc. Change Agents:
Performance goals, parameters, expectations never clarified to Appraisee.
Absence of performance standards.
No dimensions / parameters for assessing performance.
Appraisal of attributes / behaviours - main basis of appraisal.
No feedback, counseling, coaching or improvement efforts.
Appraisal ratings / outcomes not known to Appraisee.
High degree of perceived subjectivity and bias.
No linkage between Performance and Rewards.
No appraisal of potential.
Since only five grades of evaluation, many persons fall in the same grade -
difficult to distinguish between them.
3.0 STIMULATING THE NEED FOR A NEW SYSTEM
3.1 Initial Efforts

The initial efforts for stimulating the need can be traced back to the year
1986-87 when as a member of the Corporate Personnel, the author made
initiatives to widen the HRD activities, which were at the time largely confined
to Training in most of the divisions and OD in a few. A one / two day training
module on “Performance Feedback — a tool for HRD” was designed and
conducted to encourage the involvement of Appraisee in Appraisal process and
also to make executives adopt Performance Feedback & Counseling for
Subordinate Development. Six such Programmes / Workshops were held at
Corporate Office and other divisions. This increased the awareness and
motivation for adoption of this intervention to a great extent. Since the ongoing
Appraisal System did not have provision for this mechanism, it could not catch
up.
A booklet titled ‘Performance Feedback - a Tool for HRD, was published in

1988 and distributed to executives to adopt some of the practices of
Performance Management. Another effort made after a few years could not go
much ahead.
In various diagnostic exercises, Workshops, syndicate group discussions —

dissatisfaction with Performance Appraisal System was often emerging sharply
and some of the HRD efforts also were constrained due to the existing system.
3.2 Training Programme on Performance Management
In 1996 at Human Resource Development Institute (BHEL), a six-day training
programme on “Performance Management” was designed and conducted by the
author with the hope of creating a critical mass that could stimulate the need in
various units. Personnel / HRD Heads from various divisions including
Corporate Office and some Line managers at senior levels were invited to
participate in this programme. The expectations / requirements of a good
Performance Management System could strongly emerge during the programme
and the limitation of existing system also surfaced. A number of structured
experiences, instruments and cases were used in addition to experience sharing
by a few other organizations.
As an outcome of the workshop, a strongly felt need of a comprehensive

Performance Management System emerged along with the main expectations
and motivation to influence others to contribute in evolving the Performance
Management System for BHEL.
101
Organisational 3.3 A Survey on Human Resource Practices in BHEL
Based on a survey in 1996-97, conducted by the author using a questionnaire
developed by Dr. Udai Pareek and Dr. TV Rao, the average score for the
Ideal Performance appraisal system was found to be 72.76% and that for
Existing one was 37.6%, leaving a huge gap of 35.16%. Table enclosed at
Annexure I may be referred for further details.
This indicated dissatisfaction of respondents with the existing Appraisal system

but also indicated an excellent appreciation of the requirements of a good
appraisal system. The findings thus, served two valuable purposes :
(i) convincing others about the need to revise the system and (ii) the
hopefulness that people would be able to develop and appreciate a good
Performance management system. On the basis of the findings, it also became
clear that mere new Performance appraisal system would not be adequate: a
comprehensive Performance management system was the need of the
Organization. The Survey findings proved to be highly useful in future efforts.
3.4 One Day Training Module on Performance Management in all
General Management Programmes
Encouraged by the responses of this programme, a one-day session on
Performance Management was introduced in all General Management
Programmes to be conducted by HRDI.
Normally, 10-12 such programmes were conducted every year for the BHEL
executives at the level of Senior Managers (E5) and above. After conducting a
few programmes, a pattern emerged and this became attain our module.
Highlights of the coverage are given below :
i) Where are You, Where do you want to go- defreezing. In order to stimulate
the need of Performance Management efforts, agreed indicating five stages
of organizational health developed by Robert Camp were projected and
responses of participants were asked indicating where did they find the
company.
The grid was as follows :
World Class : A company recognized as the best in its area of

function, bench-marked by other organizations.
Best in Class : A company which usually exceeds customers’

expectations, out performs all direct competition,
provides a clear competitive edge.
Satisfactory : A company which meets all customer requirements

and internal requirements in respect of cost, margins,
asset utilization and cycle time.
Unsatisfactory : A company which is a\not able to satisfy all

customer requirements or internal requirements.
Unhealthy : An ineffective, inefficient Company which is at the

risk of falling. Needs major redesign.
They were encouraged to share their perceptions and asked whether the
organization should remain at the same status for achieving BHEL Mission,
Vision or something else should be done. Most of them got somewhat
sensitised and expressed the need of concerted efforts to enhancing
102 performance of the organization. It would be further explained that the grid had
been prepared consisting both efficiency and effectiveness aspects and further Change Agents:
explanation was given whenever required.
ii) Expectations from an Effective Performance Management System
Through brainstorming, the expectations from an effective Performance
Management System were collected. Some of the commonly stated
expectations are :
Beneficial to the appraisee, appraiser, company and customer
Objectivity in appraisal
Able to provide information on what is to be done, what is to be
accomplished?
Enable role and goal clarity
Provide clarity on standards of performance
Ensure adequate support to the performer
Able to make distinction between performance of employees
Provide opportunities for performance dialogue and periodic feedback
Able to motivate for achievement oriented target setting
Periodic monitoring and evaluation of Performance
Enable the Performer and his superior to know the extent to which the
tasks / targets have been completed
Facilitate identification of Training and development needs
Able to improve performance in future
Creation and development of trust and openness between boss and
subordinate
Provide feed back to the Boss also
Active involvement of Boss and Subordinate at all stages
Provide rewards for superlative performance
Provide valuable inputs for Career and Succession planning.
Apart from building an inventory of expectations, it stimulated the group

process, enhanced participation and helped in creating a risk free environment.
This also proved to be the foundation for identifying and designing the
components of the system and convincing the participants at later stages when
they experienced discomfort or difficulty in carrying out certain activities.
iii) Clarifying the Understanding of ‘Performance Management’
It was also found essential to arrive at a common Understanding on term
‘Performance’. Taking the help of available literature and our own perceptions,
a definition was evolved after presentation of a number of definitions —
“Performance is a definition of what is to be accomplished or carried out.” It is
also a process that leads to results. Performance Management, therefore, may
be conceived as a continuous process of working with people to accomplish
desired results. This process should aim at :
a) Establishing a shared understanding about what is to be achieved, how is to
be achieved and
b) Encourage involved persons to work in such a way that possibility of
achieving results is maximised.
Some research findings indicating requisites of getting good performance were

also discussed.
103
Organisational The group by this time would become able to enumerate important components
of a Performance Management System.
iv) Achievement Oriented Goal Setting
Experiential learning has been extensively used in this module and a few games
and exercises commonly used in behavioural science have been used with a
wide perspective. For example, a ‘Ring Toss’ exercise was used for clarifying
some of the basic assumptions of achievement orientation and goal setting at
individual level. The exercise of ‘Tower Building’ was also used some times
along with ‘Ring Toss’ and sometimes independently for stimulating
achievement oriented target setting, understanding the process of joint decision
making (consensus) and activities to be undertaken by supervisor and boss for
enabling the worker perform better. These exercises were also used for
internalizing achievement imageries given by McClelland and examining the
status of one-self and providing insights. The ‘achievement syndrome’ model
was used to independently emphasise the strong need, positive goal anticipation,
strong positive feelings, urge to identify the blockages and minimizing or
removing the blockages by the self initiated efforts and help of others. This
proved to be very relevant at the later stages of system implementation.
v) Power of Expectations
The concept of Pygmalion effect (Power expectations) was very helpful in
motivating the participants. On the basis of the experience gathered in the
previous exercises, the concept was very effectively driven in. It is expected to
vitalize the process of goal setting and subordinate development.
vi) Giving and Receiving Feedback
The felt need of Feed back also emerged during the exercises.
This exercise along with the Job Diagnostic Survey (developed by Hackman
and Oldham) helped the participants to understand the role of ‘autonomy’ and
‘feedback’ in enhancing the performance of subordinates. Also the need of job
rotation for optimizing ‘skill variety’, ‘task identity’ and ‘task significance’ was
also demonstrated vividly through their own scores on the above mentioned
survey. This exercise, in turn, crystallized thoughts regarding the role of
superiors in enabling the superlative performance of subordinates.
The three cases on Performance Counseling (Gupta…, Punjabi…, and

Welsh…) developed by TV Rao also helped the participants to understand
some of the factors, which facilitated the effects of Performance Feedback and
Counseling. The group work and presentation were highly effective and
internalizing some of the important requirements of Feedback and Counseling.
Input on ‘Giving and Receiving Feedback’ was given adding some other
features on the basis of experiential learning.
vii) Inter-personal Factors Affecting Performance
In order to experience some of the very simple but fundamental factors
affecting performance, an exercise was carried out in which 9 volunteers were
invited and given separate head bands on which different types of designations
and messages were written in such a way that others could read it but not the
person concerned. They were given a small task of arriving at a consensus
decision on certain controversial issues with the instructions that they have to
behave with each other according to the other person‘s head band while
interacting with each other. This exercise within a short time made very serious
impact on the behaviour of the participants. For example, those who had
positive headbands got energized and their performance went on increasing
104 while others who had negative ones felt ignored in the discussions and their
performance dropped drastically. By sharing their feelings and responses of Change Agents:
some questions demonstrated that for positive performance, positive feed back,
involvement and participation of the incumbent is essential. It also demonstrated
that if they were ignored, their performance fell down. This helped in
highlighting vulnerability of Appraisee / appraisers in real life work situation.
Many got an insight that in order to remain effective, one has to develop the
attitudes and competencies, which would help them, remain energetic and
performing even at adverse situations. The explanation of Self-concept proved
very effective.
viii) Developing an Outline of Good Performance Management System
On the basis of the entire days work, the sketch of a good performance
management system emerged every time along with the cautions which are to
be taken every time. In the one day module in the later programmes, formats
were also given to the participants for performance planning etc. for being
tested.
ix) Performance Management - Key Elements
In the background on the experience, insights, and
expectations, the participants were able to visualise (in line
with Vroom’s theory) that the Performance of a person depends
at least on three factors :
Ability (Knowledge and skill) of the person to do the specific job.
Willingness (Motivation) of the person to do that job
Support (resources, guidance, feedback) provided by the organization.
Some Indian insights were also quite helpful at this stage, especially a quotation
from ‘Chandagya Upanisada’ –
“Whatever is done with Vidya, Shradha and Upanisada; that alone becomes
efficient.”
Vidya – (Science of) Knowledge and Skill.
Shradha – Faith (and Conviction); faith in oneself, the impulse from within.
Totality of positive attitudes.
Upanisada – deep thinking, meditative thinking on the subject concerned.
Superior efficiency will come when we combine knowledge with the energies
of Shradha and Upanisada.
Knowledge
Doing - behaviour (outer world)
Skills
PERSONAL
EFFECTIVENESS
Shradha
Being - attitude, values (inner world)
Upanisada
105
Organisational 3.4 Testing the Formats
In some of the GMPs and Strategic Management Programmes, the newly
developed PMS formats got filled up by the participants and this exercise
helped us in testing the formats and validating the provisions.
3.5 Other Interventions
For stimulating the need of a new system of Performance Management and
bringing in clarity of expectations and approaches a few Workshops had been
conducted by us at Units and HRDI. In addition, this has also been a topic for
Syndicate discussions in General Management Programmes and other
programmes. Some Summer trainees (MBA) also conducted surveys / studies
in Delhi based Divisions and Units which have been quite useful.
3.6 Corporate Personnel Exercise on Identification of Thrust areas in HRM
BHEL evolved its Vision, Mission and Values in 1996 and as a part of the
implementation efforts, it was decided to identify thrust areas for the HRM
function in line with Vision 2001 / Perspectives 2002. A Corporate task force
with the author of this paper as Leader was set up drawing 9 other members
from various units / divisions of Corporate Office. Some of the task force
members had earlier (1996) undergone the first six day programme (mentioned
earlier) on ‘Performance Management’ which was designed and conducted by
the author. A weeklong intensive exercise was conducted by the task force,
which brought out 17 thrust areas. Broad objectives for each were also
defined. After presentation to top management, 5 thrust areas were selected
for further work. Performance Management was one of them. The
identification of this area as a thrust area gave a big fillip to the earlier efforts
of developing a new PMS.
4.0 DEVELOPING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
4.1 Constitution of Cross Functional Teams

A cross functional team with 4 executives including one from Corporate
Personnel and 2 from major units, with the author as the leader was constituted
by Corporate Personnel. After a few days of discussions, consolidation of the
data of surveys and experiences of all the training programmes, syndicate work
etc. an outline (sketch) of a Performance Management System was created.
This was presented to ED(P&A), Corporate Office who gave the green signal
for further development.
4.2 Preparing an Approach Paper - Presentation to Director (Personnel),
Preparing Draft System
The system was developed around the seven components identified earlier.
Five formats covered in 8 pages were also designed. The New System was
quite different from the old one. The highlights of the system were :
Shift of focus from ‘Performance Appraisal’ to Comprehensive
Performance Management.
Increased involvement of subordinates in Performance Management
activities.
Introduction of individual level goal setting.
Increased objectivity in appraisal.
Emphasis on development not on control.
Introduction of Potential Appraisal.
Introduction of Performance based Reward system.
106 Shift from ‘grade’ based to ‘mark’ based appraisal.
Introduction of appraisal discussions (twice a year) but marking to remain Change Agents:
confidential.
Introduction of Performance Improvement plans for individuals.
The System was presented to ED(P&A), Corporate Office and Director

(Personnel) and a few changes were made thereafter.
4.3 Presentation to Personnel Heads
The system was presented to Personnel Heads who reacted sharply on some
aspects. A copy of the document was later on sent to them for presentation at
units and getting comments of other executives in Personnel Department and
Line Managers. Presentation was also made to the Members of Executive
Association. Comments were received and studied by the CFT Members.
4.4 Examination of Issues Raised and Testing of Assumptions
In training programmes of HRDI, the issues emerging out of the various
presentations and comments received were specifically raised directly and
indirectly and assumptions were tested. This helped in retention and change of
some of the provisions.
4.5 Presentation in Management Committee Meeting
The author at the Management Committee Meeting made a presentation. This
evoked a mixed reaction — welcome, appreciation, criticism etc. A committee
of EDs was set up for in-depth examination of the system. The committee
after detailed examination asked for simplification.
4.6 Simplification of System and Formats
Simplification of the system was not an easy task for the CFT as it was at the
cost of some compromise on the expectations. It was a question of a very tight
ropewalk - at one side quality of the system on the other acceptance - striking
the balance was a really difficult task. There were sharp and hot discussions
amongst the CFT members on specific issue a number of times. Some amount
of ‘Quality’ had to be sacrificed for ‘Acceptance’.
After simplification - again a series of presentations were made - to HRDI

participants and top management including Director (Personnel) and others for
knowing their responses.
5.0 SELLING THE SYSTEM TO USERS
5.1 Presentation of the Draft System at Units / Divisions

As advised by the Director (Personnel), full presentations at all major units /
divisions were made by two of the CFT members. Around 100-120 senior level
managers at a time attended presentation sessions of 4 hours duration at every
unit. Two such sessions were held at every unit. These sessions were really
stormy as strong emotions emerged everywhere. All the pent up dissatisfaction,
anger and hostility to power erupted severely and a very high degree of
process facilitation skills were required for facilitating such interactions. Snap
surveys, to get their perception on a few critical and controversial issues were
conducted through a semi-structured questionnaire in a few of the units.
5.2 Amendment of the System and Simplification
A few major changes into the draft system were made subsequently. One such
example is making the appraisal completely open; even the final points would
be allotted in presence of the Appraisee. The simplification also had created
some problems.
107
Organisational 5.3 Presentation to Full Time Directors
The system was presented to full time Directors including CMD and comments
were very valuable.
5.4 Presentation to Management Committee
Finally presentation was made to the Management Committee, which is the
apex decision making body (having CMD, Directors, Executive Director and
Unit / Division Head as Members. Discussions were very lively, analytical and
probing. One senior member of the committee wanted to introduce 360 degree
feedback system. It was clarified that ultimately 360 degree feedback would be
introduced but after running the system for 1-2 years. In the meantime, planned
efforts would be made to enhance the readiness of the users. The system was
issued by Director (Personnel) for implementation giving an implementation
plan.
6.0 HIGHLIGHT OF THE NEW PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM
On the basis of extensive work of developing Performance Management
System in the above-mentioned Company, the following seven components have
been found to be essential in any Performance Management System.
a) Performance Planning
b) Performance Appraisal
c) Performance Feedback and Counseling
d) Performance Enabling
e) Rewards
f) Performance Improvement
g) Potential Appraisal
Highlights of each of the systems have been given below :

6.1 Performance Planning
Performance plans will be made by every executive at the beginning of the
year identifying the activities to be performed during the year and the
competencies required for accomplishing these activities. The activities to be
performed will be identified primarily on the basis of the “Performance budget”
of the unit / division but other activities to be accomplished during the year will
also be included. Performance plan will form the basis of appraisal and shall be
prepared jointly by the Appraiser and Appraisee.
6.2 Performance Appraisal
The Appraisee and Appraiser will do appraisals twice a year - once in October
and again in April both. The financial year starts on 1st April and ends on 30th
March. Appraisal will be done on a 100 point scale, a maximum of 70 points
will be available for Appraisal of Performance (i.e. activities and tasks
expedited during the year) and 30 points for appraisal of the competencies.
Every time, appraisal will be initiated by the Appraisee, and would be carried
out by the Appraiser subsequently after discussions with Appraisee. The
Appraiser in the presence of the Appraisee will award marks.
6.3 Performance Feedback and Counseling
In order to provide an opportunity to know the areas of performance up to the
desired level, areas of further development and to motivate the Appraisee for
improvement, Feedback and Counseling will be carried out along with every
appraisal. Training and development needs for the year will be identified jointly
108 by the Appraiser and Appraisee.
6.4 Performance Enabling Change Agents:
The appraiser will take necessary steps to ensure that the Appraisee is able to
carry out the desired activities to the best of his ability. A few guidelines
including using appropriate Leadership style, Feedback and Power of
Expectations have been given in the system.
6.5 Reward and Reinforcement
A reward scheme linked to Performance has also been proposed in two slabs
for those getting Appraisal points of 85 and above and those who obtain
performance appraisal rating of 91 and above. This is initially equivalent to one
increment and two increment for an year Relative weightage of different
factors in promotion decisions has also been indicated.
6.6 Performance Improvement
Planned efforts will be made to identify the gaps in expected and actual
performance, and Appraiser and Appraisee would jointly involve a plan for
improving Performance.
6.7 Potential Appraisal
Potential appraisal will be conducted once a year for lateral as well as vertical
movements of executives. For vertical movement, Potential will be apprised on
two parameters : (i) knowledge and skills (on 10 points) and (ii) critical
attributes (40 points). The Potential appraisal System is supposed to now
provide valuable inputs for the newly developed ‘Career and Succession
Planning and Job Rotation System’, therefore is being modified. (Considering
the importance of Potential Appraisal in the forthcoming system on Career and
Succession Planning, this system was not implemented. It was decided to
introduce Competency mapping and assessment techniques and then bring out a
more effective Potential Appraisal System.
7.0 IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS
The implementation of this system has been the prime concern at all levels of
the activities and one of the reasons of depending totally on Internal resource
persons was to ensure elimination of gaps , if any, in this direction. Salient
features of the implementation efforts are briefly described below :
7.1 Corporate Level Steering Committee
Much of the work had been done before the formal issue of the system.
A steering committee at Corporate level was set up with GM (Personnel),
Corporate Office as its leader. The author was also a team member but his
main responsibility thereafter was to provide professional guidance and support
to ensure effective implementation. Units were asked to constitute such
committees for monitoring the efforts at Unit level.
7.2 Developing Facilitators
It was proposed to train adequate number of Facilitators who would conduct
training programmes at all Units / Divisions for in depth exposure of users of
the system. Nomination of specified nos. of Facilitators for being trained was
invited by HRDI - 50% from Personnel / HRD and 50% from Line Managers.
Over 80 such facilitators were trained in 4 nos. of 2 day intensive training
programme designed and conducted by the author supported by Shri KK Seth,
DGM(Personnel), Corporate Office and Shri MP Jayakjumar, DGM(HRDC),
BHEL Trichy.
109
Organisational 7.3 Training of Users
There are around 10,000 users.
The Facilitators did a commendable job by training all users in the Units. The
facilitators would ensure smooth implementation of the system and would now
training the remaining executives. Their motivation is at a very high level and
they have accepted this mammoth task voluntarily in addition to their normal
work.
7.4 Pilot run of System
A real life pilot run of the system was conducted in one of the medium size
units (Jhansi) where the system was really operated for trial. Only a few minor
modifications in format and procedure were made subsequently.
7.5 Implementation Directives, Distribution of the Manual of
Performance Management
The system document was printed and a copy with the formats was sent to all
users along with the Implementation Order. Additional copies of formats in
sufficient nos. were sent to all Units / Divisions.
7.6 Training in Giving and Receiving Feedback
While conducting the Training programme for facilitators, it was strongly felt
that every user will have to undergo an intensive training programme of in
‘Giving and Receiving Feedback’. A few such programmes (2 days duration)
have already been held at a few small divisions by HRDI. There are very few
trainers who can conduct in depth programme in Performance Feedback and
Counseling and over 9,000 users are to be trained by October, 2001. Therefore,
again 100 Trainers, in four batches, were being developed internally by making
them undergo a 4 day intensive training module designed and conducted by
author. A model design of one day programme on ‘Giving and Receiving
Feedback’ has been designed and given to all trainers along with a training kit
comprising Floppy, CDs having three small films, cases and instruments etc.
This kit also has been prepared by the author.
This is going to be a very powerful intervention and these internal resource

persons are going to contribute tremendously on various dimensions.
7.7 Constitution of Performance Planning and Review Committee
PPRCs at all Divisions have been constituted at all units in 2 tiers for smaller /
medium size units and in 3 tiers for major units and guidelines have been
prepared.
8.0 BEHAVIOURAL IMPLICATIONS
Designing and implementing Performance Management Systems has very wide
and intensive Behavioural implications. Some of the issues which the Leader of
the Project (the author) experienced may be enumerated as :
Pains, dilemmas while initiating proposal.
Coping with ambiguity
Risk taking in new proposals.
Creativity, pressure for bringing something new and innovative.
Envy of others
Listening, make others listen
Influencing others, getting influenced by others.
Frustration - of not being able to convince.
110
Hostility of Superiors, colleagues, users. Change Agents:
Team working - with his own team and other temporary teams.
Asserting - to Superiors and Peers.
Encouragement, appreciation, receiving and giving.
Achieving involvement and co-operation of others.
Conflicts - coping and resolving.
Outburst of feelings
During various interactions with Top / Senior level Executives also a few
critical behavioural issues surfaced. A few are enumerated below:
Fear of getting exposed - lack of work load, tasks, excess manpower etc.
Fear of getting questioned by subordinates regarding assignment of task,
allocation and award of points
Fear of committing help, guidance and resources to subordinates
Fear of loosing autonomy
Pressure for making more comprehensive annual plans
Discomfort due to the requirement of giving Performance feedback and
Counseling
Discomfort due to perceived need of changing management style from
control to facilitation
Fear of transparency, even disclosing the points awarded.
Rigidity - old dog syndrome.
Jealousy, envy with other Top management Personnel
Fear of ambiguity
Locus of Control (external)
Poor motivation for excellence
Self concept (poor) related issues.
All this resulted in resistance to change.
However during discussions in many Top/ Senior level Executives very positive
behavioural characteristics were observed which at times helped in raising the
motivation of CFT members. A few may be enumerated as:
Encouraging creativity and risk taking
Internal locus of control
Willingness to change
Balance between quality of the system and acceptance of users
Consensus building
Use of appropriate Power bases for influencing users
Belief in Human capabilities and convincing others for the same
Setting higher expectation on the CFT leader (the author) and the team
(Pygmalion effect)
Collaborative approach in conflict resolution, some times Power strategy
also, it generally proved to be functional.
Eliciting support of opposing / neutral Top management personnel
Encouraging Confrontation
Tremendous confidence in internal resource persons. 111
Organisational Some of the behavioural issues / dimensions characteristic of each system are
also enumerated below :
8.1 Performance Planning
Trust and openness between Appraiser and Appraisee.
Achievement motivation of both
Motivation of Appraisee to set higher goals.
Expectancy of getting help, guidance, socio emotional support.
Assertiveness of both
Trust and openness between group members,
Hope success vs fear of failure
Locus of control.
8.2 Performance Appraisal
Trust and openness
Objectivity
Distinguishing content and Process
Willingness to know others opinions, perceptions to be evaluated.
Clear, supportive communication.
Self-concept - match between self and others perceptions - significance,
competence and lovability.
Coping with fear, anger
Interpersonal needs - Inclusion, Control, Affection (Openness)
Power perception (Self & others) of Appraiser and Appraisee.
Listening.
8.3 Performance Feedback and Counseling
Perceptual process
Perception of Care and Concern
Openness, trust
Power perception (Self and others)
Coping with feelings
Inter-personal needs (Self and others)
Credibility (of source and recipient)
Perceived intentions
Supportive Vs. Defensive communication.
Assertiveness
Empathy
Willingness to improve.
8.4 Performance Enabling
Sense of responsibility (ownership)
Locus of control (internal vs. external)
Manager vs. Leadership, Leadership style effectiveness
Persuasion, influencing
Giving and receiving feedback
112
Understanding the maturity level of Subordinate. Change Agents:
Use of appropriate leadership styles and Power bases.
Supportive vs Defensive communication.
Result vs. Process emphasis.
Interpersonal relations
Resourcefulness
Helping behaviour (attitude)
Need to own success / failure Self vs Subordinate
8.5 Rewards and Reinforcements
Motivational Style and process
Care, Concern, Sensitivity
Self esteem
Achievement orientation
Recognition
Coping with failures
Affection/ Openness needs
8.6 Performance Improvement
Desire to achieve, error correction
Trust, openness
Cause - effect analysis
Reward, recognition
Motivation style.
8.7 Potential Appraisal
Objectivity, overcoming biases
Confidence in Human capabilities
Understanding competencies
Visualisation, Imaginativeness
Tolerance to ambiguity,
9.0 PROBLEMS BEING FACED IN IMPLEMENTATION

Fear of getting exposed — Subordinates demand more work load from
Superiors hence they feel threatened, as they would get exposed if not able
to provide enough job.
Uncertainty of orders creates problem in planning.
Quantum of Job
What could be the optimum workload - in spite of the ‘Standard workload’
concept, there is confusion.
Aversion to giving ‘time frame’ and ‘Performance Indicators’
Perceived difficulty in identifying ‘tasks’ and estimating the ‘work content’
At senior levels (Sr. DGMs and above), lukewarm response due to
stagnation (low prospect) of promotion to higher levels.
Potential appraisal included in PMS is inadequate hence need of new
Potential Appraisal System.
113
Organisational Initial fears and apprehensions in giving and receiving feedback
(especially negative).
Target population is very large and scattered - difficulty in monitoring
implementation.
In spite of all efforts taken fear of subjectivity.
Lack of support to PMS Coordinators / Facilitators.
Monitoring efforts not up to the mark.
Time pressure (compulsion) for both sides for meeting the requirement.
10.0 BENEFITS PERCEIVED BY USERS

Message that everybody would have to work has gone deeper and deeper.
Ineffective Managers are getting exposed.
Demand of more workload by Superiors.
Role clarity will increase , people will learn goalsetting.
Beginning of a culture of individual level planning, evaluation and monitoring
leading to Performance oriented climate.
Availability of an objective base for rewards.
Very distinct identification of Performance (levels and targets).
Linkage with Top managements goals, perceptions and orientations.
Enhancement Credibility of Appraisers and Appraisal system.
Efforts to understand and enhance competencies.
Creation of openness and trust.
Enhancement of Achievement Orientation.
Opportunity for development.
Identification of appropriate training programmes.
Pressure for understanding

i) Work content estimation
ii) Identification of value addition activities
iii) Competencies of subordinate and
iv) Learning strategies of subordinate development
Training efforts linked to competency

Initiation of competency based HRD efforts
Appreciation of joint responsibility for Performing
Projecting lack of work load or excessive work load at the
beginning of the year, hence proactive efforts
Encouragement of healthy competition
Some linkage between Performance and Rewards
Facilitating reduction of cycle time
Excess / surplus manpower getting exposed
Providing objective data for career/ succession plans etc.
114
11.0 FUTURE STEPS Change Agents:
After having an years experience and feedback efforts will be made to review
the system where ever essential. The following new initiatives would also be
made for strengthening the system further :
– Performance Plans for the Head of units would be made using the
Balanced score card approach. This would encompass Long-range plans,
MOUs and Revenue budget. Scorecards for other senior executives would
be prepared on the basis of the above and Performance plans will be
prepared accordingly. At least 6 Training programmes will be conducted
followed by a number of workshops at the unit level.
– Identification and development of competencies for each role / position is
very essential for PMS. Planned efforts will be initiated for Competency
mapping and assessment. Training will be made competency based.
– Efforts would also be made to computerize the system to the extent
possible once the system stabilizes.
– Rewards based on Performance would be further strengthened.
– Utmost effort would be made to use the System for developing the
managers , interventions like Coaching and Mentoring would be encouraged.
12.0 CONCLUDING REMARKS
This project, right since the beginning, has been exciting to many persons. This
is a major change effort and large system intervention.
How the Top Managements’ support, learning attitude, clarity, conviction and
confidence in internal resources can help in introducing such major change —
this system is a living example. Although many leading consultants of
international level were considered but ultimately the top management reposed
confidence in internal resources. The inspiration, openness, future orientation
and spirit of confrontation of the Director (Personnel) of BHEL not only
stimulated the thinking process but also provided a big challenge before the
team. The blending of Behavioural Process skills, Quantitative techniques, Work
study and Business Systems processes - proved to be very effective. Right
since beginning an induction process (learning then doing) was used and this is
the best example of using Training interventions for design and implementation
of PMS. The cohesion of the task force members, their openness and mutual
trust and their dedication to bring out something new and effective not only
paid dividends but also provided a memorable experience. The patience and
perseverance are a few other factors responsible for success. It is a true
example of collaboration.
The amount of interactions generated in development of the system is an

example in itself. This system is going to streamline many of the business
processes and contribute very significantly in achieving the organizational goals.
One year of experience of running this system has established a strong need
for Performance Management System. It is now widely recognized as an
effective HR intervention in which the line managers and top management has
to play the pivotal role. These experiences and realizations have resulted in
engaging an International consultancy organization to further enrich the system
and make it e-enabled.
Subsequent to the implementation of the System an evaluation exercise was

conducted and suitable modifications made., The system has been further
modified and implemented with the title” MAP–Moving ahead with
Performance’ and at this stage external Consultants were used. The activities
have been e-enabled for fastness and transparency with the help of. The
activities and ratings have been made fully transparent. Continuous efforts are
being made to get the feedback of users and update the system whenever 115
essential.
Organisational Annexure 1
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL OBJECTIVES
S.No. Objectives Ideal Existing Diff.% Rank

Score % Score % Diff.
1. Role clarity 80.0 45.5 34.5 8
2. Work Planning/Task Planning 75.5 43.0 32.5 10
3. Gain insight into Strength &

Weakness of self 72.5 40.5 32.0 11
of subordinates. 66.5 33.0 33.5 9
4. Identify developmental needs, 73.5 45.5 28.0 12

of self of subordinates 64.5 38.1 26.5 14
5. Increase Mutuality between 66.5 38.5 28.0 12

self and subordinates.
6. Increase communication. 79.5 38.5 41.0 2
7. Preparation for higher level of job 81.0 41.5 39.5 4

by recognition of qualities needed
for them.
8. Promoting reflection and 76.5 40.0 36.5 5

motivation through self appraisal.
9. Internalize organizational norms, 66.0 30.5 35.5 6

values, culture.
10. Creating a positive, collaborative, 73.5 33.0 40.5 3

and problem solving and
healthy culture.
11. Ensure optimal performance and 76.5 28.5 48.0 1

accountability through rewards
and punishments.
12. Control employees behaviour 66.5 31.0 35.5 6

and output through ratings.
Any others.
116
UNIT 16 INSTITUTION BUILDING
Objectives
After studying this unit, you should be able to understand :
the concept of ‘organization’, ‘institution’, ‘institution building’ and the
characteristics of institution
the factors which influence institution building
the process aspects of institution building
significant dimensions of institute building: self-renewal and innovation
the role of the chief executive in institutional building.
Structure
16.1 Organization Vs. Institution
16.2 What is an Institution
16.3 Factors Influencing Institution Building
16.4 Institution Building : The Process
16.5 Significant Dimensions of Institution Building:
Self-Renewal and Innovation
16.6 Institutional Building: The Role of Chief Executive
16.7 Summary
16.8 Self-Assessment Questions
Appendix 1. Organisation Crises and Outcomes
Appendix 2. Checks to Measure the Extent of Institutionality
16.1 ORGANIZATION Vs. INSTITUTION

An organization comes into existence in order to achieve a goal or a set of
goals. Since no one individual can achieve the goal or set of goals by himself, a
number of individuals come together. Hence there tends to be a division of
work where in the overall goal or objective is broken down into sub-goals and
they in turn into activities to be performed by each of the individuals thus,
giving rise to differentiation in power, authority, role and responsibilities. These
differentiated functions are coordinated, in terms of rationally conceived role
relationships, and a normative order.
This rationally conceived hierarchisation has to be maintained over time to

achieve the overall objective. Hence maintenance of the normative order is an
important sub-goal of the organization.
While organizations aim at maintenance of internal order and efficiency in goal

realisation, institutions extend beyond these goals. Institutions have relatively
more permanance than organisations. Organizations are organic, they have a
birth, growth and finally, decay. Institutions are more enduring, have capacity of
continuous growth, ability to cope and adopt under diverse pressures and pulls
to make thrust into the future, in addition to having an impact on the society or
community in which they exist. They perform services and functions which are
valued in the community or society and also play the roles of a change
inducing, a change-protecting agent within the community. While all institutions
basically start as organisations, it is only a few organizations that can survive,
grow and adopt to achieve finally an institution status.
117
Organisational
Development and Change 16.2 WHAT IS AN INSTITUTION ?
Institution may be defined as a responsive, adaptive organisation which is a
product of social needs and pressures. It is a part of the larger system i.e. the
community or the soceity and is a forward looking, adaptive and proactive part
of the community. Esman and Blaise (1966) idefine institutions ‘as organisations
which incorporate, foster and protect normative relationships and action patterns
and perform functions and services which are valued in the environment.’
What Characterises an Institution?
1) An institution is an organisation which is relatively more enduring and is

perceived as an indispensable part of the community.
2) Its functions and services are related to society’s commonly agreed
requirements.
3) It has the ability to adopt overtime to changing needs and values in the
society and contribute to the community needs.
4) Its internal structures embody and protect commonly held norms and values
of the society.
5) Its achievements overtime include influencing the environment in positive
ways through the values it creates, (where such necessity arises).
6) Its influence extends to other similar institutions which are linked to it.
7) It is a change protecting and change inducing format organisation. It tends
to protect positive values within the community or create new beliefs and
values that are necessary for the sustenance of the community or to bring
social order at times where negative forces are likely to affect the
community.
8) It has permanence that extends beyond the role incumbents who may come
and go.
Activity A
Define the concepts ‘organisation’, ‘institution’.
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Activity B
What are the characteristics of an institution? Can we differentiate between the
terms ‘organisation’ and ‘institution’?
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118 ...........................................................................................................................
What is Institution Building? Institution Building
Institution building referts to transforming an organisation into an integrated

organic part of the community, so that the organisation can effectively play the
role of projecting new values and become an agent of change in the
community. Hence institution building refers to the process aspects of:
a) establishing or transforming an organization;
b) making an organisation an integrated or organic part of the community;
c) the maintenance role of adopting or adjusting to the existing values;
d) projecting new values through its own efforts of self growth and
organisational renewal, and thus; and
e) the proactive role of bringing change contributing to change in the existing
values of needs of the society.
Activity C
What is Institution Building? Explain.
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16.3 FACTORS INFLUENCING INSTITUTION

BUILDING
There are several factors that influence institutional building:
1) Goals or Objectives: Clarity or specificity of the goals is basic to
institution building. The goals should also be perceived as important and
justify the need for the organization both with respect to expectations of the
members within and society outside the organization. When the goals are
seen as challenging and interesting and widely accepted among members of
the organization and the activities of the members are focused around these
goals, institution building is possible. Superordinate goals like commitment,
loyalty and patriotic fervour among employees generally tend to facilitate
institution building.
2) A Second Variable that Contributes to Institutional Building is the
‘People’: Selection of the people for positions in the organization should be
in terms of a right fit between the individual and the job. Two aspects are
important in this context: task maturity and psychological maturity. Task
maturity refers to the extent to which the role incumbent has the necessary
job knowledge and skills required on the job. Psychological maturity refers
to zeal and enthusiasm to work, commitment to the job and the organization,
confidence in ones’ own abilities to accomplish tasks and responsibility for
ones’ job. It is the people, who finally make an institution. Developing trust
among one another, generating team spirit and positive interaction among the
119
Organisational role set members and providing sufficient autonomy which is commensurate
with responsibilities on the job, are essential for institution building. Trust is
an important dimension for effective interpersonal relationship and it is often
said that trust begets more trust.
Organizations should provide opportunities for upward growth and
development for those who are competent and have potentialities for growth
and development. Otherwise, institutional development is jeopardised.
3) A Third Variable of Importance is Organisational Structure and
Design: Organisation is basically a system of input process and output sub-
systems. Men, money, raw-material and machinery form the inputs. The
process aspect is concerned with the optimum utilisation of these inputs to
produce certain outputs. The output can be the goods produced or services
rendered that serve the needs and interests of the society.
The organization design and structure is the basic frame work around with
formal interactions take place within and in between the different sub-systems
(departments). The structure influences
the extent to which the different resources may be optimally utilised.
the work culture that is created and sustained within the institution
the relations with systems outside the institution
the ability to adopt to changing demands and requirements arising from
the external environment.
Too rigid structure stifles individual autonomy, creativity and ability of the
organization to meet changing demands. At the same time, too loose a structure
results in sub-optimisation of resources, lack of appropriate direction and work
culture. In such an environment organizations may soon become defunct.
The structure should not be static but dynamic and have the necessary
mechanisms to foster and stabilise appropriate traditions and work culture and
also establish linkages with its customers and major client systems. It should be
able to provide a leadership role to similar organizations. Such a structure forms
the basis for institution building.
4) A Fourth Aspect that Fosters Institution Building is the
Organisational Culture: Organizations should strive at developing greater
cooperation among the members. This can be achieved by better integration
of departmental functions and developing homogeneity of thinking among the
members. Commonality in the goals of the organization and those of the
employees, and recognition and understanding of the symbiotic relationship
that exist between one employee and the other, or one department and
another result in better accommodation and cooperation. Conflicts are to be
viewed positively as providing opportunities for innovativeness and
understanding other’s position in addition to one’s own. Mechanisms of
establishing a balance between the autonomy of individual members and
coordination for common goals help in institution building. In its relationship
with outside organisation, the institution should seek collaborative
relationships at the same time maintaining its own identity.
5) A Fifth Factor Contributing to Institutional Building is Leadership at
the Top Management Level. The leadership style should be an
amalgamation of the roles of a ‘developer’s and an ‘executive’. A developer
places trust in his subordinates, provides them opportunities to take up
responsibilities, motivates them to the peak of their performance and provides
a creative work atmosphere. He is supportive in his relationships with others
and provides opportunities for growth, self-direction and self-control for his
subordinates. An executive as a team-builder, inspires participation among
120
the members and thereby ensures their commitment to organisational goals, Institution Building
builds loyalty among his subordinates and also a keen sense of self-respect,
and resolves conflicts strategically and creatively.
The leader ought to devote his full attention and time for institution building and
take pride in the development of his people. He has to establish effective
linkage with outside organizations and project the image of the institution as a
competent entity to serve the needs of the society. He needs to gear up the
organization to meet changing needs and demands effectively. At the same time
he is not enamoured of his position, but is willing to develop others to step into
his whenever required.
6) Ability to Establish Effective, Operative Linkages with External
Environment is Necessary for Institution Building: Such a liaison helps
in understanding the needs and expectations of the external sub-system such
as clients, customers, suppliers, other organizations etc., to which the
institution has to finally cater to carve a niche for itself in the environment.
The linkages are:
enabling linkages with other organizations or social groups which are
likely to control the allocation of resources and authority (e.g. for
government) needed the organisation to function.
functional linkage with those external sub-systems that provide the
inputs for the organization and utilise the product or service outputs of
the oganisation (e.g. suppliers, customers or client group).
associative linkages with other institutions of a similar nature for
possible collaborative relationships (eg. sister institutions).
contingent linkages, depending upon the situational necessities with
certain other sub-systems that may become relevant or important at a
given time (for e.g. a legal system, a consultancy unit).
Activity D
How the following factors influence institution building:
organizational goals.
organizational structure and design.
organization culture.
relationship with external environment.
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121
Organisational
Development and Change 16.4 INSTITUTION BUILDING : THE PROCESS
Institution building refers to two aspects :
1) Development of an institution by an outside expert (which may be an
individual or an organization) including development of relevant norms and
values, and
2) Internal development of an institute to be able to play its role effectively
(i.e. the self-renewal process).
In terms of either of these definitions, institution building refers to the process

of birth, development, renewal and institutionalisation.
All organizations are organic i.e. they have birth, development, growth and
finally, decay if the organization does not invigorate and renew itself.
Invigoration and renewal extend the longevity and performance of the
organization where it stabilises as an institution. While many organizations die
aborning, it is only a few that seem to live forever.
Warren Schmidt (1967) has suggested that organizations have stages of

potential growth in their life cycels. At each of the stages, the organization is
subject to certain crises that make demands on the managerial or organizational
activities. If the organisation is able to cope effectively with the crisis it will
enter the next stage of growth. The crisis is generated either because of
internal factors or external factors in the environment or both. The stage of
development at which an organization is, is more in terms of the crisis factors
rather than its financial status or number of employees or its share in the
market etc.
The first stage is birth of an organization. Organizations originate at first, in the

minds of individuals, as an idea. An operative model with necessary resources
and support mobilisation characterises the earliest stage.
The second stage is survival and sacrifice. An organization is born in a climate

of a new idea, hope and excitement, but has to struggle to survive in the world
of competition and challenge. The need to survive, makes heavy demands on
the entrepreneur’s money, confidence, commitment, effort, personal time and
even family life. If this crisis is adequately resolved the organization gains a
firm foot-hold, accepts realities and learns from experience. If unable to meet
the challenges, demands and competition, the organization may become defunct
or exist marginally with still heavier demands made on the entreprenuer.
If the organization survives, then it should seek for stability which is the third
stage. Organization should strive for an efficient work culture based on
discipline, reorganization or role relationships, adequate employee compensation
structure, team-spirit and appropriate balance between short-term and long-term
perspectives. It should also strive to stabilise its resources, customers, clientele
etc. Resolving the crisis of achieving stability makes the organization efficient,
strong and flexible; while inability to do so results in the organization returning
back to the survival stage and stagnation.
The fourth stage is self-examination regarding where the organization stands in

the eyes of the public, customers, competitors and others. The organization
should be prepared to look critically at its products and services and its internal
and external operations. Thus it should be open to criticism and strive to
monitor, review, evaluate and improve its performance from time to time.
Resolving crisis at this stage successfully enhances the reputation of the
122 organization and results in the improvement of its quality of goods and services.
Failure to resolve the crisis leads to living on past laurels and ‘image-creation’ Institution Building
or ‘image-boosting’ which may be at variance with its actual performance the
greater the variance the greater is the likelihood of returning to instability.
The next issue that concerns the organization is to actualise its potentialities and
to achieve uniqueness (characteristic of its activities). Such a goal can not be
realised until the organisation is willing to bring the necessary changes that
involve certain amount of risk. Successfully overcoming a crisis provides
opportunities for growth and development to its personnel. Unsuccessful
resolution leads to specialisation in a narrow field, conservatism and resistance
that inhabits further development. The organization may not be able to realise
its uniqueness.
The sixth issue of concern involves the organization’s responsibility to society, a

desire to gain soceity’s respect and appreciation and to improve the quality of
life of its own employees. The crisis generated by efforts to be respected and
appreciated depends upon the felt-needs for such an endeavour, organization’s
financial status, investment opportunities elsewhere and the present self-image.
By resolving this crisis correctly the organisation gains public respect and
appreciation for itself as an institution contributing to society. Incorrect
resolution leads to castigation by the public as ‘heedless barons’ or ‘heedless
tycoons.’
The different crisis discussed so far need not operate in the same consecutive
order. Depending upon the environmental forces acting on the organization, a
mature organization may revert back to crisis of the earlier stages. When the
nature of the crisis is not correctly understood, organisations are unable to
resolve it adequately resulting in confusion and intolerance. However, by
resolving the crisis at each of the stages successfully, an organiation grows
from strength to strength. Resolution of crisis makes demands on the
management’s knowledge, skills, experience and attitudes and it is quite possible
that at different stages of growth, the managerial and leadership skills required
are different.
Activity E
What are the different stages of growth of institutions?
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123
Organisational
Development and Change 16.5 SIGNIFICANT DIMENSIONS OF INSTITUTION–
BUILDING: SELF-RENEWAL AND INNOVATION
Earlier we have described the growth stages and crises experienced in
institution building. Two of the significant dimensions of institution building are
self-renewal and innovation.
Self-renewal refers to concentrated and continuing efforts on the part of the

organization to relate its technology, structure and people to problems
confronting it from political, economic and social changes. The act of self-
examination from time to time forms the basis of organization renewal. The
different stage in self-renewal process are :
1) Sensing of change: Organizations should be ware of changes in their
internal and external environment. Unable to perceive these changes, the
organization fails to cope adequately with its environment.
2) Identification of the implication of these changes. The question is how these
changing forces are going to affect the ongoing system.
3) Deciding an appropriate plan of action. A suitable course of action is
conceived on the basis of :
obtaining necessary information with regard to 1 and 2 based on
surveys, reports, statistical data and such other fact finding
methods.
accurate evaluation of the obtained information.
deciding at what sub-system level (i.e. organisational structure or task
or technology or individual/group) the neessary changes are to be
brought about.
implications of change in a sub-system for the other sub-systems.
weighing the different alternatives for their probabilities for effectively
coping with external forces.
4) Introducing the change. The intended changes are implemented. Timely
action is important.
5) Stabilising the change, enough system support is to be given to freeze the
change i.e. consolidate the new equilibrium.
6) Obtaining feedback on the outcome of change for further sensing of the
state of the external environment and the degree of integration of the
internal environment.
Failure at any of these stages results in unsuccessful resolution. Successful

resolution also depends upon certain conditions within the organisation
such as:
effective information processing and communication.
flexibility within the sub-system for introducing relevant changes or remedial
measures.
willingness to change among the people and commitment to organizational
goals.
supportive climate at the top management level. Involvement of top-policy
making group gives legitimacy to the change process.
124
The present day organizations are at a nexus of various external and Institution Building
internal forces. Organizational renewal, hence, is of high priority so that
organizations can do a self-analysis of their growth and their problems. The
organizational leadership should look for new paths, new methods and
innovative approaches so that the organization can cope with changing
demands and forces.
Innovation
Innovation may be defined as a new idea or practice or approach that helps
the system or the individual to deal effectively with a problem or change.
Innovation is possible if the organization has a conducive environment for it to
occur such as openness flexibility, decentralisation etc. Some characteristic
features of innovation are :
It does not function in isolation or vacuum. Innovative changes should be
thought of in a system perspective i.e. the likely changes in the internal
sub-systems.
It thrives in a collaborative rather than a competitive environment.
Acceptablity of innovative change depends upon: 1. Its relative advantage
over the existing ideas or approahces or other suggested ideas or
approaches. 2. Compatibility with existing norms, values and work
behaviours. 3. Simplicity both in concept and practice. 4. Utilitarian
value for either coping with external demands or obtaining the desired
results and the stakes involved. 5. Compatibility with existing skills. If
innovative changes require new skills, people should be trained sufficiently
in advance. Otherwise, resistance may be built inspite of the functional
value.
Innovative planning is an organizational necessity for self-renewal and
institutional building.
16.6 INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING:

THE ROLE OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Certainly the chief executive is a crucial figure in institutional building. Probably,
it may be in your experience that a sinking organization not only comes out of
the red but also stabilises and makes considerable amount of profit because of
change at the top management level. There are certain chief executive who
have been very successful despite the nature of the organization they were
asked to manage.
The role of chief executive involves:

optimum utilisation of resources which is a basic ingredient of organizational
success.
creation of team spirit and work commitment, thus providing a synergic
effect for optimum utilisation of human resources (where the contribution of
the group is much more than a summation of the efforts of each of the
individuals, it refers to synergy).
achieving a positive balance between individual expectations and
organizational goals and demands. For example, there is absolute necessity
for formalisation (i.e. rules, regulations and procedures determining work
behaviour) but at the same time the individual should have autonomy and
flexibility in work behaviour. Centralisation in decision-making is important
but at the same time people at lower levels should be involved in decision
making.
125
Organisational An institutional image is in terms of not only how it perceives its own status
but also how it is perceived by similar organizations in the environment. A chief
executive is not only a spokesman for his organization but also a liaison builder.
It is in terms of his efforts that the institution can play the role of a leader,
trend-setter and a collaborator.
The chief executive should have the basic discipline, devotion and commitment
to work, a sense of vision, a futuristic perspective and above all a
determination to build the organisation to reach its maximum potentiality.
He should allow others to grow and should not be threatened by the

achievements of his colleagues. When the time comes he should give way for
his successor without being highly possessive about the organization.
126
Institution Building
INSTITUTION BUILDING:
LESSONS FROM VIKRAM SARABHAI’S LEADERSHIP
Institutions are social areas where unique strategies are pursued for
inducing and maintaining values which satisfy societal needs. Organizations
are formal, social mechanisms which facilitate constant transmission of
values, for example, a business enterprise or the church. Leaders are key
actors in these arenas embodying the values. The process of institution
building is the energizing of people so that not only they internalize values
that transcent narrow self-interests but they also become infused with a
sense of mission in their total life. What distinguishes an economic
organization from an institutional organization is the intensity and the depth
with which individual members of an institutional organization hold the core
values which seem to suffuse their total being.
Leaders and Institution Building
Peters and Waterman (14) in their recent research on “excellent

organizations” focus on the role of leadership in institution building. They
emphasise the role of leadership in shaping the values of organizational
members as well as in developing distinctive organizational cultures.
Sarabhai was a prolific institution builder. He set up an institution every

year beginning from 1947 till his death in 1971.
List of Institutions with which Vikram Sarabhai was Associated
Scientific Research : Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad

Communications : Vikram Earth Station, Arvi, Poona
Atomic Energy : Fast Breeder Reactor, Kalpakkam
Nuclear Centre for Agriculture, New Delhi
Variable Energy Cyclotron
Project, Calcutta
Electronics : Electronics Corporation of India Ltd.
Hyderabad
Electronics Prototype Engineering Laboratory,
Bombay
Space Research : Thuma Equatorial Rocket Launching Station,
Trivandrum
Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum
Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad
Sriharikota Range, Sriharikota
ISRO Satellite Instructional Television Experiment
Textile Research : Ahmedabad Textile Industries Research
Association, Ahmedabad
Development and Nehru Foundation for Development,
Educational Research : Ahmedabad
Vikram A. Sarabhai Community Science
Centre, Ahmedabad
Management and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Operations Research : Operations Research Group, Baroda
Performing Arts : Darpana Academy for performing Arts,
Ahmedabad
127
Organisational
Development and Change He was also associated Indian National Committee for Space
with Research Indian Space Research,
Organisation, Atomic Energy,
Commission, Electronics Committee.
Department of Atomic Energy,
International Atomic Energy Agency,
and
Committee for Space Research of the United
Nations
One of the ways of understanding the impact of leadership actions on

institution building is by presenting the three guiding strategies he had
intuitively used. These three strategies rest on a single pivotal value which
is the primacy and centrality of an individual.’
The three guiding ‘strategies’ he used to build institutions are:
‘Networking strategy’ or creating interacting and overlapping clusters

internally as well as externally both to produce a vision for the institution
and to translate the vision into actions in terms of research programmes
and projects.
‘Trusting strategy’ or creating a climate of trust providing freedom of

action to the individuals, ensuring autonomy, and emphasising horizontal
control; and caring strategy or creating a climate of caring by the leader
remaining approachable through open channels of communication and
emphasising the role of administration as a support system to the core
tasks of the insitution.
The lessons that emerge from the study of Sarabhai as an Institution

builder can be summed up as follows :
In order to develop institutions it is important to place an individual at
the centre of institution building efforts. The task of a transforming and
transactional leadership is to present a vision which will inspire many
and to provide meaningful exchange relationships.
Leadership actions have to nurture trust constantly, creating inter-acting
and overlapping clusters both within and outside the organization.
Failure to do so is likely to lead to the breakdown of the ‘institutional’
aspects of the organization resulting in its decline and decay.
It is important for an institution builder to identify and play multiple
(formal and Psycho-Social roles within and without the institution.
Decline in the performance of institutions could be traced to inadequate
roles (both formal and Psycho-Social) to translate externally oriented,
interface, and internally oriented leadership strategies for institution
building.
While the criticality of organisational culture to the development of
institutions has always been emphasised, the importance of building in
trust and caring has not been adequately emphasised in the literature.
Source: Adapted from ‘Institution building’ : Lessons from Vikram Sarabhai’s

Leadership, S.R. Ganesh & Padmanath Joshi, Vikalpa Vol. 10. No. 4, Oct-Dec.
1985. p. 399-414.
128
Activity F Institution Building
What is the role of the Chief Executive in institution building? Describe.

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16.7 SUMMARY
In this unit, we have seen that an organization, over a period of time, depending
on it’s stability becomes an institution. The factors which influence institution
building, process and dimensions of institution building have been discussed. The
role of the Chief Executive in institution building has also been dealt with.
16.8 SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1) Keeping in view, a number of organizations that you know, can you identify
at what stages of development they are?
2) Identify an organization that is regarded as an institution. Collect information
about various aspects such as: its objectives, internal culture and leadership
style at the top management.
3) Interview any of the chief executive who is regarded to have built up an
organization. Based on his experiences prepare a case study on institution
building.
4) Analyse in terms of your own experiences whether organisational demands
are effecting your need satisfaction, suggest what changes you expect to
make in your work situation so that both organisational and your personal
goals can be satisfied.
5) To what extent you think there is team spirit in your work-group? What
steps would you suggest to enhance the team spirit?
6) In your environment there might be an organisation which is labelled as
‘sinking’ or ‘losing’. Interview some of the managers and describe its
internal environment. Make a list of the reasons that have caused the
failure.

Lawrence, P.R. & J.W. Lorsch 1967. Organisation and Environment:
Managing differentiation and integration, Harvard Business Review 1967.
Lippit, G.L. 1969. Appleton. Organisation Renewal. Achieving Viability in a

Changing World Century — Crafts Educational Division Meredith Corporation:
New York.
Pareek, Udai, 1981. Beyond Management. Essays on the Process of

Institution Building. Oxford & IBH Publishing Co.: New Delhi.
129
Organisational
Appendix-1
ORGANISATION CRISES AND OUTCOMES
Stage Critical Issue

Birth : Creation
Development : Survival
Stability
Renewal : Pride and Reputation

Institutionalisation Uniqueness and adaptability
Contribution
ORGANIZATIONAL CRISIS AND OUTCOMES
Outcome if issue is correctly resolved:
New Organization comes into being and starts functioning
Organization becomes viable. Learns from experiences. Understands reality.
Organization is strong, efficient and flexible enough to respond to changes
Reputation motivates to improve quality of goods and services.
Takes advantage of its unique capability and provides growth opportunities to its
people
Gains appreciation as an institution contributing to society.
Outcome if issue is incorrectly resolved :
Idea remains abstract. Organization cannot adequately develop.
Organization fails or exists marginally as it fails to adjust to realities of the

situation
Organization is likely to retun back to survival stage or becomes inflexible for

changes.
Organizations more bothered about building its’ image than improve performance.
Greater discrepancy likely to arise between projected image and actual
performance.
Fails to develop its uniqueness, concentrates on narrow areas for better security.
Develops a paternalistic stance which inhabits growth.
Organization may be accused of lack of any social responsibility and bothered

about its profits and nothing else.
Source: Lippit, G.L. and Schnidt, W.H. Crisis in a developing organisation,

Harvard Business Review, 45 (6), 1967, p. 109.
130
Institution Building
Appendix 2
CHECKS TO MEASURE THE EXTENT OF INSTITUTIONALITY
1. Has the institution grown beyond the needs of survival and stability ?
2. To what extent it can be considered replete with regard to goals, tasks,

missions, resources etc ?
3. How effectively does it relate to the external environment? Has it

linkages with relevant external sub-systems to an adequate degree ?
4. Does it stand by its intrinsic value? In other words, how is it rated for
its functional value in the soceity: excellent, average or poor ?
5. How pervasive is its influence on other systems? Is it a trend setter or

just one among the rest? Can it Generate a new need or positive
values in the community or suggest novel methods for the resolution of
current problems ?
131

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Indira Gandhi

National Open University

Prof. B.K. Dhup Prof. B.B. Khanna

July, 2004 (Revision)

© Indira Gandhi National Open University, 2004

Cover designed by King Craft, Karol Bagh, New Delhi.

Lasertypeset by ICON Printographics, B-107 Fateh Nagar, New Delhi-110 018

Paper Used: Agro-based Environment Friendly

The second unit describes different OD intevention techniques.

The last unit of the block describes how an organisation becomes an

Today the vulnerability of the organizations has increased. Due to rapid

12.3 STAGES OF ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT

Planning & Design of

Carrying out the Plan

Termination or Going for

Figure 1: Stages in Organization Development Efforts – A General Model

‘Organization Development’ is a Behavioural Science based approach, hence

Some consultants conduct a few workshops for assessing the readiness.

Table 1.15 Indicators for Readiness to Change

– Size of the organization

This instrument / check list can be served to a number of people in the

Problems are situations in which we experience uncertainty or difficulty in what

In problem identification, there is a high possibility of taking symptoms as

The preliminary problem identification stage includes gathering and analysis of

Consultants use a number of approach for identifying important problems. In

In another organization, a Top Management Workshop conducted in which

One company tried to identify problems by a SWOT Analysis. While others

A number of diagnostic models explain the characteristics of organizational

Input Processing Output Outcome

Figure 2 : Systems Model

Survey feedback intervention includes of collection of data / information about

For example, an organizational diagnosis was carried out in an organization and

Table 3 : Organizational Norms Score and Ranking

Norm Average Score

1. Colleague & Associate Relationships VG AA + 43.69

12.3.4. Planning and Design of Interventions

In other words, OD interventions refer to range of planned, programmed

The OD interventions are focused on Individual, Dyads, Triads, Teams and

Table 4: Levels of OD Interventions

Level of Intervention Intervention

Some of the typical OD interventions used in resolving the issues may be

There should be complete agreement on the intervention selected and the

12.3.5 Carrying out the Plan: Making Interventions

a) Preparing the Team

12.3.6 Evaluating the Results

12.4 ESSENTIALS FOR SUCCESS OF

12.6 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1) Define OD and what are the objectives of OD?

12.7 FURTHER READINGS

Bennis, Warren. Organization Development, its nature, origin and

Intervention is defined as a behaviour which affects the ongoing social

1) Robert Blake & Mouton the pioneers of Grid OD, classify

2) Blake & Mouton further developed a typology called Consulcube, a 100-

Individual. Dyads/ Teams Inter Total

OD has tremendous potential — it may encompass all change efforts and

OD is essentially a Behavioural Science based approach, therefore human

Each of the interventions have been briefly described below.

The study was confined to Executives working in various departments of the

Considering the likelihood of debate on the validity of questionnaire, it was

The following scale was used for interpretation.

- 40 and below - Extremely negative

iv) Methodology of Data Collection