Submitted To: Submitted By:

Ms. Mona Jindal Shallu

MBA-2, 4th sem
Class R.No. 20

“S.S.D.WOMEN’S INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,”

BATHINDA

(Affiliated By Punjabi University, Patiala)

 OD INTERVENTIONS
OD interventions are plans or programs comprised of specific activities
designed to effect change in some facet of an organization. Numerous
interventions have been developed over the years to address different problems
or create various results. However, they all are geared toward the goal of
improving the entire organization through change.
In general, organizations that wish to achieve a high degree of
organizational change will employ a full range of interventions, including those
designed to transform individual and group behavior and attitudes. Entities
attempting smaller changes will stop short of those goals, applying interventions
targeted primarily toward operating policies, management structures, worker
skills, and personnel policies.
OD interventions can be categorized in a number of ways, including
function, the type of group for which they are intended, or the industry to which
they apply. In fact, W.L. French identified 13 major "families" of interventions
based on the type of activities that they included—activity groups included
teambuilding, survey feedback, structural change, and career-planning.
 Figure 1: An Action Research Model for Organizational Development

Organizational development interventions refer to the techniques (methods)

created by OD professionals, coaches and mentors to help solve the pressing
problems of organizations who seek their services. A single organizational
consultant cannot use all the interventions available in his arsenal. It is always
preferable to use interventions when the need arises. This therefore calls for an
effective understanding of the organization, its needs and the problems it is
facing so as to make sure that the right intervention tools solve the right kinds of
problems.
The following are the different kinds of organizational development
interventions:
 Sensitivity Training
 Survey Feedback
 Development Discussion
  Goal setting and Planning
 Team building and Management objective.
 Managerial grid
 Job enrichment, Participative management and Quality circles.
 Process Consultation interventions
 Inter-group Team-Building Interventions
 Third-party Peacemaking Interventions
 Structural Interventions
These kinds of intervention can be used in various settings depending on the
need of the organization.
INTERGROUP INTERVENTIONS

Intergroup interventions are integrated into OD programs to facilitate

cooperation and efficiency between different groups within an organization. For
instance, departmental interaction often deteriorates in larger organizations as
different divisions battle for limited resources or become detached from the
needs of other departments.
Conflict resolution meetings are one common intergroup intervention.
First, different group leaders are brought together to get their commitment to the
intervention. Next, the teams meet separately to make a list of their feelings
about the other group(s). Then the groups meet and share their lists. Finally, the
teams meet to discuss the problems and to try to develop solutions that will help
both parties. This type of intervention helps to gradually diffuse tension
between groups caused by lack of communication and misunderstanding.
Rotating membership interventions are used by OD change agents to
minimize the negative effects of intergroup rivalry that result from employee
allegiances to groups or divisions. The intervention basically entails temporarily
putting group members into their rival groups. As more people interact in the
different groups, greater understanding results.
OD joint activity interventions serve the same basic function as the
rotating membership approach, but it involves getting members of different
groups to work together toward a common goal. Similarly, common enemy
interventions achieve the same results by finding an adversary common to two
or more groups and then getting members of the groups to work together to
overcome the threat. Examples of common enemies include competitors,
government regulation, and economic conditions.

THIRD –PARTY PEACEMAKING INTERVENTIONS

In implementing OD interventions, it is important to apply criteria to
goals, experiment with alternative arrangements, establish inter unit task force,
And identify key communicators and fire-able offenses. An intervention forms
the appropriate relationship between strategy and organizational development.
So a development model is required to reflect the human resource, management
and structure to build the organizational development intervention. At last an
intervention makes a way for the effective business development with lots of
competition.
The terms "third party" and "intermediary" are both used to refer to a
person or team of people who become involved in a conflict to help the
disputing parties manage or resolve it. Third parties might act as consultants,
helping one side or both sides analyze the conflict and plan an effective
response. Alternatively, they might act as facilitators, arranging meetings,
setting agendas, and guiding productive discussions. Facilitators will also
usually record what was said, and may write up a short report summarizing the
discussions and any agreements that were reached.
A more active and powerful third party role is that of mediator. Mediators
not only facilitate discussions, but they usually impose a structure and process
on the discussions that is designed to move the parties toward mutual
understanding and win-win agreements. While many different styles of
mediation are common, most mediators have the conflicting parties sit down
together to explain to each other their views about the nature of the problem and
how they think it might best be solved. The mediator often tries to get the
disputants to focus on underlying interests (the things they really need or want)
more than their initial opening positions (what they initially say they need or
want). By clarifying the divergent views and reasons for those views, mediators
can usually get the parties to develop a common understanding of the situation,
which often yields a solution which satisfies the interests of all parties. While
some mediators take a stronger role in option identification and selection than
others, mediators do not have the power to impose a solution. At most, they can
suggest a solution, which the disputants may or may not accept.
The most powerful third party role is that of an arbitrator. An arbitrator
listens to presentations made by both sides, examines written materials and
other evidence relating to a case, and then makes a determination of who is right
and who is wrong, or how a conflict should be settled. Usually, the arbitrator’s
decision is binding and cannot be appealed. Thus, the arbitrator is the most
powerful type of intermediary. Arbitration works well when the parties simply
want a settlement, and do not worry about losing control of the process or the
outcome. For parties that want to maintain control, however, the other forms of
intervention (mediation or facilitation) are often preferred.
OD Interventions - Case Study of a PSU in India
French & Bell have defined OD to be the applied behavioural science discipline
dedicated to improving organizations and the people in them through the use of
theory and practice of planned change.

They have said that “Basically OD is a process for teaching people how to solve
problems, take advantage of opportunities, and learn how to do that better and
better over time. OD focuses on issues related to human side of the
organizations by finding ways to increase the effectiveness of individuals, teams
And the organization’ human and social processes”

Driven by these basics of OD, a leading Public Sector Undertaking of India,

(having an employees strength of approx 33,000) embarked upon the
Organization Development program in the year 1985 with the help of an
eminent consultant.
It started off with the Action Research Model (French & Bell, page 100),
involving

 Data Collection
 Analysis of the data (with the help of a consultant)
 Action Planning on the basis of analysis of the data subsequent steps
taken were as below-

- A company-wide climate survey was conducted to obtain the data which could
throw up the areas/actions for OD interventions. - Data, thus obtained, was used
to make an action plan.
- The action plan, termed as HRD framework, was presented to the Board of
Directors
- After approval of the action plan by Board of Directors, Change Agents were
earmarked , one for each location/division. Selection of the change agents was
done, keeping the recommendation of the consultant in mind, that, since OD
was a people’s program, the change agents should necessarily be line managers
who have demonstrated to possess good ‘people skills’.
- The change agents were given extensive training on behavioral skills ( most of
which are termed as ‘soft skills’ in present day parlance )
- The change agents were made responsible for implementation of HRD
framework. They were placed administratively under Chief of HR at each
location, the underlying concept being that once the HRD framework had been
implemented and institutionalized, the Chief of HR would be its custodian for
its assimilation with the regular HR practices and policies

The OD action plan (HRD Framework) & its implementation

Role Analysis has been a rather more acceptable strategy in India. RA has been
described as one of the team building techniques and has been adequately
explained by French & Bell (page 166-168) .The two authors have also
acknowledged the work of Prof Ishwar Dayal of India, with regard to RA.
In simple words, Role Analysis (RA) implies analyzing the role of a
person/position in the organization. Job description is something akin to RA, the
subtle difference being that RA deals with total role of a person ( including
competencies ) whereas JD is a mere description of the job ( may not clearly
focus on competencies).
The enclosed HRD Framework shows the different derivatives (sub systems) of
Role Analysis along with their linkages, pursued by the organization under
discussion.
It will be prudent here to mention that many of these RA derivatives (sub-
systems) were already in vogue in the organization, but not so effectively linked
as they become after the OD interventions.
As on today, RA and all its sub-systems have been institutionalized and the
organization is now preparing for next phase of OD Interventions.