Introduction to

Organization Development



Dr. Anuraag Awasthi
Last Class.
- Interventions are the vehicles for causing
change.
-The inventory of OD interventions is quite
extensive. Interventions can also be
clubbed together in classes in terms of
- The objectives of the interventions
- The target of interventions
Overview of OD interventions
1. Diagnostic Activities (Interviews, Questionnaires,
surveys, meetings etc.)
2. Team-Building Activities (to enhance the effective
operation of teams)
3. Inter-group Activities (To improve the effectiveness
of intergroup activities)
4. Survey Feedback Activities (Activities that rely on
questionnaire surveys)
5. Education & Training (Activities designed to improve
individuals skills, abilities, and knowledge.)
Families of OD interventions
6. Techno-structural or Structural Activities (Activities
designed to improve the effectiveness of org. structures and job
designs. Eg. Job enrichment, MBO, physical setting interventions,
etc.)
7. Process Consultation Activities (Activities that help the client
to understand and act upon processes like Communication, problem
solving, decision making, leadership and authority, intergroup
cooperation and competition etc.)
8. Grid Organization Development Activities (6 phase change
model to upgrade, individuals, teams, intergroup, corporate
planning, implementation and evaluation activities)
9. Third Party Peacemaking Activities (External consultant to
help 2 members of an organization)
Families of OD interventions
10. Coaching and Counseling Activities (Includes non-
evaluative feedback and exploration of alternative behaviors)
11. Life and Career Planning Activities (Help
individuals know their career goals and how to achieve them)
12. Planning and Goal-setting Activities (Activities to
improve planning, goals setting etc skills at all levels)
13. Strategic Management Activities (Activities that help
key policy makers to reflect on mission, goals etc.)
14. Organizational Transformation Activities
(Activities that involve large scale changes which
fundamentally change the nature of the organization)
Families of OD interventions
Each of these families include many
interventions. They include both conceptual
material and actual experience with the
phenomenon being studied.
Some are directed towards specific targets,
problems or processes.

Families of OD interventions
Team Interventions
- Much of the organizations work is
accomplished directly or indirectly through
teams.
- Work team culture exerts a significant
influence on individual behavior.
Teams and Work Groups
- A work group is a number of persons, usually
reporting to a common superior and having some
face-to-face interaction, who have some degree of
interdependence in carrying out tasks for the purpose
of achieving organizational goals.
- A team is a form of group, but has some
characteristics in greater degree than ordinary group,
including a higher commitment to common goals and
higher degree of interdependency and interaction.
Teams and Work Groups
- Cross functional teams comprise individuals
who have a functional home base eg.
Manufacturing, design, engineering, or
marketing etc but who meet regularly to solve
ongoing challenges requiring inputs from a
number of functional areas. These could be
permanent or temporary teams.
Cross-functional Teams
- Individuals in organizations function not so
much as individuals alone, but as members of
groups or teams.

- For an individual to work effectively, a pre-
requisite is that the team must function
effectively.
Effective Teams
- Clear Purpose (defined and accepted vision, mission, goal
or task, and an action plan)
- Informality (Informal, comfortable, and relaxed)
- Participation (encouragement to participate)
- Listening (Use of listening techniques like Questioning,
paraphrasing and summarizing)
- Civilized disagreement (comfortable with disagreement,
does not suppress conflict)
- Consensus decision making (agreement through
discussions, avoidance of voting)
Characteristics of an Effective
Team
- Open Communications (Feelings seen as legitimate, few hidden
agendas)
- Clear roles and work assignments (clear expectation and work
evenly divided)
- Shared Leadership (In addition to a formal leader, everyone
shares in effective leadership behaviors)
- External Relations (Team develops outside relationships,
resources, credibility)
- Style diversity (Team has broad spectrum of group process and
task skills)
- Self-assessment (periodic examination of how well the team is
functioning)
Characteristics of an Effective
Team
- High Performance Teams have the same
characteristics, but to a higher degree.
- They are distinguished from effective teams in the
sense that they have strong personal commitment
to each other, and to others growth and success.
- Teams and work groups being the fundamental
units of organizations, OD interventions work
towards helping teams display above
characteristics, apart from solving problems.
High-Performance Team
-Team-Building activities are the single most important
group of OD interventions.

- Its goals are the improvement and increased
effectiveness of various teams within the organization.
- Some interventions work on formal teams, other on
special teams like startup teams, teams formed due to
mergers, organization structure changes, task forces,
committees, cross-functional project teams etc.

Team-building Interventions
Process Consultation
The Process consultation (PC) is similar to team-
building except that PC places greater emphasis
on diagnosing and understanding process
events.
A skilled 3
rd
party (consultant) works with
individuals and groups to help them learn about
human and social processes and learn to solve
problems that stem from process events.

Process Consultation
Interventions
Examples of organizational processes are
communications, the roles and functions of group
members, group problem solving and decision-
making, group norms and group growth,
leadership and authority, and intergroup
cooperation and competition.
Process Consultation
Interventions
Role Analysis Technique (RAT) /
Process (RAP)
Role Analysis Technique (RAT or RAP) is
designed to clarify role expectations and
obligations of team members to improve team
effectiveness.
A role incumbent may not have a clear idea of
the behaviors expected of him or her by others,
and equally often, what others can do to help the
incumbent fulfil the role is not understood.
Role Analysis Technique /
Process
In this technique, in a series of steps, role
incumbents, along with team members define
and delineate role requirements. The role being
defined is called focal role.

In a new organization, it may be desirable to
conduct a role analysis for each of the major
roles.
Role Analysis Technique /
Process
Step 1 : The focal role individual and the entire
team discuss the focal role, its place in the team,
the rationale for its existence, its overall place in
the organization, specific duties of the office and
behaviors.

The final behaviors are finally agreed.
3 Steps of RAT/RAP
Step 2 : This step examines the focal role
incumbents expectations of others.
The incumbent lists his or her expectations of the
other roles in the group that most affect the
incumbents own role performance.
Thes are discussed, modified, and agreed upon
by the group and the focal role person.
3 Steps of RAT/RAP
Step 3 : Members of the group describe what they
want from and expect from the incumbent in the
focal role.
These expectation of others are discussed,
modified and agreed upon by the group and the
focal role person.
The focal role person makes a written summary
of the role as it has been defined. (Role Profile)
3 Steps of RAT/RAP
This technique is particularly useful for new
teams, but it may also be helpful in established
teams where role ambiguity or confusion exists.
Role Analysis Techniques /
Process
Interdependency Exercise
This is useful to improve cooperation among
team members and among their units. This is
also useful :
- For assisting people in getting better acquainted
- In surfacing problems that may be latent and not
previously examined
- In providing useful information about current
challenges being faced in others areas of
responsibility.
Interdependency Exercise
It generally works with upto 10 people, who form
two lines of five people each, facing each other.



Persons facing each other interview each other
about the important interdependencies between
their jobs and/or units, what is going wrong and
what is going fine.
Interdependency Exercise
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
They also make action plans at the end of the
interview or to meet further.

At the end of the meeting, people in one of the
row shift towards one side in circular motion, and
do the exercise again. This is repeated till 5
interviews are over. Then people within the unit
conduct similar interview.
Interdependency Exercise
Role Negotiation Technique
Role Negotiation deals with the relationships of
power, authority and influence within the group.
The change effort is directed at the work
relationships among members.
It avoids probing into the likes and dislikes of
members for one another and their personal
feelings about one another.
Role Negotiation Technique
The technique is basically an imposed structure
for controlled negotiations between parties in
which each party agrees in writing to change
certain job related behaviors in return for
changes in behavior of the other.
This technique is most useful when conducted
over 2 days, followed by a follow-up meeting a
month later.
Role Negotiation Technique
- Contract Setting (setting the climate and ground
rules in writing)
- Issue Diagnosis (What others need to do more, stop
doing, continue doing or do less)
- Influence Trade or negotiation period (Two
individuals discuss the most important behavior changes
they want in others)

Steps in Role Negotiation
Technique
Gestalt Approach to Team
Building
Gestalt approach to OD focuses more on the
individual than the group.

It is based on the belief that persons function as
whole, total organisms. Each person possesses
positive and negative characteristics that must be
permitted expression.
Gestalt Approach to Team
Building
One must come to terms with oneself, must
accept responsibility for ones action, must
experience and live in the here and now, and
must stop blocking off awareness, authenticity
and the like by dysfunctional behavior.

The goals of Gestalt therapy are awareness,
integration, maturation, authenticity, self-
regulation and behavior change.
Gestalt Approach to Team
Building
Gestalt orientation is used in OD while working
on leader-subordinates relations and team-
building.

The primary thrust is to make the individual
stronger, more authentic, and more in touch with
the individuals own feelings. Building a better
team may result, but it is not the primary goal.
Gestalt Approach to Team
Building
The Gestalt OD practitioner often works within a
group setting, but the focus is usually on
individuals.

A Gestalt OD practitioner fosters the expression
of positive and negative feelings and causes
individuals to become more aware of what they
want from others, and pushes toward greater
authenticity for everyone.
Gestalt Approach to Team
Building
The Appreciation & Concerns
Exercise
- Each member of a group jots down 1 3
appreciations for each member of the group
- Also jot down 1 or 2 minor irritations or
concerns that may be interfering with getting
the work done.
- One person volunteers and listens to others.
- All go thru this exercise.
Appreciation & Concerns
Responsibility Charting
- This helps to clarify who is responsible for what
on various decisions and actions.
- A grid with the types of decisions are listed on
left side and the actors who might play some part
in decision making on those issues across the
top of the grid.
- A behavior is assigned to each actor opposite
each of the issues.
Responsibility Charting
Responsibility ( R ) - The responsibility to initiate
action to ensure decisions are carried out .
Approval / Veto rights (A / V ) Person who can
approve or veto on an issue
Support ( S ) Providing logistical support and
resources for the particular item
Inform (I) Must be informed and, by inference,
cannot influence
Responsibility Charting

Responsibility Charting
(R - Responsibility, A/V - Approve/Veto, S - Support, I - Inform)
Actors ->
Decisions









Visioning
-Group members in one or more organizational
groups develop or describe their vision of what
they want the organization to be like in the future.
The time frame may be 6 months to 5 years in
future.
Visioning
Force Field Analysis
It is a device for understanding a problematic
situation and planning corrective actions.
Step 1 Identify and completely describe an
existing problematic situation
Step 2 - Carefully and completely describe the
desired situation
Step 3 Identify the forces and factors operating
in the current force field.
Force Field Analysis
Step 4 Examine the forces. Which are strong,
weak, under your control etc.

Step 5 Add more driving forces, remove
restraining forces or do both.
Force Field Analysis
Step 6 Implement the action plans that should
cause the desired condition to be realized.

Step 7 Describe what actions must be taken to
stabilize the equilibrium at the desired condition
and implement those actions.
Force Field Analysis