OD Practitioner Skills and Activities:Consultantâ€™s Abilities, Marginality

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Organization Development MGMT 628

Lesson 12

OD Practitioner Skills and Activities

Much of the literature about the competencies of an effective OD practitioner reveals a mixture of

personality traits, experiences, knowledge, and skills presumed to lead to effective practice. For example,

research on the characteristics of successful change practitioners yields the following list of attributes and

abilities: diagnostic ability, basic knowledge of behavioral science techniques, empathy, knowledge of the

theories and methods within the consultant's own discipline, goal-setting ability, problem-solving ability,

and ability to perform self-assessment, ability to see things objectively, imagination, flexibility, honesty,

consistency, and trust. Although these qualities and skills are laudable, there has been relatively little con-

sensus about their importance to effective OD practice.

Two ongoing projects are attempting to define and categorize the skills and knowledge required of OD

practitioners. In the first effort, fifty well-known practitioners and researchers annually update a list of

professional competencies. The most recent list has grown to 187 statements in nine areas of OD practice,

including entry, start-up, assessment and feedback, action planning, intervention, evaluation, adoption,

separation, and general competencies. The statements range from "staying centered in the present, focusing

on the ongoing process" and "understanding and explaining how diversity will affect the diagnosis of the

culture" to "basing change on business strategy and business needs" and "being comfortable with quantum

leaps, radical shifts, and paradigm changes." The discussion is currently considering additional items related

to international OD, large-group interventions, and trans-organizational skills.

The second project, sponsored by the Organization Development and Change Division of the Academy of

Management, seeks to develop a list of competencies to guide curriculum development in graduate OD

programs. So far, more than forty OD practitioners have worked to develop the two competency lists.

First, foundation competencies are oriented toward descriptions of an existing system. They include

knowledge from organization behavior, psychology, group dynamics, management and organization theory,

research methods, and business practices. Second, core competencies are aimed at how systems change

over time. They include knowledge of organization design, organization research, system dynamics, OD

history, and theories and models for change; they also involve the skills needed to manage the consulting

process, to analyze and diagnose systems, to design and choose interventions, to facilitate processes, to

develop clients' capability to manage their own change, and to evaluate organization change.

The information in Table.1 applies primarily to people specializing in OD as a profession. For them,

possessing the listed knowledge and skills seems reasonable, especially in light of the growing diversity and

complexity of interventions in OD. Gaining competence in those areas may take considerable time and

effort, and it is questionable whether the other two types of OD practitioners--managers and specialists in

related fields--also need that full range of skills and knowledge. It seems more reasonable to suggest,

whether they are OD professionals, managers, or related specialists. Those items would constitute the

practitioner's basic skills and knowledge. Beyond that background, the three types of OD practitioners

likely would differ in areas of concentration. OD professionals would extend their breadth of skills across

the remaining categories.

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

be effective:

1. Intrapersonal skills. Despite the growing knowledge base and sophistication of the field, organization

development is still a human craft. As the primary instrument of diagnosis and change, practitioners often

must process complex, ambiguous information and make informed judgments about its relevance to

organizational issues. Practitioners must have the personal centering to know their own values, feelings, and

purposes as well as the integrity to behave responsibly in a helping relationship with others. Because OD is

a highly uncertain process requiring constant adjustment and innovation, practitioners must have active

learning skills and a reasonable balance between their rational and emotional sides. Finally, OD practice can

be highly stressful and can lead to early burnout, so practitioners need to know how to manage their own

stress.

2. Interpersonal skills. Practitioners must create and maintain effective relationships with individuals and

groups within the organization and help them gain the competence necessary to solve their own problems.

Group dynamics, comparative cultural perspectives, and business functions are considered to be the

foundation knowledge, and managing the consulting process and facilitation as core skills. All of these

interpersonal competencies promote effective helping relationships. Such relationships start with a grasp of

the organization's perspective and require listening to members' perceptions and feelings to understand

how they see themselves and the organization. This understanding provides a starting point for joint

diagnosis and problem solving. Practitioners must establish trust and rapport with organization members so

that they can share pertinent information and work effectively together. This requires being able to

converse in members' own language and to give and receive feedback about how the relationship is

progressing.

Organization Development MGMT 628

To help members learn new skills and behaviors, practitioners must serve as concrete role models of what

is expected. They must act in ways that are credible to organization members and provide them with the

counseling and coaching necessary to develop and change. Because the helping relationship is jointly

determined, practitioners need to be able to negotiate an acceptable role and to manage changing

expectations and demands.

3. General consultation skills. OD starts with diagnosing an organization or department to understand its

current functioning and to discover areas for further development. OD practitioners need to know how to

carry out an effective diagnosis, at least at a rudimentary level. They should know how to engage

organization members in diagnosis, how to help them ask the right questions, and how to collect and

analyze information. A manager, for example, should be able to work with subordinates to determine

jointly the organization's or department's strengths or problems. The manager should know basic

diagnostic questions some methods for gathering information, such as interviews or surveys, and some

techniques for analyzing it, such as force-field analysis or statistical means and distributions.

In addition to diagnosis, OD practitioners should know how to design and execute an intervention. They

need to be able to define an action plan and to gain commitment to the program. They also need to know

how to tailor the intervention to the situation, using information about how the change is progressing to

guide implementation. For example, managers should be able to develop action steps for an intervention

with subordinates. They should be able to gain their commitment to the program (usually through

participation), sit down with them and assess how it is progressing, and make modifications if necessary.

4. Organization development theory. The last basic tool OD practitioners should have is a general

knowledge of organization development. They should have some appreciation for planned change, the ac-

tion research model, and contemporary approaches to managing change. They should be familiar with the

range of available interventions and the need for evaluating and institutionalizing change programs. Perhaps

most important is that OD practitioners should understand their own role in the emerging field of

organization development, whether it is as an OD professional, a manager, or a specialist in a related area.

The role of the OD practitioner is changing and becoming more complex, Ellen Fagenson and W. Warner

Burke found that the most practiced OD skill or activity was team development, whereas the least

employed was the integration of technology (see Table 1).

The results of this study reinforce what other theorists have also suggested. The OD practitioners of today

are no longer just process facilitators, but are expected to know something about strategy, structure, reward

systems, corporate culture, leadership, human resource development and the client organization's business.

As a result, the role of the OD practitioner today is more challenging and more in the mainstream of the

client organization than in the past.

Table 1: OD Practitioner Skills and Activities

Susan Gebelein lists six key skill areas that are critical to the success of the internal practitioner. These are

shown in Figure15. The relative emphasis on each type of skill will depend upon the situation, but all are

vital in achieving OD program goals. The skills that focus on the people-oriented nature of the OD

practitioner include:

· Leadership. Leaders keep members focused on key company values and on opportunities and

need for improvement. A leader's job is to recognize when a company is headed in the wrong

direction and to get it back on the right track.

· Project Management. This means involving all the right people and department to keep the

change program on track.

· Communication. It is vital to communicate the key values to everyone in the organization.

Organization Development MGMT 628

Problem-Solving. The real challenge is to implement a solution to an organizational problem.

Forget about today's problems: focus constantly on the next set of problems.

Interpersonal. The number-one priority is to give everybody in the organization the tools and the

confidence to be involved in the change process. This includes facilitating, building relationships,

and process skills.

Personal. The confidence to help the organization make tough decisions, introduce new

techniques, try something new, and see if it works.

Figure 15: Practitioner Skills Profile

The OD practitioner's role is to help employees create their own solutions, systems, and concepts. When

the practitioner uses the above-listed skills lo accomplish these goals, the employees will work hard to make

them succeed, because they are the owners of the change programs,

Consultant's Abilities:

Ten primary abilities are key to an OD consultant's effectiveness. Most of these abilities can be learned, but

because of individual differences in personality or basic temperament, some of them would be easier for

some to learn than for others.

1. The ability to tolerate ambiguity. Every organization is different, and what worked before may

not work now; every OD effort starts from scratch, and it is best to enter with few preconceived

notions other than with the general characteristics that we know about social systems.

2. The ability to influence. Unless the OD consultant enjoys power and has some talent for

persuasion, he or she is likely to succeed in only minor ways in OD.

3. The ability to confront difficult issues. Much of OD work consists of exposing issues that

organization members are reluctant to face.

4. The ability to support and nurture others. This ability is particularly important in times of

conflict and stress; it is also critical just before and during a manager's first experience with team

building.

5. The ability to listen well and empathize. This is especially important during interviews, in

conflict situations, and when client stress is high.

6. The ability to recognize one's feelings and intuition quickly. It is important to be able to

distinguish one's own perceptions from those of the client and also be able to use these feelings

and intuitions as interventions when appropriate and timely.

7. The ability to conceptualize. It is necessary to think and express in understandable words certain

relationships, such as the cause-and-effect and if-then linkages that exist within the systemic

context of the client organization.

Organization Development MGMT 628

8. The ability to discover and mobilize human energy, both within oneself and within the client

organization. There is energy in resistance, for example, and the consultant's interventions are

likely to be most effective when they tap existing energy within the organization and provide

direction for the productive use of the energy.

9. The ability to teach or to create learning opportunities. This ability should not be reserved for

classroom activities but should be utilized on the job, during meetings, and within the mainstream

of the overall change effort.

10. The ability to maintain a sense of humor, both on the client's behalf and to help sustain

perspective: Humor can be useful for reducing tension. It is also useful for the consultant to be

able to laugh at himself or herself; not taking oneself too seriously is critical for maintaining

perspective about an OD effort, especially since nothing ever goes exactly according to plan, even

though OD is supposed to be a planned change effort.

Role of Organization Development Professionals Position:

Position:

Organization development professionals have positions that are either internal or external to the

organization. Internal consultants are members of the organization and often are located in the human

resources department. They may perform the OD role exclusively, or they may combine it with other tasks,

such as compensation practices, training, or labor relations. Many large organizations, such as Intel, Merck,

Abitibi Consolidated, BHP, Philip Morris, Levi Strauss, Procter & Gamble, Weyerhaeuser; GTE, and

Citigroup, have created specialized OD consulting groups. These internal consultants typically have a

variety of clients within the organization, serving both line and staff departments.

External consultants are not members of the client organization; they typically work for a consulting firm, a

university, or themselves. Organizations generally hire external consultants to provide a particular expertise

that is unavailable internally and to bring a different and potentially more objective perspective into the

organization development process. Table.2 describes the differences between these two roles at each stage

of the action research process.

During the entry process, internal consultants have clear advantages. They have ready access to and

relationships with clients, know the language of the organization, and have insights about the root cause of

many of its problems. This allows internal consultants to save time in identifying the organization's culture,

informal practices, and sources of power. They have access to a variety of information, including rumors,

company reports, and direct observations. In addition, entry is more efficient and congenial, and their pay

is not at risk. External consultants, however, have the advantage of being able to select the clients they want

to work with according to their own criteria. The contracting phase is less formal for internal consultants

and there is less worry about expenses, but there is less choice about whether to complete the assignment.

Both types of consultants must address issues of confidentiality, risk project termination (and other

negative consequences) by the client, and fill a third-party role.

During the diagnosis process, internal consultants already know most organization members and enjoy a

basic level of rapport and trust. But external consultants often have higher status than internal consultants,

which allows them to probe difficult issues and assess the organization more objectively. In the

intervention phase, both types of consultants must rely on valid information, free and informed choice, and

internal commitment for their success, However, an internal consultant's strong ties to the organization

may make him or her overly cautious particularly when powerful others can affect a career. Internal

consultants also may lack certain skills and experience in facilitating organizational change. Inside he may

have some small advantages in being able to move around the system and cross key organizational

boundaries. Finally, the measures of success and reward differ from those of the external practitioner in the

evaluation process.

A promising approach to having the advantages of both internal and external OD consultants is to include

them both as members of an internal-external consulting team. External consultants can combine their

special expertise and objectivity with the inside knowledge and acceptance of internal consultants. The two

parties can use complementary consulting skills while sharing the workload and possibly accomplishing

more than either would by operating alone. Internal consultants, for example, can provide almost

continuous contact with the client, and their external counterparts can provide specialized services

periodically, such as two or three days each month. External consultants also can help train their orga-

nization partners, thus transferring OD skills and knowledge to the organization.

Although little has been written on internal-external consulting teams, recent studies suggest that the

effectiveness of such teams depends on members developing strong, supportive, collegial relationships.

They need to take time to develop the consulting team; confronting individual differences and establishing

appropriate roles and exchanges, member's need to provide each other with continuous feedback and make

a commitment to learning from each other. In the absence of these team-building and learning activities,

Organization Development MGMT 628

internal-external consulting teams can be more troublesome and less effective than consultants working

alone.

The difference between External and Internal Consulting

Stage of change

External consultant

Internal consultant

·Source clients

·Ready access to clients

Entering

·Build relationships

·Ready relationships

·Learn company jargon

·Knows company jargon

·"presenting problem" challenge

·Understands root causes

·Time consuming

·Time efficient

·Stressful phase

·Congenial phase

·Select project/client according to own criteria

·Obligated to work with everyone

·Unpredictable outcome

·Steady pay

·Formal documents

·Informal agreements

Contracting

·Can terminate project at will

·Must complete projects assigned

·Guard against out-of-pocket expenses

·No out-of-pocket expenses

·Information confidential

·Information can be open or

·Loss of contract at stake

confidential

·Risk of client retaliation and loss

·Maintain third-party role

of job at state

·Act as third party, driver (on

behalf of client or pair of hands)

·Meet most organization members for the first ·Has relationships with many

Diagnosing

time

organization members

·Prestige from being external

·Prestige determined by job rank

·Build trust quickly

and client stature

·Confidential data can increase political ·Sustain reputation as trustworthy

over time

sensitivities

·Data openly shared can reduce

political intrigue

·Insist on valid information, free and informed ·Insist on valid information, free

Intervening

choice, and internal commitment

and informed choice and internal

·Confine activities within boundaries of client commitment

·Run interference for client across

organization

organizational lines to align

support

·Rely on repeat business and customer referral as ·Rely on repeat business, pay raise

Evaluating

key measures of project success

and promotion as key measures

·Seldom see long-term results

of success

·Can

see

change

become

institutionalized

·Little recognition for job well

done

Marginality:

A promising line of research on the professional OD role centers on the issue of marginality. The marginal

person is one who successfully straddles the boundary between two or more groups with differing goals,

value systems, and behavior patterns. Whereas in the past, the marginal role always was seen as

dysfunctional, marginality now is seen in a more positive light. There are many examples of marginal roles

in organizations: the salesperson, the buyer, the first-line supervisor, the integrator and the project manager.

Evidence is mounting that some people are better at taking marginal roles than are others. Those who are

good at it seem to have personal qualities of low dogmatism, neutrality, open-mindedness, objectivity,

flexibility, and adaptable information-processing ability. Rather than being upset by conflict, ambiguity, and

stress, they thrive on it. Individuals with marginal orientations are more likely than others to develop

integrative decisions that bring together and reconcile viewpoints among opposing organizational groups

and are more likely to remain neutral in controversial situations. Thus, the research suggests that the

Organization Development MGMT 628

marginal role can have positive effects when it is filled by a person with a marginal orientation. Such a

person can be more objective and better able to perform successfully in linking, integrative, or conflict-

laden roles,

There are two other boundaries: the activities boundary and the membership boundary. For both, the

OD consultant should operate at the boundary, in a marginal capacity.

With respect to change activities, particularly implementation, the consultant must help but not be directly

involved. Suppose an off-site team-building session, for a manger and his subordinates, he would help the

manager with the design and process of the meeting but would not lead.

With respect to membership, the OD consultant is never quite in nor quite out. Although the consultant

must be involved, he or she cannot be a member of the client organization. Being a member means that

there is vested interest, a relative lack of objectivity. Being totally removed means, he cannot sense, cannot

be empathetic, and cannot use his or her feelings. Being marginal means that the consultant becomes

involved enough to understand client's feelings and perceptions yet distant enough to be able to see these

feelings and perceptions for what they are.

Being marginal is critical for both an external consultant and an internal consultant. The major concern

regarding the internal OD practitioner's role is that he or she can never be a consultant to his or her own

group. If the group is an OD department, a member of this department, no matter how skilled, cannot be

an affective consultant to it. It is also difficult for an internal OD practitioner to be a consultant to any

group that is within the same vertical path or chain of the managerial hierarchy as he or she may be. Since

the OD function is often a part of corporate personnel or the human resource function, it would be

difficult for the internal OD consultant to play a marginal role in consulting with any of the groups within

the corporate function, because the consultant would be a primary organization member of that function.

Consulting with marketing, R&D or manufacturing within one's organization, for example, would be far

more feasible and appropriate, since the OD consultant could more easily maintain a marginal role.

Emotional Demands:

The OD practitioner role is emotionally demanding. Research and practice support the importance of

understanding emotions and their impact on the practitioner's effectiveness. The research on emotional

intelligence in organizations suggests a set of abilities that can aid OD practitioners in conducting

successful change efforts. Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize and express emotions

appropriately, to use emotions in thought and decisions, and to regulate emotion in oneself and in others. It

is, therefore, a different kind of intelligence from problem-solving ability, engineering aptitude, or the

knowledge of concepts. In tandem with traditional knowledge and skill, emotional intelligence affects and

supplements rational thought; emotions help prioritize thinking by directing attention to important

information not addressed in models and theories. In That sense, some researchers argue that emotional

intelligence is as important as cognitive intelligence.

Reports from OD practitioners support the importance of emotional intelligence in practice. At each stage

of planned change, they must relate to and help organization members adapt to resistance, commitment,

and ambiguity. Facing those important and difficult issues raises emotions such as the fear of failure or

rejection. As the client and others encounter these kinds of emotions, OD practitioners must have a clear

sense of emotional effects, including their own internal emotions. Ambiguity or denial of emotions can lead

to inaccurate and untimely interventions. For example, a practitioner who is uncomfortable with conflict

may intervene to diffuse conflict because of the discomfort he or she feels, not because the conflict is

destructive. In such a case, the practitioner is acting to address a personal need rather than intervening to

improve the system's effectiveness.

Evidence suggests that emotional intelligence increases with age and experience. In addition, it can be

developed through personal growth processes such as sensitivity training, counseling, and therapy. It seems

reasonable to suggest that professional OD practitioners dedicate themselves to a long-term regimen of

development that includes acquiring both cognitive learning and emotional intelligence.

Use of Knowledge and Experience:

The professional OD role has been described in terms of a continuum ranging from client-centered (using

the client's knowledge and experience) to consultant-centered (using the consultant's knowledge and

experience, as shown in Figure 16), Traditionally, OD consultants have worked at the client-centered end

of the continuum. Organization development professionals, relying mainly on sensitivity training, process

consultation, and team building, have been expected to remain neutral, refusing to offer expert advice on

organizational problems. Rather than contracting to solve specific problems, the consultant has tended to

work with organization members to identify problems and potential solutions, to help them study what

they are doing now and consider alternative behaviors and solutions, and to help them discover whether, in

fact, the consultant and they can learn to do things better. In doing that the OD professional has generally

Organization Development MGMT 628

listened and reflected upon members' perceptions and ideas and helped clarify and interpret their

communications and behaviors.

Figure 16: Use of Consultant's Versus Client's Knowledge and Experience

With the recent proliferation of OD interventions in the structural, human resource management, and

strategy areas that limited definition of the professional OD role has expanded to include the consultant-

centered end of the continuum. In many of the newer approaches, the consultant may have to take on a

modified role of expert, with the consent and collaboration of organization members. For example, if a

consultant and managers were to try to bring about a major structural redesign, managers may not have the

appropriate knowledge and expertise to create and manage the change. The consultant's role might be to

present the basic concepts and ideas and then to struggle jointly with the managers to select an approach

that might be useful to the organization and to decide how it ' might best be implemented. In this situation,

the OD professional recommends or prescribes particular changes and is active in planning how to

implement them. This expertise, however, is always shared rather than imposed.

With the development of new and varied intervention approaches, the OD professional's role needs to be

seen as falling along the entire continuum from client-centered to consultant-centered. At times, the

consultant will rely mainly on organization members' knowledge and experiences to identify and solve

problems. At other times, it will be more appropriate to take on the role of expert, withdrawing from that

role as managers gain more knowledge and experience.

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