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Lesson
22
Designing
Interventions
An organization
development intervention is a sequence of
activities, actions, and
events intended to
help
an
organization improve its performance
and effectiveness. Intervention
design, or action planning,
derives
from
careful diagnosis and is
meant to resolve specific
problems and to improve particular
areas of
organizational
functioning identified in the diagnosis.
OD interventions vary from standardized
programs
that
have been developed and used
in many organizations to relatively unique
programs tailored to a
specific
organization or department.
What
are effective
interventions?
The
term intervention refers to a set of
sequenced planned actions or events
intended to help an
organization
increase its effectiveness.
Interventions purposely disrupt the
status quo; they are
deliberate
attempts
to change an organization or subunit
toward a different and more
effective state. In OD,
three
major
criteria define an effective intervention: (1) the
extent to which it fits the needs of the
organization;
(2)
the degree to which it is based on
causal knowledge of intended outcomes;
and (3) the extent to which
it
transfers
change-management competence to organization
members.
The
first criterion concerns the extent to
which the intervention is relevant to the organization
and its
members.
Effective interventions are
based on valid information
about the organization's functioning;
they
provide
organization members with opportunities
to make free and informed
choices; and they
gain
members'
internal commitment to those
choices.
Valid
information is the result of an accurate
diagnosis of the organization's functioning. It
must reflect
fairly
what organization members perceive and
feel about their primary concerns and
issues. Free and
informed
choice suggests that members
are actively involved in making decisions
about the changes that
will
affect them. It means that they
can choose not to participate
and that interventions will
not be imposed
on
them. Internal commitment means
that organization members accept
ownership of the intervention and
take
responsibility for implementing it. If
interventions are to result in meaningful
changes, management,
staff,
and other relevant members
must be committed to carrying them
out.
The
second criterion of an effective
intervention involves knowledge of
outcomes. Because
interventions
are
intended to produce specific results,
they must be based on valid knowledge
that those outcomes
actually
can be produced. Otherwise
there is no scientific basis for
designing an effective OD
intervention.
Unfortunately,
and in contrast to other applied
disciplines such as medicine
and engineering, knowledge of
intervention
effects is in a rudimentary stage of development in
OD. Much of the evaluation research
lacks
sufficient
rigor to make strong causal
inferences about the success or
failure of change
programs.
Moreover,
few attempts have been
made to examine the comparative
effects of different OD
techniques.
All
of these factors make it
difficult to know whether one
method is more effective than
another.
Despite
these problems, more
attempts are being made to
assess systematically the strengths
and
weaknesses
of OD interventions and to compare the
impact of different techniques on
organization
effectiveness.
The
third criterion of an effective
intervention involves the extent to which it
enhances the organization's
capacity
to manage change. The values
underlying OD suggest that organization
members should be better
able
to carry out planned change activities on
their own following an
intervention. They should
gain
knowledge
and skill in managing change
from active participation in
designing and implementing the
intervention.
Competence in change management is
essential in today's environment,
where technological,
social,
economic, arid political changes
are rapid and
persistent.
How
to design effective
interventions:
Designing
OD interventions requires paying careful
attention to the needs and
dynamics of the change
situation
and crafting a change program
that will be consistent with
the previously described criteria of
effective
interventions. Current knowledge of OD
interventions provides only general
prescriptions for
change.
There is scant precise information or
research about how to design
interventions or how they
can
be
expected to interact with organizational
conditions to achieve specific
results. Moreover, because
the
ability
to implement most OD interventions is
highly dependent on the skills and
knowledge of the change
agent,
the design of an intervention will
depend to some extent on the expertise of
the practitioner.
Two
major sets of contingencies that
can affect intervention success
have been discussed in the
OD
literature:
those having to do with the change
situation (including the practitioner)
and those related to
the
target
of change. Both kinds of contingencies
need to be considered in designing
interventions.
Contingencies
Related to the Change
Situation:
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Researchers
have identified a number of contingencies
present in the change situation
that can affect
intervention
success. These include individual
differences among organization members
(for example,
needs
for autonomy), organizational factors
(for example, management
style and technical uncertainty),
and
dimensions
of the change process itself
(for example, degree of
top-management support). Unless
these
factors
are taken into account in
designing an intervention, it will
have little impact on
organizational
functioning
or, worse, it may produce
negative results. For
example, to resolve motivational
problems
among
blue-collar workers in an oil refinery it
is important to know whether
interventions intended to
improve
motivation (for example, job
enrichment) will succeed with the kinds
of people who work
there.
In
many cases, knowledge of these
contingencies results in modifying or
adjusting the change program to
fit
the setting. In applying a reward-system
intervention to an organization, the changes
might have to be
modified
depending on whether the firm wants to reinforce
individual or team
performance.
Although
knowledge of contingencies is still at a rudimentary
stage of development in OD,
researchers
have
discovered several situational factors
that can affect intervention
success. More generic
contingencies
that
apply to all OD interventions are
presented below. They include the
following situational factors
that
must
be considered in designing any
intervention: the organization's readiness
for change, its
change
capability,
its cultural context, and the change
agent's skills and
abilities.
Readiness
for Change:
Intervention
success depends heavily on the organization being
ready for planned change.
Indicators of
readiness
for change include sensitivity to
pressures for change,
dissatisfaction with the status
quo,
availability
of resources to support change,
and commitment of significant management time.
When such
conditions
are present, interventions
can be designed to address the
organizational issues uncovered
during
diagnosis.
When readiness for change is
low, however, interventions need to
focus first on increasing
the
organization's
willingness to change.
Capability
to Change:
Managing
planned change requires particular knowledge
and skills, including the
ability to motivate
change,
to
lead change, to develop political
support, to manage the transition, and to
sustain momentum. If
organization
members do not have these
capabilities, then a preliminary
training intervention may
be
needed
before members can engage
meaningfully in intervention
design.
Cultural
Context:
The
national culture within which the
organization is embedded can exert a
powerful influence on
members'
reactions to change, so intervention
design must account for the
cultural values and
assumptions
held
by organization members. Interventions
may have to be modified to
fit the local culture,
particularly
when
OD practices developed in one culture are
applied to organizations in another culture. For
example, a
team-building
intervention designed for
top managers at an American firm
may need to be modified
when
applied
to the company's foreign
subsidiaries.
Capabilities
of the Change
Agent:
Many
failures in OD result when change
agents apply interventions beyond their
competence. In designing
interventions,
OD practitioners should assess their
experience and expertise
against the requirements
needed
to implement the intervention effectively.
When a mismatch is discovered,
practitioners can explore
whether
the intervention can be modified to
fit their talents better,
whether another intervention more
suited
to their skills can satisfy
the organization's needs, or whether they should enlist the
assistance of
another
change agent who can
guide the process more
effectively. The ethical
guidelines under which OD
practitioners
operate requires full
disclosure of the applicability of their
knowledge and expertise to the
client
situation. Practitioners are expected to
intervene within their capabilities or to
recommend someone
more
suited to the client's
needs.
Contingencies
Related to the Target of
Change:
OD
interventions seek to change
specific features or parts of
organizations. These targets of
change are
the
main focus of interventions,
and researchers have
identified two key
contingencies related to
change
targets
that can affect intervention
success: the organizational issues that
the intervention is intended to
resolve
and the level of organizational system at
which the intervention is expected to
have a primary
impact.
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Organizational
Issues:
Organizations
need to address certain
issues to operate effectively. Figure
9.1 lists these issues along
with
the
OD interventions that are intended to
resolve them. It shows the
following four interrelated issues
that
are
key targets of OD
interventions:
1.
Strategic
issues. Organizations
need to decide what products or
services they will provide
and the
markets
in which they will compete, as
well as how to relate to
their environments and how to
transform
themselves
to keep pace with changing
conditions. These strategic issues
are among the most critical
facing
organizations
in today's changing and
highly competitive environments. OD
methods aimed at these
issues
are
called strategic interventions.
The methods are among the
most recent additions to OD and
include
integrated
strategic change, mergers
and acquisitions, trans-organizational development,
and organization
learning.
2.
Technology
and structure issues. Organizations
must decide how to divide
work into departments
and
then how to coordinate among
those departments to support strategic
directions. They also must
make
decisions
about how to deliver products or
services and how to link
people to tasks. OD methods
for
dealing
with these structural and technological
issues are called techno-structural
interventions and include
OD
activities relating to organization design, employee
involvement, and work
design.
3.
Human
resources issues. These
issues are concerned with
attracting competent people to the
organization,
setting goals for them,
appraising and rewarding their
performance, and ensuring
that they
develop
their careers and manage
stress. OD techniques aimed at
these issues are called
human resources
management
interventions.
4.
Human
process issues. These
issues have to do with
social processes occurring among
organization
members,
such as communication, decision making,
leadership, and group
dynamics. OD methods
focusing
on these kinds of issues are
called human process
interventions; included among them are
some of
the
most common OD techniques, such as
conflict resolution and team
building.
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Figure
32. Types of OD Interventions and
Organizational Issues
Consistent
with system theory as
discussed earlier, these organizational
issues are interrelated and
need to
be
integrated with each other.
The double-headed arrows connecting the
different issues in Figure 32
represent
the fits or linkages among
them. Organizations need to match
answers to one set of
questions
with
answers to other sets of
questions to achieve high
levels of effectiveness. For
example, decisions
about
gaining
competitive advantage need to fit
with choices about organization
structure, setting goals for
and
rewarding
people, communication, and problem
solving.
The
interventions discussed in the lectures
are intended to resolve these
different concerns as shown
in
Figure
32, particular OD interventions apply to
specific issues. Thus,
intervention design must
create
change
methods appropriate to the organizational issues
identified in diagnosis. Moreover,
because the
organizational
issues are themselves linked
together, OD interventions similarly need to be
integrated with
one
another. For example, a
goal-setting intervention that
tries to establish motivating
goals may need to be
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integrated
with supporting interventions,
such as a reward system that
links pay to goal
achievement. The
key
point is to think systemically.
Interventions aimed at one
kind of organizational issue will
invariably
have
repercussions on other kinds of issues.
Careful thinking about how OD
interventions affect the
different
kinds of issues and how
different change programs
might be integrated to bring about a
broader
and
more coherent impact on organizational
functioning are critical to effective
intervention.
Organizational
Levels:
In
addition to facing interrelated issues,
organizations function at different
levels-- individual, group,
organization
and trans-organization. Thus, organizational
levels are targets of change
in OD. Table 8 lists
OD
interventions in terms of the level of organization
that they primarily affect. For
example, some
techno-structural
interventions affect mainly individuals
and groups (for example,
work design), whereas
others
impact primarily the total organization
(for example, structural
design).
It
is important to emphasize that
only the primary level affected by the
intervention is identified in Table
8.
Many
OD interventions also have a
secondary impact on the other
levels. For example, structural
design
affects
mainly the organization level but can
have an indirect effect on groups
and individuals because
it
sets
the broad parameters for designing
work groups and individual
jobs. Again, practitioners need to
think
systemically.
They must design
interventions to apply to specific organizational
levels, address the
possibility
of cross-level effects, and
perhaps integrate interventions affecting
different levels to
achieve
overall
success. For example, an
intervention to create self-managed
work teams may need to be
linked to
organization-level
changes in measurement and
reward systems to promote
team-based work.
Overview
of interventions:
The
OD interventions, which will be
discussed later, are briefly
described below. They represent the
major
organizational
change methods used in OD
today.
Human
Process Interventions:
These
interventions focus on people within
organizations and the processes
through which they
accomplish
organizational goals. These processes
include communication, problem solving, group
decision
making,
and leadership. This type of
intervention is deeply rooted in the
history of OD. It represents
the
earliest
change programs characterizing
OD, including the T-group
and the organizational
confrontation
meeting.
Human process interventions derive mainly
from the disciplines of psychology
and social
psychology
and the applied fields of group dynamics
and human relations. Practitioners
applying these
interventions
generally value human
fulfillment and expect that
organizational effectiveness follows
from
improved
functioning of people and organizational
processes.
Table
8 Types of Interventions and Organization
Levels
Organizational
Levels
Primary
Organization Level
Affected
Individual
Group
Organization
Interventions
Human
Process
T-group
X
X
Process
consultation
X
Third-party
intervention
X
X
Organization
confrontation meeting
X
X
Inter-group
relations
X
X
Large-group
interventions
X
Techno-structural
Structural
Design
X
Work
Design
X
X
Human
Resources Management
Goal
setting
X
X
Performance
appraisal
X
X
Reward
systems
X
X
X
Managing
workforce diversity
X
X
Employee
wellness
X
Strategic
Self-designing
organizations
X
X
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Human
process interventions related to
interpersonal relationships and group
dynamics include the
following
four interventions:
1.
T-group.
This
traditional change method provides
members with experiential learning
about
group
dynamics, leadership, and interpersonal
relations. The basic T-group
brings ten to fifteen
strangers
together with a professional trainer to
examine the social dynamics
that emerge from
their
interactions. Members gain feedback about
the impact of their own
behaviors on each
other
and
learn about group
dynamics.
2.
Process
consultation. This
intervention focuses on interpersonal relations
and social dynamics
occurring
in work group. Typically, a process
consultant helps group members
diagnose group
functioning
and devise appropriate solutions to
process problems, such as dysfunctional
conflict,
poor
communication, and ineffective norms.
The aim is to help members
gain the skills and
understanding
necessary to identify and
solve problems
themselves.
3.
Third-party
intervention. This
change method is a form of process
consultation aimed at
dysfunctional
interpersonal relations in organizations.
Interpersonal conflict may derive
from
substantive
issues, such as disputes
over work methods, or from
interpersonal issues, such as
miscommunication.
The third-party intervener helps people
resolve conflicts through
such
methods
as problem solving, bargaining, and
conciliation.
4.
Team
building. This
intervention helps work
groups become more effective in
accomplishing
tasks.
Like process consultation, team
building helps members
diagnose group processes
and
devise
solutions to problems. It goes beyond
group processes, however, to include examination
of
the
group's task, member roles,
and strategies for
performing tasks. The consultant
also may
function
as a resource person offering
expertise related to the group's
task.
Human
process interventions that
are more system-wide (than
those related to Interpersonal &
Groups)
typically
focus on the total organization or an entire
department, as well as on relations
between groups.
These
include the following four change
programs:
1.
Organization
confrontation meeting. This
change method mobilizes organization
members to
identify
problems, set action targets,
and begin working on problems. It is
usually applied when
organizations
are experiencing stress and
when management needs to organize
resources for
immediate
problem
solving. The intervention generally
includes various groupings of employees
in identifying and
solving
problems.
2.
Inter-group
relations. These
interventions are designed to
improve interactions among different
groups
or
departments in organizations. The
microcosm group intervention involves a
small group of people
whose
backgrounds closely match the
organizational problems being addressed. This
group addresses the
problem
and develops means to solve
it. The inter-group conflict
model typically involves a consultant
helping
two groups understand the
causes of their conflict and
choose appropriate solutions.
3.
Large-group
interventions. These
interventions involve getting a broad variety of
stakeholders into a
large
meeting to clarify important
values, to develop new ways of
working, to articulate a new
vision for the
organization,
or to solve pressing organizational
problems. Such meetings are
powerful tools for
creating
awareness
of organizational problems and
opportunities and for
specifying valued directions for
future
action.
4.
Grid
organization development. This
normative intervention specifies a
particular way to manage an
organization.
It is a packaged OD program that includes
standardized instruments for
measuring
organizational
practices and specific
procedures for helping
organizations to achieve the
prescribed
approach.
Techno-structural
Interventions:
These
interventions focus on an organization's technology
(for example, task methods
and job design)
and
structure
(for example, division of
labor and hierarchy). These
change methods are receiving
increasing
attention
in OD, especially in light of current
concerns about productivity and
organizational effectiveness.
They
include approaches to employee
involvement, as well as methods
for designing organizations,
groups,
and
jobs. Techno-structural intervention are
rooted in the disciplines of engineering,
sociology, and
psychology
and in the applied fields of socio-technical
systems and organization design,
practitioners
generally
stress both productivity and
human fulfillment and expect
that organization effectiveness
will
result
from appropriate work designs
and organization structures.
In
the coming lectures we will discuss the
following three techno-structural
interventions concerned
with
restructuring
organizations:
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1.
Structural
design. This
change process concerns the
organization's division of labor--how
to
specialize
task performances. Interventions
aimed at structural design include
moving from more
traditional
ways of dividing the organizations
overall work (such as
functional, self-contained-unit,
and
matrix structures) to more integrative
and flexible forms (such as
process-based and
network-
based
structures). Diagnostic guidelines exist
to determine which structure is
appropriate for
particular
organizational environments, technologies, and
conditions.
2.
Downsizing.
This
intervention reduces costs
and bureaucracy by decreasing the
size of the
organization
through personnel layouts, organization
redesign and outsourcing. Each of
these
downsizing
methods must be planned with a
clear understanding of the organizations
strategy.
3.
Reengineering.
This
recent intervention radically
redesigns the organization's core
work
processes
to create tighter linkage and
coordination among the different
tasks. This work-flow
integration
results in faster, more
responsive task performance.
Reengineering is often
accomplished
with new information technology
that permits employees to
control and coordinate
work
processes more effectively.
Reengineering often fails if it
ignores basic principles
and
processes
of OD.
Employee
involvement (El). This broad category of
interventions is aimed at improving
employee well-
being
and organizational effectiveness. It
generally attempts to move knowledge,
power, information,
and
rewards
downward in the organization. El includes parallel
structures (such as cooperative
union--
management
projects and quality
circles), high-involvement plants,
and total quality
management.
Work
design. These change
programs are concerned with
designing work for work
groups and individual
jobs.
The intervention includes
engineering, motivational, and
socio-technical systems approaches
that
produce
traditionally designed jobs
and work groups; enriched
jobs that provide employees
with greater
task
variety, autonomy, and
feedback about results; and
self-managing teams that can
govern their own task
behaviors
with limited external
control.
Human
Resources Management
Interventions:
These
interventions would focus on
personnel practices used to
integrate people into organizations.
These
practices
include career planning, reward
systems, goal setting, and
performance appraisal--change
methods
that traditionally have been
associated with the personnel
function in organizations. In
recent
years,
interest has grown in integrating
human resources management
with OD. Human
resources
management
interventions are rooted in the
disciplines of economics and
labor relations and in the applied
personnel
practices of wages and
compensation employee selection
and placements performance
appraisal,
and
career development. Practitioners in this
area typically focus on the people in
organizations believing
that
organizational effectiveness results from
improved practices for integrating
employees into
organizations.
Interventions
concerning performance management include
the following change
programs:
1.
Goal
setting. This
change program involves setting
clear and challenging goals.
It attempts to
improve
organization effectiveness by establishing a better
fit between personal and
organizational
objectives.
Managers and subordinates periodically
meet to plan work, review
accomplishments
and
solve problems in achieving
goals.
2.
Performance
appraisal. This
intervention is a systematic process of
jointly assessing work-related
achievements,
strengths, and weaknesses. It is the
primary human resources
management
intervention
for providing performance
feedback to individuals and
work groups.
Performance
appraisal
represents an important link
between goal setting and
reward systems.
3.
Reward
systems. This
intervention involves the design of
organizational rewards to improve
employee
satisfaction and performance. It
includes innovative approaches to
pay, promotions and
fringe
benefits.
Three
change methods associated with
developing and assisting organization members
include:
1.
Career
planning and development. This
intervention helps people choose
organizations and
career
paths and attain career
objectives. It generally focuses on
managers and professional
staff
and
is seen as a way of improving the
quality of their work
life.
2.
Managing
workforce diversity. This
change program makes human
resources practices
more
responsive
to a variety of individual needs.
Important trends, such as the
increasing number of
women,
ethnic minorities, and physically and
mentally challenged people in the workforce,
require
a
more flexible set of polices
and practices.
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3.
Employee
wellness. These
interventions include employee assistance
programs (EAPs) and
stress
management.
EAPs are counseling programs
that help employees deal
with substance abuse
and
mental
health, marital, and financial problems
that often are associated
with poor work
performance.
Stress management programs
help workers cope with the
negative consequences of
stress
at work. They help managers
reduce specific sources of
stress, such as role
conflict and
ambiguity,
and provide methods for
reducing such stress
symptoms as hypertension and
anxiety.
Strategic
Interventions:
Interventions
that link the internal
functioning of the organization to the larger
environment and transform
the
organization to keep pace with
changing conditions are
among the newest additions to OD. They
are
implemented
organization wide and bring about a
fit between business
strategy, structure, culture, and
the
larger
environment. The interventions derive
from the disciplines of strategic
management, organization
theory,
open--systems theory, and cultural
anthropology.
Major
interventions for managing organization
and environment relationships
involve:
1.
Integrated
strategic change. This
comprehensive OD intervention describes
how planned
change
can make a value-added
contribution to strategic management. It
argues that business
strategies
and organizational systems must be
changed together in response to external
and internal
disruptions.
A strategic change plan
helps members manage the
transition between a current
strategy
and organization design and the
desired future strategic
orientation.
2.
Trans-organization
development. This
intervention helps organizations
enter into alliances,
partnerships,
and joint ventures to
perform tasks or solve
problems that are too
complex for single
organizations
to resolve. It helps organizations
recognize the need for
partnerships and develop
appropriate
structures for implementing
them.
3.
Merger
and acquisition integration. This
intervention describes how OD
practitioners can
assist
two or more organizations to
form a new entity.
Addressing key strategic,
leadership, and
cultural
issues prior to the legal
and financial transaction helps to smooth
operational integration.
Interventions
for transforming organizations include:
1.
Culture
change. This
intervention helps organizations develop
cultures (behaviors,
values,
believes,
and norms) appropriate to their
strategies and environments. It focuses
on developing a
strong
organization culture to keep organization members
pulling in the same
direction.
2.
Self-designing
organizations. This
change program helps organizations
gain the capacity to alter
them
fundamentally. It is a highly participative
process involving multiple
stakeholders in setting
strategic
directions and designing and implementing
appropriate structures and
processes.
Organizations
learn how to design and
implement their own strategic
changes.
3.
Organization
learning and knowledge management. This
intervention describes
two
interrelated
change processes: Organization Learning
(OL), which seeks to enhance
an
organization's
capability to acquire and develop new
knowledge, and Knowledge
Management
(KM),
which focuses on how that
knowledge can be organized and
used to improve organization
performance.
These interventions move the organization beyond
solving existing problems so as
to
become capable of continuous
improvement.
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