ORGANIZATIONAL

DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTION
 The term Intervention refers to a set of
sequenced, planned actions or events
intended to help an organization to increase
its effectiveness.

 Interventions purposely disrupt the status

quo; they are deliberate attempts to change
an organization or sub-unit toward a
different and more effective state.
 Criteria for Effective
InInterventions
OD three major criteria define the effectiveness
of an intervention:

1. The Extent to Which it (the Intervention) fits the

needs of the organization.
2. The degree to which it is based on causal
knowledge of intended outcomes
3. The extent to which the OD intervention transfers
change-management competence to organization
members.
 Factors That Impact the Success of OD
Interventions
I. Factors relating to Change Situation: include the physical
and human environment.
1. Readiness for Change:
2. Intervention success depends heavily on the organization
being ready for planned change.
3. Indicators for readiness for change include sensitivity to
pressures for change (higher sensitivity means greater
readiness to change); dissatisfaction with the status quo;
availability of resources to support change; and,
commitment of significant management time.
2. 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 transition, and to sustain
momentum.

3. Cultural Context: The national culture within which an

organization is embedded can exert a powerful
influence on members’ reactions to change, and so
intervention design must account for the cultural
values and assumptions held by organization members.
4. Capabilities of the Change Agent (OD Consultant):
The success of OD interventions depend to a great
extent on the expertise, experience and talents of
the consultant.
II. Factors Related to the Target of Change: These relate to the
specific targets at which OD interventions are targeted. The
targets of change can be different issues of the organization and
at different levels.

Organizational Issues
1. Strategic Issues: Strategic issues refer to major decisions of
organizations such as what products or services to offer, which
markets to serve, mergers, acquisitions, expansions, etc.
 OD Interventions aimed at these strategic issues are called strategic
interventions and are among the most recent OD interventions and
include, integrated strategic change, mergers and acquisitions,
transorganizational development, organizational learning, etc.
2. Technology and Structure Issues: These refer to
issues relating to how organizations divide their
work amongst departments and how they
coordinate between departments.
OD interventions aimed at these issues are called
techno-structural interventions.
3. Human Resource 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 resource 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.
 Organizational Levels

 OD interventions are aimed at different levels of

the organization: individual, group, organization
and trans-organization (for example different
offices of the organization around the globe; or
between organization and its suppliers, customers,
etc.)
 Human Process Interventions
The following interventions deal with interpersonal
relationships and group dynamics.

1. T Groups: 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
groups. Typically, a process consultant helps group members
diagnose group functioning and devise appropriate solutions to
process problems, such as dysfunctional conflict., poor
communications, and ineffective norms.
The aim is to help members gain the skills and understanding
necessary to identify and solve problems themselves.

3. Third Party Interventions: 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.
 Techno-Structural Interventions
 These interventions deal with an organization’s technology
(for examples its task methods and job design) and
structure (for example, division of labor and hierarchy).

 These interventions are rooted in the disciplines of

engineering, sociology, and psychology and in the applied
fields of socio-technical systems and organization design.
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 organization’s 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).

2. Downsizing: This intervention reduces costs and

bureaucracy by decreasing the size of the organization
through personnel layoffs, organization redesign, and
outsourcing. Each of these downsizing methods must be
planned with a clear understanding of the organization’s
strategy.
3. Re-engineering: This recent intervention
radically redesigns the organization’s core
work processes to create tighter linkage and
coordination among the different tasks.
This workflow integration results in faster, more
responsive task performance.
Employee Involvement (EI) interventions
 Parallel Structures
 High-involvement organizations and
 Total Quality Management (TQM ).

These interventions are aimed at improving

employee well-being and organizational
effectiveness.
 Parallel Structures:
This intervention involves members in resolving ill-defined, complex
problems and build adaptability into bureaucratic organizations. Also known
as “collateral structures”, “Dualistic structures” or “shadow structures”.
 Parallel structures operate in conjunction with the formal organization. They
provide members with an alternative setting in which to address problems
and to propose innovative solutions free from the formal organization
structure and culture.
 For example, members may attend periodic off-site meetings to explore
ways to improve quality in their work area or they may be temporarily
assigned to a special project of facility to devise new products or solutions to
organizational problems.

 Parallel structures facilitate problem solving and change by providing

time and resources for members to think, talk, and act in completely new
ways. Consequently, norms and procedures for working in parallel structures
are entirely different from those of the formal organization.
 High-involvement Organizations (HIO’s):

These interventions are aimed at creating organizations with high involvement

of employees. They create organizational conditions that support high levels of
employee participation.
What makes HIO’s unique is the comprehensive nature of their design process.
Unlike parallel structures that do not alter the formal organization, in HIOs
almost all organization features are designed jointly by management and
workers to promote high levels of involvement and performance, including
structure, work design, information and control systems, physical layout,
personnel policies, and reward systems.

 Some of the features of HIOs are:

a. Employees have considerable influence over decisions

b. Members receive extensive training in problem-solving techniques, plant
operation, and organizational policies.
c. Information is shared widely within the organization and employees have
easy access to operational and issue-oriented information.
d. Rewards are tied closely to unit performance
 Total Quality Management:
 TQM is the most recent and, along with high involvement organizations,
the most comprehensive approach to employee involvement. Also known
as “continuous process improvement” and “continuous quality”.

 TQM grew out of a manufacturing emphasis on quality control and

represents a long-term effort to orient all of an organization’s activities
around the concept of quality. Quality is achieved when organizational
processes reliably produce products and services that meet or exceed
customer expectations.

 Although it is possible to implement TQM without employee

involvement, member participation in the change process increases the
likelihood that it will become part of the organization’s culture. Today,
continuous quality improvement is essential for global competitiveness.
 Work design: This refers to OD interventions aimed at
creating jobs, and workgroups that generate high levels of
employee fulfillment and productivity. This techno-
structural intervention can be part of a larger employee
involvement application, or it can be an independent
change program.

 Work design has been researched and applied extensively

in organizations. Recently, organizations have tended to
combine work design with formal structure and supporting
changes in goal setting, reward systems, work
environment, and other performance management
practices.
 There are three approaches to work design

 The Engineering approach focuses on efficiency and simplification, and

results in traditional job and work group designs. Telephone operators and
data-entry positions are examples of this job design.

 A second approach is work enrichment and rests on motivational theories

and attempts to enrich the work experience. Job enrichment involves
designing jobs with high levels of meaning, discretion, and knowledge of
results. A well researched model focusing on job attributes has helped clear
up methodological problems with this important intervention.

 The third approach is socio-technical approach and seeks to optimize both

social and technical aspects of work systems. This method has led to a
popular form of work design called “self managed teams” which are
composed of multi-skilled members performing interrelated tasks. Members
are given the knowledge, information, and power necessary to control their
own task behaviors with relatively little external control.
 Human Resource Management Interventions

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 feed-back 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.
 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.

 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 policies and practices.

 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

 These interventions link the internal functioning

of the organization to the larger environment and
transform the organization to keep pace with
changing conditions.
 These interventions are amongst the newest
additions to OD interventions. They are
implemented organization-wide and bring about a
fit between business strategy, structure, culture
and the larger environment.
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 to
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.

4. Culture Change:
This intervention helps organizations to develop cultures
(behaviors, values, beliefs 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.
5. Self-designing organizations: This change program helps organizations
gain the capacity to alter themselves 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.

6. 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.

Conclusions:
These interventions move the organization beyond solving existing
problems so as to become capable of continuous improvement