I ASSIGNMENT

Organization Change and Development

1. What do you mean by organisational change? Discuss the change process with examples.

Organisational change refers to the alteration of structural relationships and roles of people in
the organization. It is largely structural in nature. An enterprise can be changed in several ways.
Its technology can be changed, its structure, its people and other elements can be changed.
Organisational change calls for a change in the individual behaviour of the employees.

Organizational change is the movement of an organization from one state of affairs to another.
It may involve a change in a company's structure, strategy, policies, procedures, technology, or
culture. The change may be planned years in advance or may be forced on an organization
because of a shift in the environment.

For example, the Lean Manufacturing System is a systems analysis that eliminates unnecessary
processes and improves how a company uses materials. Implementing the Lean Manufacturing
System can lead to changes in the way the company orders raw materials and employee layoffs.
It may change the company's shipping and receiving schedule because of the change in
purchasing and manufacturing habits and can require a design change in the manufacturing
division.

Process of Organisational Change:

Unless the behavioural patterns of the employees change, the change will have a little impact
on the effectiveness of the organisation.

A commonly accepted model for bringing change in people was suggested by Kurt Lewin in
terms of three phase process:-

(1) Unfreezing:
The essence of unfreezing phase is that the individual is made to realize that his beliefs, feelings
and behaviour are no longer appropriate or relevant to the current situation in the
organisation. Once convinced, people may change their behaviour. Reward for those willing to
change and punishment for others may help in this matter.

(2) Changing:

Once convinced and ready to change, an individual, under this phase, learns to behave in new
ways. He is first provided with the model in which he is to identify himself. Gradually he will
accept that model and behave in the manner suggested by the model. In another process
(known as internalisation), the individual is placed in a situation where new behaviour is
demanded of him if he is to operate successfully.

(3) Refreezing:

During this phase, a person has to practice and experiment with the new method of behaviour
and see that it effectively blends with his other behavioural attitudes. Reinforcement, for
creating a permanent set in the individual, is provided through either continuous or
intermittent schedules.

2. Write a note on OD perceptive.

Organisational Development (OD) is the work of facilitating organisational success, by aligning

structural, cultural and strategic realities of work to respond to the needs of an ever-evolving
business climate. At the heart of good organizational development is the deep connection
between the best business processes and structures on the one hand, and the people working
within the organization on the other. In short, it is to create great organisations!

There has been no innovation in the social technology of organization development (OD) since
appreciative inquiry originated in 1987. It is as if the creative work of OD is done. Moreover, it is
as if the mission of OD—to loosen tightly coupled systems, think large bureaucracies—has
largely been achieved.

Decentralization, involvement, and autonomy on the job are commonplace in many

organizations. There is a paradox, however. The need for expertise in organization change has
never been greater, and OD has so much to contribute, yet the failure rate for organization
change efforts is around 70%, and for mergers and acquisitions the failure rate is even larger.
The premise of this article is that there is much work yet to be done. We who identify ourselves
with the field of OD have unfinished business.
We tend to remember things undone more than we remember things that have been
completed. Four domains of unfinished business in the field are identified and explored. There
are no doubt many other domains, but these four definitely need attention. We need to know
much more than we now know about how to-

(a) work with loosely coupled systems,

(b) change the culture of an organization,

(c) identify and deal with perceived resistance to change more effectively, and

(d) get leadership development right—it is not about training.

Characteristics of OD include:

 Changes to the structure, culture, strategy and processes of an individual job through to
an entire organisation.
 The application of behavioural science knowledge and practice to facilitate
transformation within an organisation.
 The improvement of organisational effectiveness by involving members of the
organisation in understanding the challenge whilst enabling in them new skills,
knowledge and ways of thinking.
 The promotion of high productivity, performance, quality products, financial
performance and continuous improvement.
 The facilitation of change in a flexible, adaptive and often participative way.
 Sustainability, so consistent change in the right direction continues beyond the life of
the initial change initiative.

OD also operates from a particular set of values that shape how the work is done. Key to this is
the valuing of human potential and therefore the importance of understanding the systemic
challenges from a range of stakeholders and to then engage those stakeholders directly in
shaping the change, partly so that change is well conceived of but also so that, through broad
ownership, its chance of being understood and implemented are maximised.

The Benefits of Organisational Development

 Organisational Development is adaptive, flexible and evolving. It puts people at the

heart of change, emphasises creativity and innovation, and positively affects the bottom
line.
  OD creates a continuous cycle of improvement, from strategy, through to
implementation, evaluation and further change.
 OD increases communication across all levels of the organisation, aligning employees to
shared values and manifesting change from employee feedback
 OD increases innovation through employee development and engagement and an
effective analysis of the market.
 OD increases profit by improved productivity and creativity, reducing costs, minimising
staff turnover and creating a culture of openness and adaptive and ongoing change.

3. Discuss the various assumptions of OD.

Basic n integration, the quality of the product is highly improved.

1. Cooperation is more effective than competition. Conflict and competition tend to erode
trust, prohibit collaboration and eventually limit the effectiveness of the organization. In
healthy organizations, “efforts are made at all levels to treat conflict as a problem
subject to problem solving methods.
2. The suppression of feelings adversely affects problem solving, personal growth and
satisfaction with one’s work. Accordingly, free expression of feelings is an important
ingredient for commitment to work.
3. The growth of individual members is facilitated by relationships, which are open,
supportive and trusting. Accordingly, the level of interpersonal trust, support and
cooperation should be as high as possible.
4. The difference between commitment and agreement must be fully understood.
Agreeing to do something is totally different from being committed to do something.
Sense of commitment makes it easy to accept change and the implementation of
change for the purpose of organizational development is even easier when such a
commitment is based upon participation in the process.
5. OD programmes, if they are to succeed, must be reinforced by the organization’s total
human resources system.