Eight Steps for Organizational Development

Interventions
by Flora Richards-Gustafson, Demand Media
In an effort to increase its viability and effectiveness, a company will employ interventions as it
implements various change agents. The purpose of such interventions is to improve productivity,
performance or behaviors through a series of structured individual and team activities that focus on
what employees do and how they do it.
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Eliminating Hierarchical Decision-Making

When creating developmental change in an organization, the responsibilities of decision-making should
shift from being a task designated to managers to one that all the employees share. In healthy
organizations, managers understand that decision-making should occur where the sources of
information are, which is not always toward the top of the chain of command.

Focusing on Groups
Because teams make up organizations, not just individuals, change must primarily occur in groups in
order to make a difference in the culture. According to Marvin Weisbord, groups within an organization
must have a clear understanding about its purpose, mission and goals, as well as the purpose and
organization of the company's structure. For change agents to be effective, employees and their
respective departments should have a good understanding regarding the various departments within
an organization and their relationships. Leadership in a company must have a balance, not act as if it
is "above the law" and provide support to employees.
Related Reading: What Are the Different Approaches of Organizational Development Towards
Industrial Relations?

Building Trust
In order to create change and promote open communication, an organization must have a culture of
mutual trust. Managers cannot expect employees to trust them automatically. Instead, in order to
breed trust, managers must first show employees that they are trusted.

Reducing Unnecessary Competition

While some competition is healthy, it is not always necessary to create change. Instead of creating an
environment focused on competition to help motivate employees, a company should focus on creating
a culture focused on collaboration. Collaborative conditions can help improve teamwork and
communication, as well as help employees feel their contributions are important.

Investing in Employees

When a company invests in its employees, employees will invest their time and talents back into the
company. In addition to monitoring goals, providing feedback and reinforcing positive employee
activities, organizations should also work toward developing the skills of their employees and
enhancing their sense of well-being. Such investments can include educational opportunities, providing
employee benefits and providing the support and tools needed to accomplish work efficiently.

Interim Measurements of Control

When working toward a goal, it is important for a company to understand that the responsibility of
achieving goals falls on all levels of the organization, not just managerial strategies. Therefore, the
organization as a whole, individual departments and employees must evaluate their activities against
set goals.

Active Employee Participation

Employees will support what they help build. In order to create change, all employees should have
opportunities to participate actively in the decisions and achievements of their employer. Doing so will
help create a sense of ownership and loyalty in employees and help them to embrace change agents.

Strategic Interventions
Strategic interventions sometimes are necessary to create change within a company and its
relationship with the external environment. Such interventions can include mergers or acquisitions, a
rapid expansion of the market, new or increased competition from another company or reestablishing
relationships with stakeholders.

OD Intervention Categories
Human Process Interventions
The following interventions deal with interpersonal relationships and group dynamics.

T Groups: The basic T Group brings ten to fifteen strangers together with a
professional trainer to examine the social dynamics that emerge from their
interactions.

Process Consultation: This intervention focuses on interpersonal relations and

social dynamics occurring in work groups.

Third Party Interventions: This change method is a form of process consultation

aimed at dysfunctional interpersonal relations in organizations.

Team Building: This intervention helps work groups become more effective in

accomplishing tasks.

The following Interventions deal with human processes that are more system wide than
individualistic or small-group oriented.

Organization Confrontation
Meeting: This change method mobilize organization members to identify problems,
set action targets, and begin working on problems.

Intergroup Relations: These interventions are designed to improve

interactions among different groups or departments in organizations.

Large-group Interventions: These interventions involve getting abroad 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.

Grid Organization Development: This normative intervention specifies a particular

way to manage an organization.

Techno-Structural Interventions
These interventions deal with an organizations 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. Practitioners
place emphasis both on productivity and human fulfillment.

Structural Design: This change process concerns the organizations division

of labour how to specialize task performances. Diagnostic guidelines exist to
determine which structure is appropriate for particular organizational environments,
technologies, and conditions.

Downsizing: This intervention reduces costs and bureaucracy by decreasing the size
of the organization through personnel layoffs, organization redesign, and outsourcing.

Re-engineering: This recent intervention radically redesigns the organizations core

work processes to create tighter linkage and coordination among the different tasks

Parallel Structures

High-involvement Organizations (HIOs)

Total Quality Management

Work design: This refers to OD interventions aimed at creating jobs, and

work groups that generate high levels of employee fulfilment and productivity.

Human Resource Management Interventions

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.

Performance Appraisal: This intervention is a systematic process of

jointly assessing work-related achievements, strengths and weaknesses,

Reward Systems: This intervention involves the design of organizational rewards to

improve employee satisfaction and performance.

Career Planning and development: 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: 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.

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.

Integrated Strategic Change: 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.

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

Merger and Acquisition Integration: This intervention describes how

OD practitioners can assist two or more organizations to form a new entity.

Culture Change: This intervention helps organizations to develop

cultures (behaviours, values, beliefs and norms) appropriate to their strategies
and environments.

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.

Organization learning and knowledge management.

Source: http://www.citehr.com/29098-od-intervention-birds-eyeview.html#ixzz2OkgsEA4l
- See more at: http://organisationdevelopment.org/the-od-cycle/the-intervention-phase/odinterventions-intervention-categories-new/#sthash.NLN2GeW2.dpuf