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According to Schein (2010), organizational culture is an all-encompassing term and relates to the aspects of customs, traditions, beliefs and methodologies. It is shared by all the members of an organization and its acceptance is normally a pre-requisite for organizational membership. Impact of Intervention on the Organization Culture is also a complex entity as it is composed of many smaller sub-cultures. Taplay Et al. (2014) state that the sub-cultures the numerous behavioural dimensions of organizational culture can thus include: production and manufacturing methodologies; technological know-how and skills; reward management and discipline enforcement; management styles; business strategies; values assigned to performance; and decision-making styles.
Impact of Intervention on the Organization Culture is also a complex entity as it is composed of many smaller sub-cultures. Taplay Et al. (2014) state that the sub-cultures within an organization can be differentiated on the basis of departments or ranks. The success of an organization principally depends upon the efficient amalgamation and alignment of all of its sub-cultures. However, organizational culture is so strong that changing it substantially requires normally 15-20 years of efforts (Hartnell, Ou & Kinicki, 2011).
The concept of OD when applied to a particular organization entails developing an organizational environment which is in accordance with both the organizational mission and its employees (Fjeldstad Et al., 2012). However, a commitment to change also necessitates that an organization allows its employees to challenge its culture. An intervention occurs when an organization feels the need to change and hires either external consultants or already held specialists to work out the change strategy.
The main aim of an OD related intervention is to transform the organizational culture towards more efficient interactions, productive relationships and proficient problem solving mechanisms, all designed through the process of action learning (Maon, Lindgreen & Swaen, 2010). In this aspect, an OD intervention should strive to make the organizational culture flexible to an extent where employees are able to evaluate and assess the peripheral and pivotal norms through an action learning process, towards enhancement of the overall organizational productivity and performance. The overall process occurs within the confines of Kurt Lewin’s Force Field Analysis of both driving and restraining forces (Dilworth, 1998).
The context of OD in terms of value and contribution to organisational life can be understood in terms of the employees’ response to the organizational norms and also the openness of the psychological contracts. There are normally two types of organizations i.e. those that encourage employee feedbacks and those who do not. However, regardless of the type of organization they serve, employees learn to prioritize goals, devise evaluative mechanisms and create reasons for not fulfilling the organizational goals (Maon, Lindgreen & Swaen, 2010). If there is a fit between an organization’s culture and its employees, the latter will prioritize efficiently, devise constructive performance measuring mechanisms basing upon productivity and will try their utmost to avoid meeting the goals. However, in case of friction with the organizational culture, the employees will prioritize goals inefficiently, will evaluate their own performance in terms of time only and will resort to weak excuses. In the former case, the organization is likely to profit while in the latter case the organization is threatened by failure and loss of productivity. Hence, OD is aimed at creating a perfect fit between the culture and employees of an organization in order to enhance its proficiency and productivity.
When applied to the intervention by the West Bravenhurst NHS Trust in terms of the action learning program named ‘Leading Change in Nurse Practice’, the impact of OD on culture is evident in many aspects. The success of the intervention makes it obvious that OD was aimed at creating a fit between the culture of West Bravenhurst NHS Trust and its staff of nurses. As a result of the action learning-based intervention, the employees or nurses were able to correctly identify the problem areas and prioritize the goals for improvement through an analysis of the weaknesses in organisational culture by employing efficient evaluative mechanisms. These weaknesses included relationship amongst various stakeholders with regards to the tissue viability on the wards and organizational structure and policies. Resultantly, a corrective strategy was designed and developed and when employed, led to an improvement in patient benefits, reduction in costs, enhanced employee confidence and empowerment, thereby leading to increased organizational productivity and performance.
The above mentioned discussion clarifies that the realistic and practical dimensions of OD encompass a process directed at the enhancement of organizational proficiency and facilitating the transition by using behavioural and social science interventions…
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