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ESSAY: ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, To identify whether that the given action learning program is an Organizational Development (OD) intervention, we must first focus on and understand OD itself. The most encompassing explanation of OD according to both Ramanarayan&Rao (2011) and French & Bell (2001), defines OD as “a long-term effort, led and supported by top management, to improve an organizations’ visioning, empowerment, learning and problem solving process, through an ongoing, collaborative management of organizational culture….”
This definition is deemed most encompassing by Ramanarayan&Rao(2011) because of the evolving nature of the field of OD. As characterized by the authors, first generation organizations development focused on the micro aspects of a firm such as an individual or groups within the organization. Second generation OD paid attention to the macro aspects and hence included the external environment. Third-gen organizations development built upon the previous two by including the organization’s past into the equation.
The third generation OD strove for the concept of ‘learning organizations’ which continuously increase their capacity to learn and therefore adapt proactively to any business situation. These learning organizations satisfied all criteria of the implementation tools in OD, namely: participation, self-reflection and also the Action Research Model.
This meant that the new version of OD recognized that all efforts for change required involvement from all levels whether they may be individual or group and required self-evaluation from each of the organization’s members involved. Also, all efforts should be practical in response to organizational problems diagnosedthrough experiential learning.
The modern OD interventions exhibit the same characteristics as identified above. OD interventions as defined by Cummings & Worley (2007), are planned actions or events to help increase an organization’s effectiveness. Examples of organizations development interventions include encounter groups, awareness expansion, training, feedback, instrumentation, role analysis etcetera.
All these interventions exhibit the features of being participative, self- reflective and are based upon or result in gaining of practical experiential knowledge. Also, since OD’s ideal is a learning organization, all these interventions are cyclical in nature i.e. these continuously evolve based on previous learning episodes.
Action Learning Programs are interventions which aim to solve organizational issues while improving individual development (Rigg, 2008). These programs incorporate action learning groups which are sets of six to eight people who meet often to solve a problem (Action Learning Associates, 2014).
These are based on key principles which include personal development as a consequence of deep self-reflection; high degree of individual involvement exhibited through supporting and challenging peers; and questioning insight.All actions are based on experiential knowledge and the cycle of action leads to learning leading to action leading to learning again(Pedler, Burgoyne & Brook, 2005).
OD borrows heavily from the behavioural sciences and so does its interventions. The approach implemented in the given scenario is a bottom-up behavioural approach. It focused on the individual level of practitioners to solve an organizational issue. It paved the ground for self-reflection on individual skills which resulted in nurses aspiring for betterment.
It focused on experimenting with solutions based on experiential knowledge (the action-learning cycle). It also rejected the hierarchical leadership model by introducing distributive leadership through empowering the nurses (Kellie & Milsom, 2013).
The benefits of this intervention included primarily an increased organizational effectiveness reflected in improved organizational performance (improved employee behaviour and sense of responsibility; improved customer-centric focus; reduced costs and fewer ulcers). Increased organizational effectiveness, without any harmful indirect costs (such as employee disillusionment) is the ultimate aim of OD. Also, this intervention prompted a cycle wherein effectiveness would continuously increase through a constant analysis of the weaknesses by the employees themselves.Hence this intervention can be conclusively classified as an OD intervention.
An organization’s culture is a very abstract concept, not easily defined but readily observable in qualitative terms. Kreitner&Kinicki(2008) define it as the ‘shared values and beliefs which underlie a company’s identity’. Ostroff, Kinicki&Tamkins(2004) identify three layers of an organization’s culture namely: observable artefacts, espoused values and basic assumptions. Observable artefacts are the physical manifestations of an organization’s culture, such as dress codes, structure, written documents of values, required roles of members, ceremonies, acronyms, observable behaviours of members such as use of first names or not and so on.
Espoused values are those values which the company directly communicates to its employees and which they are expected to follow closely, for instance Tesla Motors strive for environmental sustainability or Apple’s focus on the customers. Basic assumptions belong to a vague and murky field, which refers to those values which underlie the very essence of the organizations. These basic assumptions are unquestionable, have formed the core of the organization since a very long time and are very resistant to change. An example would be the Church’s focus on ethical and moral behaviours in every action. The impact on the culture of the intervention initiatives by the NHS would cause a change in these three layers…
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