Organisational Transformation - Dissertation Example

?Organizational Transformation Introduction: The case study on the Health Care Clinic clearly explains the circumstances prevailing in the organization which had to undertake an Organizational Development program in response to the problems faced by the technologists owing to the adoption of new technology in the work process. An organizational development process has been initiated as this activity intends to enhance “knowledge, expertise, productivity, satisfaction, income, interpersonal relationships, and other desired outcomes, whether for personal or group/team gain, or for the benefit of an organization” (McLean, 2005, p.9). A 7S framework furnishes a method for accomplishing essential change and involves managers and companies to manage their hard work around seven major elements which include structure, systems, style, staff, skills, strategy and shared values. It essentially offers a manager with a procedure to ensure that all these essentials are carefully thought of and that they are in their accurate structure (Amelio & Simon, 1995, pp.173-175). If these seven elements are considered and related to the given case study, then it can be understood that the emergence of modern technologies has impacted these elements leading to employee dissatisfaction. Owing to the introduction of new technologies, there have been changes in the system and style of working, change in the structure of procedure that was earlier followed, which in turn affected the skills of the staff, ultimately impacting the overall strategy and the shared values in the organization. A SWOT analysis being a “comprehensive internal analysis instrument to process company internal and external information” brings out a company’s internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external business opportunities and threats (Bohm, 2009, p.1). Conducting a SWOT analysis on the current situation of the Health Clinic, the major strength of the organization is found to be the availability of modern technology. It can also be considered as an opportunity for the organization to utilize this strength for better performance. However, the major weakness for the clinic lies in the inability of the management to introduce such technology, thereby explaining its rationality so that employees are able to accept it creating greater job satisfaction. As from the case study, it can be realized that the major reasons for employee dissatisfaction included underutilization of their work, insufficient communication, uneven distribution of work, and improper treatment. These are different weaknesses on the part of the management which impacted the technologists. PESTEL is another model that provides a useful analytical framework to identify and examine the environmental impacts of political, economic, sociological, technological, ecological, and legal factors on an organization (Campbell & Craig, 2005, pp.501-502). The case study clearly reflects the impacts of the technological factors on the organization as new and modern technologies leading to job changes have created job dissatisfaction among the employees. The report would give a detailed analysis on the introduction of the Organizational Development Program to overcome such problems, the methods applied, and the outcomes thereof, thus trying to recommend certain steps for betterment. Literature Review: Organizational Development (OD) Defined: Organizational Development covers a broad variety of activities. Henceforth, there are a number of definitions of OD that exist. For example, according to Warner Bruke, OD is a “planned process of change in an organization’s culture through the utilization of behavioral science technology, research, and theory”. Wendell French focused on long term interests and use of consultants and defined OD as a “long range effort to improve an organization’s problem-solving capabilities and its ability to cope with changes in its external environment with the help of external or internal behavioral-scientist consultants, or change agents”. According to Richard Beckhard, OD is a “planned”, “organization-wide” effort “managed from the top” to “increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organization’s processes” (Cummings & Worley, 2008, pp.1-2). Different authors have focused on different aspects in their definitions. However, the definition given by Beckhard seems to appropriately explain the case of the Health Clinic given in the case study. As in the case study, the modern technology has created dissatisfaction among the technologists. This has lead to an introduction of organizational development in order to solve the problems for organization effectiveness. Theories of Planned Change: Models and Frameworks: Planned change focuses on the implementation of changes within organizations. These models and frameworks describe the methods to commence and perform successful organizational change. Three major theories of changing include Lewin’s change model, the Action Research model, and the Positive model (Cummings & Worley, 2008, p.23). Lewin’s Change Model: Kurt Lewin had provided one of the earliest models of planned change. Conceiving change as a modification process keeping system behavior stable, Lewin viewed the process comprising of three steps: Unfreezing (reduction of forces without changing organization’s behavior system), Moving (shift in behavior of the organization, department, or individual to a new level), and Refreezing (stabilizing organization at a new state of equilibrium). This model is strongly recognized with the discipline of OD, and can be used to demonstrate how new forms of change can be employed (Cummings & Worley, 2008, pp.23-24). The Action Research Model: The classic Action Research Model focuses on planned change as a cyclical process in which primary research about the organization provides information to direct ensuing action. The results are assessed which provides further information to guide further action, and the process continues. The different steps in this model include: Problem identification, Consultation with behavioral science specialist, Collection and preliminary analysis of data, Feedback to client or group, Joint diagnosis of problem, Joint action planning, Action, and Gathering data after action (Cummings & Worley, 2008, pp.24-25). The Positive Model: This model focuses on what the organization is doing correctly. It facilitates members identify with the organization when it works at its best and takes advantages of those capabilities to accomplish better results. An optimistic expectation about an organization can create an eagerness that strengthens and expresses actions towards making those ideas happen. The phases involved in this model include: Initiation of inquiry, Inquiry of best practices, Discovery of themes, Envisioning a desired future, and Design and delivery of ways to create future (Cummings & Worley, 2008, pp.28-29). Comparison of Planned Change Models: A comparison between the above mentioned three theories can be illustrated through Figure 1. All the three models illustrate phases of planned change occurring within organizations. The models have common characteristics in that their significance on action to implement organizational change is led by a primary stage and followed by a finishing stage. Lewin’s model differs from the other two as it stresses on the general procedure of planned change instead of particular activities of OD. Lewin’s model and the action research model differ from the positive approach in terms of the level of participants’ attachment and the focus of transformation. Lewin’s model and traditional action research model stress on the responsibility of the consultant stressing less on member participation. On the other hand, modern applications of action research and the positive model treat both consultants and participants as “co-learners” heavily involved in the planned change process (Cummings & Worley, 2008, p.29). Figure 1: Comparison of Planned Change Models (Cummings & Worley, 2008, p.25). General Model of Planned Change: The general model of planned change can be illustrated through the diagram below. Figure 2. (Cummings & Worley, 2008, p.30) Entering and contracting facilitate managers to come to a decision whether they want to employ additionally in a planned change program and to assign resources to the process. Diagnosis focuses on indulging organizational problems, collecting, analyzing, and responding back information to managers and organizational members regarding the troubles or chances that exist. In the third stage, the organizational members and practitioners decide on planning and implementing of OD interventions within organizations. Finally the last stage involves assessing the effects of interventions and managing different measures for successful change programs (Cummings & Worley, 2008, pp.29-31). Here it would be relevant to mention that based on an open system model, a comprehensive diagnostic framework for organization, group, or individual levels have been explained. According to an open system, organizations are made up of several systems that are interdependent of one another. Organizations as open systems take inputs and transform them into outputs. Change in any one of the system tends to affect all the other systems (Sisaye, 2001, p.43). In the organization level diagnosis, the inputs come from general environment and industry structure, the design components are strategy, technology, structure, measurement systems and human resources systems, and the outputs relate to performance, productivity and stakeholder satisfaction. In the group level diagnosis, the input is organization design, the design components are ‘goal clarity’, ‘team functioning’, ‘group norms’, ‘group composition’ and ‘task structure’, and the output is ‘team effectiveness’ in terms of quality of work life and performance. In the individual level diagnosis, the inputs are organization design, group design and personal characteristics, the design components are task significance, task identity, skill variety, autonomy and feedback and results, and the output is individual effectiveness in terms of job satisfaction, performance, absenteeism and personal development. (Cummings & Worley, 2008, p. 108) Frederick Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory: According to Herzberg there are two factors surrounding every job - factors that avert job dissatisfaction and are called hygiene factors and motivational factors that give job satisfaction (Pattanayak, 2005, p.177). The model can be represented through the following illustration: Figure 3. (Schermerhorn, 2006, p.355). OD Interventions: OD interventions are generally meant for attainment of particular objectives of change within organizations. In the process, certain values also get incorporated in the organization. “Greater degree of transparency”, “Enhanced awareness”, “High interchange of ideas, opinions and information”, management of “differences and conflict”, “Increased participation”, increased “sense of accountability”, and “Increased optimism” are the results obtained from the use of OD interventions. A broad range of interventions are used by organization development processes (Srivastava, 2007, p.324). OD Practitioner: An OD practitioner facilitates an organization and its members to bring about changes in the firm and accordingly administers intervention techniques to bring about the desired changes in the organization (Cheung-Judge & Holbeche, 2011, p.21). Impact of Leadership: Behaviors of leaders are explained by behavioral theories which indicate that leaders may be trained. Two extents of behavior were developed by the professors at the University of Michigan, in the subject of leadership. They were distinguished as employee oriented and production-oriented. Leaders who are employee oriented highlight more on interpersonal relations and take special attention in the employee’s needs thereby accepting their difference in viewpoints. On the other hand, leaders who are production-oriented emphasize on the achievement of duties or methodological operations of a job and the employees seem to be just mediums of doing so. Leadership styles have a straight and exclusive effect on the environment of work within an organization as well as on the financial achievement of a company. Different leadership styles include coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and coaching. Researches have obtained that leaders who have positive impacts on the working atmosphere bring in enhanced financial profits than leaders having negative impacts. Particularly, leaders focusing more on the four affirmative styles (authoritative, democratic, affiliative, and coaching) have obtained the most favored working environment and organizational performance (Kritsonis, 2004, pp.3-4). Authoritative leaders inspire staff by conveying and clarifying the organizational vision to them thereby encouraging them, tending to build a team that would work towards a common goal (McBride & Maitland, 2001, p.202). On the other hand, a democratic leader holds the ultimate liability but also hands over power to others who help to establish work projects. Democratic leadership can motivate employees to work better because they are also able to implement their own decisions. (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor, 2009, p.179). Analysis and Discussion: As from the case study it is clear that owing to the introduction of modern and new technology, employees in the health clinic were losing job satisfaction, particularly the medical technologists in the biochemistry department where new technology had the greatest impact. The primary sources of dissatisfaction being underutilization of employees’ skills, insufficient communications, uneven distribution of work, and ill treatment of the medical staff; these can be related to the various theories and models of organizational development to understand how these models are applicable in this structure for the benefit of the organization and hence provide employee job satisfaction. The analysis of the company by 7’s frame work suggests that the external environment gave some inputs to the organization in the form of new technological advancement in the biochemistry lab units. The vision of the top management was to be innovative thereby increasing the productivity of the lab units. However, the new technology acted as a devastating agent to destabilize the 7’s framework of the organization. The value shared by the top management for adoption of the new technology was not embraced by the technologists; especially in the bio-chemistry lab units. Figure 4 (Amelio & Simon, 1995, p.175). The change in technology made the work of the lab technologists easier. However the technologists were dissatisfied because this technology also started to impede the full utilization of their skills making the job less challenging to them. This also got reflected in the performance measure systems. It made the career path of the bio-chemistry lab technicians narrower by giving them lesser scope to climb up the success ladder. Hence a total discontentment prevailed in the organization. Here, the leadership impacts can also be taken into consideration which can be said to have affected the employees to a great extent. It can be understood that the new technology got incorporated without due acceptance by the technologists, which reflects an authoritative style of leadership. Had a democratic style been followed then the employees would be motivated as they would have participated in the decision making by giving their views and opinions as well, which did not happen in case of the health clinic. If the planned change models are considered, the health clinic as mentioned in the given case, seem to have followed Lewin’s change model’s third step directly in their organization thus refreezing and shifting the organization into a new state of equilibrium. The organization introduced the new technology in their organization without doing any primary research to find the effects that might occur. However the organization could have tried to apply the action research and the positive model. These models would have made primary research on the changes involved, assessments would have been done on the basis of which further measures could be taken. These models also evaluate whether the measures taken are correct to the organization’s perspective. Thus, modern applications of action research and positive model could stand as an appropriate approach for the health clinic before introducing the new technology in the medical departments. As from the case study, it may be assumed that the organization did not make any prior research before introducing new technology, which resulted in unprecedented negative responses from the technologists. The application of the general model of planned change could also have benefited the organization to a great extent by deciding whether to utilize resources additionally on a planned change program and to assign assets to the process. A diagnostic process would have focused on treating organizational problems, collecting, analyzing, and providing information back to managers and organizational members regarding the troubles or opportunities that might occur. Later, the organizational members and practitioners could decide on planning and implementing OD interventions within organizations. Also, the effects of interventions could be assessed in the process and different measures accordingly managed for successful change programs. However, the health clinic did not take these steps into consideration which ultimately lead to unsuccessful transformation process within the organization. The reasons for job dissatisfaction among the employees can also be understood by relating the case with Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory. As it can be understood from the model that job dissatisfaction is mainly influenced by hygiene factors like the working conditions, coworker relations, policies and rules, supervisor quality and salary, it can be related to the health clinic as the reasons for the employee dissatisfaction in the health clinic to a great extent was owing to the change in the working conditions reflected by the adoption of new technology, thereby bringing changes in policies and rules. Also, the use of new technology resulting in lesser effort instigated the medical staff to behave inappropriately with the technologists declining their values or importance in the organization. On the other hand job satisfaction is influenced by motivator factors which include recognition, responsibility, work itself, advancement, and personal growth. In the case of the health clinic, it can be seen that owing to the introduction of the new technologies, the employees are disappointed as their skills are getting underutilized, their responsibilities have lessened and their growth has been affected as well. The organization could have focused on the facts that increasing the motivator factors increases job satisfaction whereas improving the hygiene factors decreases job dissatisfaction. This could have benefited the organization to a great extent and protected from the current situation. Use of Methodologies: A Discussion Understanding the importance of the introduction of modern and new technology to create enhanced job satisfaction with purpose of gaining improved organizational profits, the OD staff of the health clinic planned for OD interventions. The focus was made on the two groups of medical technologists: biochemistry and microbiology. The change program included meetings attended by the OD staff and lab staff intending to explain purposes of the intervention, to test the level of commitment of lab management and medical personnel to the process and to recruit volunteers to assist in the analysis of the diagnostic data. After a series of meetings that the OD staff deemed to be successful, a questionnaire was administered to all technologists in the two groups. Through the questionnaire the respondents gave their opinions regarding the various facets of their jobs including their views on the variety, significance, supervision, and growth opportunities as related to the jobs and the use of modern technology. Personal interviews were also conducted for the purpose. Certain recommendations were also made based on the analysis of the responses like the organization planned of dual career paths to permit advancement, developing job rotation opportunities, redesign of the physical environment to improve working conditions, and provision of ways for lab managers to identify and clarify goals more accurately. However after two years when the survey was conducted, it was found that the results were disappointing expressing employee dissatisfaction on the results of the intervention. The methods of questionnaire and interviews have certain advantages and disadvantages. Questionnaires are in general a cheaper method of survey than interviews. Questionnaires lack the need of an interviewer and are generally quicker to run. The questionnaire can be distributed through different media like the internet which facilitates the process. Interviews on the other hand require the use of study groups and interviewers who can interview only one respondent at a time. Data collection may often result in biasness in the presence of an interviewer. Questionnaires on the other hand do not suffer such problems. Also the process can be conducted as per the convenience of the respondents. However there are certain advantages of the interviews over questionnaires. Questionnaires cannot assist a respondent if he faces any difficulty while responding the questions, which is not the case with interviews. Thus greater attention is necessary while forming the questions (Athanasiou & Darzi, 2009, pp. 487-488). Especially in cases like the health clinic in the given case study, the responses are highly relevant to the entire organizational performance, hence utmost care is required. In such situation open ended questions would be more preferred which are better performed through interviews rather than with questionnaires. It can be understood that the unsatisfactory results obtained from the OD intervention in the health clinic could be owing to several reasons. One of the major reasons as the case reflects is that the change process did not undertake the correct procedure for the intervention. The study and research could have better contributed had they been conducted before the changes were implemented in the organization. The entire process probably hints to greater degree of biasness on the part of the OD staff, as the employees have been found to be dissatisfied with the management and the manner in which the management has responded to the prevailing problems. Also, the other factor that may have been neglected was that this is the case of a health care clinic. The process or change systems applicable in other industrial companies may not be equally applicable to a health clinic. The cultural factors, the leadership problems, the undermined research on the major factors affecting job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, all together has lead to an unsuccessful or unsatisfactory result when the organization tried to implement the change program. Conclusion: Planned changes are necessary within an organization because they explain how different experts within or outside an organization, can assist an organization to deal with difficulties and “plan and implement” preferred changes (Levy & Merri, 1986, p.3). As from the case study it can be implied that in the health clinic, the introduction of new and modern technologies turned out to be a major problem particularly with respect to the acceptance by the technologists in the departments of biochemistry and microbiology. According to the employees, owing to the new technology, their skills were getting underutilized, their scope of growth was getting reduced, and their importance in the organization was getting influenced. Since the new technology had made the task easier for the organization and its employees, hence the employees’ efforts and scopes lessened which in turn affected their growth. However, reviewing the theories and models of organizational development, the major problem lying behind the unsuccessful results of the introduction of the new technology, as well as the unsatisfactory outcomes from the change process and interventions employed can be traced to the organization’s ignorance towards following a formal procedure of organizational development, or methodically not following the models, and not performing primary research to obtain the impacts of a change on the organization as well as its employees. The models of organizational transformation and development clearly suggest that the organization did not take into view the factors that might affect the introduction of new technology within the organization, especially when it is a health care clinic. The recommendation that can be made at this point is that the organization needs to start by doing all the basic research work before implementing a change process or interventions. The recommendations that the organization would try to make in response to the various difficulties faced and the studies done thereof, should address not only to the organization but to the employees of the organization as well. The organization should take into consideration the views and opinions of the medical technologists before implementing the processes, such that dissatisfaction does not arise. Finally, to conclude it can be said that before continuing with the process, appropriate use of the techniques, procedures, models and theories of the organizational development would facilitate the clinic to obtain improved and desired results. References 1. Amelio, G. & W.L. Simon (1995), Profit from Experience: The National Semiconductor Story of Transformation Management, United States: John Wiley and Sons 2. Athanasiou, T. & A. Darzi (2009), Key Topics in Surgical Research and Methodology, India: Springer 3. Bohm, A. (2009), The SWOT Analysis, Munich: GRIN Verlag 4. Campbell, D.J. & T. Craig (2005), Organisations and the business environment, United Kingdom: Butterworth-Heinemann 5. Cheung-Judge, M. & L. Holbeche (2011), Organizational Development, United Kingdom: Kogan Page Publishers 6. Cummings, T.G. & C.G. Worley (2008), Organization development & change, United States: Cengage Learning 7. Kritsonis, A. 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