Assessment of the Organizational Development - Case Study Example

Academic Review of Research Article Introduction: Organization development is a long-range effort to improve organization's problem solving and renewal processes, particularly through more effective and collaborative management of organization culture-with specific emphasis on the culture of formal workteams-with the assistance of a change agent or catalyst and the use of the theory and technology of applied behavioral science including action research. If we look at the history of OD it goes long back to early fifties Kurt Zadek Lewin, a German born social psychologist and known to the world as "the father social psychology" is the one who first studied the group dynamics and organizational development. Since, the concept has a origin long back it is sure that we can expect a great among its practitioners in the present world, and more over all those who are working in the filed of organizational development are closely related to the business sector but, due to the enormous development in the filed of information and communication the business sector in the present world irrespective of the type of business they are undertaking has taken a new dimensions when compared to the earlier periods. OD is closely inter linked with the organizations which are involved in any business in one way or the other, so it can be clearly noted that the way it was practiced in the earlier periods will not be worth while in the present stage. Problem Identification: Identification of a problem is the main factor, which decides the results of any research, whether it is an action research or any other explorative research studies. Since, conducting any research without identifying the correct problem is like searching an answer without a question. Hence, problem identification should be given prior importance before designing any research. In general in every research work after identifying the problem the next main concern is to verify whether the identified population which will constitute the respondents has any relation with the identified problem so as to confirm whether the research will give a acceptable inferences whether a positive or negative, which in turn will pay way to further researches or it will help any decision making issues. In this research the identified problem can be stated as the "Assessment of the Organizational Development" which can be accepted as researchable topic. Since, in general any research will be conducted to identify or study any serious problems or issues or situations. In this context though assessing the filed of organization cannot be considered as a serious problem it can be considered as one of the serious issues the world is facing as today's world depends on the business sector for all their needs it is very important that the organization or the management running any business should be more effective. So assessing the organization development in particularly to find its strength, weakness, opportunities and the threats will surely pave to the improve in the practices which in turn will help in the better management of the organizations. Considering the all above said factors we can come to a conclusion that at this juncture the authors selection of research problem is notable. Literature Review: After identifying the population and problem among them, which is, going to be considered for research the second major thing is conduct the review of literature. Literature review is considered as such an important part of any research since this section of the research is the one which helps researcher to finalize the research design without any replication and with some improvements in the selected field. In the present article though we were not able to see the details about the reviewed literatures we can find that as it is stated in the methodology section that more than eighty recent literatures related to business challenges and opportunities were reviewed. We hope that all of them will be of great use in designing the other SWOT analysis section. Research Framework: The methodology section clearly explains about the four parallel tracks involved in the research namely, literature review, SWOT analysis, business leaders interviews, and business and academic advisory board interviews. As we have already mentioned about the importance of literature review in the above paragraph now we will see the remaining tracks of the research. The SWOT analysis carried out in this research can considered as the main and appropriate tool since the success in any organizational development practice mainly depend on the professionals skills and strengths, and more over the outcomes of both the interviews will be an additional supportive document to the findings of the SWOT analysis. Selected Variables: From the above we can come to a conclusion about the framework of the research, which will be very appropriate to the topic of the study. Then come the variables selected for the study particularly the variables, which used while conducting the SWOT analysis. If we look at them they are broadly classified into profession, practitioners, techniques/process, customers and results. The nature of all the variables under these classification like demographic details, age, gender, educational background, area of practice, years of practice, primary work role and location of practice are very important variables which will have significance relation with the organization development concept. So, we can conclude that the author's selection of variables for the study is so much appropriate to the selected topic Research Design: The appropriateness of the research design is the major concern in the present study the author has opted for the SWOT analysis, which is worth notable. Since, the study mainly focuses on the individuals who are practitioners of organizational development techniques SWOT analysis will reveal the over all picture about the present scenario when compared to the other research techniques and more over the interviews of the business leaders and business and academic board will be a additional support to the findings of the SWOT analysis. Sample Selection: After the finalization of the area of research and the variables to be used for the study the next important thing is the sample selection. For the present research study the population considered for the sample selection consists of different section of respondents related to the filed of OD and more over majority (67 per cent) are from the Organization Development Network and the remaining comprises of other agencies related to the field. Though survey forms have been send and only 907 (15 per cent of the total) of them are got filled the number is good enough to do the analysis and come to a conclusions through the interpretations. And more over if we see the responses around 73 per cent are from ODN respondents it is quite satisfactory that it is somewhat proportionate to the percent of survey forms send for collection to different type of respondents. Data Collection: Data collection is one of the major section in any research work as the results depends mainly on this process. After confirming the variables and the sample for the study the data collection method should be finalized which should be more effective. In the present world conducting a survey with a pre-planned questionnaire will be more time consuming that too as the present study involves respondents who were mainly with tight work schedules the researcher has opted for the internet and the questions were send directly to the 6000 respondents thorough their organizations portals. Even this resulted in acquiring information from only 907 respondents if any other methods were used the number would have decreased a lot. So the method of collecting data through online must be appreciated as it resulted in giving better responses which in turn helped in the analysis process. Ethical Considerations: Regarding the ethical considerations in any research before getting the views or answers from the respondents it is very important to get approval from the appropriate boards or authorities but in this present research as the questionnaire itself is passed through them it obvious that they would have approved it before sending it to the respondents. And regarding the confidentiality as the respondents through their own company portals directly return the responses there is no chance of others viewing it. Analysis, Interpretation and Results: The analysis of the SWOT revealed the following namely systematic or holistic, orientation to the organization, managemental changes, team work, leadership quality and values of the OD practitioners are found to be the main strengths among them. While lack of definition and distinctiveness of OD, lack of quality control of practitioners, insufficient business acumen of practitioners/ sufficient emphasis on customer needs and insufficient clear ROI/value of work are found to be the weaknesses among the OD practitioners. Though the above results are clearly supported by the responses reported to the respective questions related to the variables. Opportunities and Threats - Unmentioned: Though the analysis clearly mentioned the strengths and weakness of the OD practitioners it is very amazing to note that though the author has taken much pain to collect the information in the analysis and interpretation part the opportunities and threats faced by the OD practitioners are not mentioned clearly in the results section doing that would have helped the readers to understand the overall SWOT easily. Since, as above said two components are not mentioned separately in the results part and are directly included in the discussion and implications sections there is a chance for these components to loose its importance though it is not true. Finally we can conclude that the author could have created a separate section for these two components in the results section and could have explained them in detail on par with the strength and weakness so as the SWOT analysis will be more understandable. In the discussion and implications section apart form discussing the results an its implications the author has taken more efforts to develop the six key integrated themes (KIT's ) which has to be appreciated. And more over in all the six KIT's the author has included the respective suitable implications which will be of great help for the readers for better understanding. On the whole we can state that the present research article entitled "Assessing the file of organization development " is a good piece of research work, which will of great use for the future researchers and also to the professionals who have involved themselves in the filed of organizational development. Read More