Organisational Development and Change - Key Interventions, Factors Influencing Global Competition - Assignment Example

Managing Change Name Course Instructor Institution Date Abstract This paper is going to look at the four of the key interventions and indicating what is considered to be their strengths and weaknesses. Also to be mentioned and discussed within this report by the use of a range of sources, the key recommendations in the literature on implementing change interventions within the organizational development approach. The main political characteristics of organizations that need to be taken into consideration in implementing a program of planned organizational change will also be looked into within the course of this paper. Some of the key change strategies suggested in the political approach to organizational change will also be outlined within the paper as well as some of the ethical issues that need to be taken into consideration in using the political approach to organizational change. Why evaluation is considered to be a necessity stage in a program of planned organizational change will also be discussed as well as some of the main techniques used to evaluate programs of planned change in both the organizational development and political approaches to organizational change. A concise description of what is meant by the term institutionalization in a program of planned organizational change will also be discussed in the paper. The key techniques suggested for institutionalized change using the organizational development and political approaches will also be discussed. Some of the specific ethical issues involved in applying institutionalization techniques will also be looked into. The main influences of global competition and environmental factors that need to be taken into consideration in planning for organizational change will be the final thing that this paper is going to discuss. Introduction The main intention of this paper is to analyse organisational development and change in many aspects. Organisational change and development takes place within an organisation when the firm changes the overall strategy that propels its success adds a section or a practice or even removes one or some or changes the nature in which it operates it businesses and processes. The evolution through various life cycles is also a way in which organisations can undergo organisational change and development. Thus it is important that for organisations to develop there are a number of significant changes that they must go through at various point of their development cycle. That is one of the reasons why organisation change and development is one of the important factors in communications that concerns business, management, organisations and leadership. There are a couple of models that have always been set up to aid in the management of the efforts to initialize organisational change. Despite there being a large number of literature that examines organisational change and development there is still doubts on the mechanisms of how organisations change and why (Dickson et al., 2001). There are a few studies that have been carried out that show firms that have started out small and grew to be large (Aldrich, 1999). It is important that the theories of change are practical and relevant as well as rigorous in terms of academics (Anderson, 2001). The literature that is available on change has various opposing schools of thought which are dialectics, life cycle, evolution and teleology. Concisely describe four of the key interventions indicating what you consider to be their strengths and weaknesses. An intervention is a term that is coined to imply the variety of processes that an organization uses within the field of organizational change and development. It could also include approaches, techniques, methods and applications that are used to ensure that organizational issues are addressed and goals set that are aimed at increasing or even improving performance (Colgate et al., 2000). There are a number of considerations that play a major role in the decision of what choice of capacity building activities or these interventions are to be used. The first change strategy is the empirical - rational which assumes that people are rational beings who will tend to follow their self interest so long as they have been revealed to them. The strategy also is of the view that for change to be successful it has to be based on the communication of information and the offering of incentives (Cockburn et al., 2000). Thus this presents itself as an advantage in the sense that this change strategy mostly centres itself on risk management and the balance of incentives. The disadvantage with this strategy is that it is difficult to deploy especially in the case where the incentives available are modest. There is no need to risk for what an organization has for a future that is bleak and uncertain than what is there in the present. The second strategy is normative - reeducative which assumes that people are social beings that tend to adhere to cultural norms thus successful change will mostly be based on the interpretation and defining of the existing values and norms and the development of commitments to new ones (Anderson, 2001). The advantage with this change intervention is that in most cases people normally want to fit in a go along with the flow. This will tend to aid in the common practices such as advertising and positioning. The disadvantage with this strategy is that culture is difficult to change and especially with regards to time, meaning it cannot change overnight or even quickly (Ancona et al., 2001). Thus this stratify could not be the best one for situations that require a quick turnaround within the organization. The third strategy is power - coercive which assumes that people are basically complaint and will tend to do what they are told to do or can even be made to do something. Thus the coercive authority is held by the management or the authority within an organization and their ability to exercise that authority. The advantage with this strategy is the fact that if the organization sets aside a ‘burning platform’, that will have considerable merits in times of extreme situations (Alvesson et al., 2001). The downside of the strategy is the fact that it contains considerable risk to the organization, the people and leaders who try to implement them. The fourth and final strategy is the environmental - adaptive change strategy or intervention which assumes that people generally tend to be against loss or disruptions but are open to adapt to newer circumstances. Thus one of the main advantages that are associated with this strategy is the fact that it exploits the natural adaptive nature thus avoiding the many complications that are associated with trying to change the culture of people or even the people themselves. The disadvantage with this form of intervention is that it is best suited for situations that requires a radical transformation and thus cannot be applied to situations that require gradual change (Anderson, 2001). Using a range of sources, concisely outline the key recommendations in the literature on implementing change interventions within the OD approach. Reference your sources thoroughly The implementation of the change intervention strategies that have been mentioned above have to be done in a systematic manner and in a way that is planned for it to succeed. For the empirical - rational change intervention, the main stratagem of use is to ensure that doubt is cast on the viability of the present state of affairs. This can be done by trying to convince people and not the implementers themselves (Baum et al., 2001). For the implementation of the normative - reeducative strategy within the organizational development approach, it is important to enlist and involve the leaders more so the informal ones within the organization and keeping them involved in such activities. This is important especially considering that formal and informal sections of an organization always tend to overlap more so in the people who hold powerful positions and are capable of having a major influence within the organization. In the implementation of the power - coercive change intervention within the organizational development approach, the time and the seriousness of the threat or problem that the organization is facing is of importance. It has been argued that leaders who are more concerned with change should aim at creating a burning platform, thus creating a major advantage to extreme situations. The implementation of the environmental – adaptive depends on the availability of people who are suitable enough to aid in the seeding of the new culture and also to aid in the jump starting of the organization (Alvesson et al., 2001). What are the main political characteristics of organizations that need to be taken into consideration in implementing a program of planned organizational change? Concisely outline some of the key change strategies suggested in the political approach to organizational change. What are some of the ethical issues that need to be taken into consideration in using the political approach to organizational change? The main political characteristics of organisations that need to consider implementing programs of planned organisational change include the change in the overall strategy for success by the leaders within an organisation. This will call for changes in the nature within how the firm operates and also how the processes of the organisation are carried out (Baum et al., 2001). Also whenever the political leadership of an organisation changes, there needs to be changes done in the organisation to ensure that the development of the organisation is in line with the life cycles that it is undergoing at that particular stage of change in leadership (Ancona et al., 2001). One of the key change strategies that have been suggested in the political approach includes the human process interventions also known as the individual and group human relations. This strategy mainly focuses on aiding the members of the organisation in enhancing themselves and each other with an aim of reducing the cases of high turnover, low morale in the workplace and teams that tend to be ineffective within the workplace (Ancona et al., 2001). Another key strategy suggested in the political approach is the technostructural interventions. This strategy basically involves the altering of positions within the organisation or even the procedure or technologies. This is mostly important in the case that there is confusion in the matter of roles to be played by the leaders of the organisation. Human resource management intervention is also another strategy suggested in the political approach (Christie et al., 2001). It involves the management of the performance of employees by the establishment of performance goals, the setting up of performance plans, observation of employees and providing feedback, evaluation of performance and rewarding where appropriate and the recognition of performance problems. Strategic intervention is the final political approach strategy and it normally tends to focus mainly on the organisation as well as its external environment (Ancona et al., 2001). Some of the ethical issues that have to be taken into consideration when using the political approach to organisational change include the management of diversity within the workplace, the improving of personal wellness, prevention of violence within the workplace and safety within the workplace (Avital, 2000). Why is evaluation considered to be a necessity stage in a program of planned organizational change. Describe concisely some of the main techniques used to evaluate programs of planned change in both the OD and political approaches to organisational change. Evaluation is considered to be a very important stage in a program of planned organizational change since it includes activities that will ensure that the goals that the organisation had set forth to achieve are being met in a constant and effective manner that is efficient. Thus evaluation will tend to improve on the performance of the organisation (Anderson, 2000). Some of the techniques that are used in the evaluation of planned change in the organisational development and the political approaches include scheduling of the programs to determine the tasks that are required by the program. The order must be easy in recording and it can also be difficulty for some tasks (Beverland et al., 2002). A checklist of the performance plans is also a technique that can be employed to ensure that the performance plans are in line with sound management principles. The final techniques that can be employed is developing performance standards where good standards are written down which can be used in future in appraisal (Anderson, 2001). Concisely describe what is meant by the term institutionalization in a program of planned organizational change. Outline concisely the key techniques suggested for institutionalized change using the OD and political approaches. What are some of the specific ethical issues involved in applying institutionalization techniques? In the institutionalization of change, change within an organisation sticks and remains once it becomes part and parcel of the activities of the organisations and its culture including the manner in which they do things. The two techniques for the institutionalization of change include the showing of the people how the change has aided in the improvement of performance and even given the organisation a more competitive advantage over its competitors (Audia et al., 2000). The ability to aid people in making connections between the efforts that they have made and the improvements that have occurred within the organisation normally requires communication (Christie et al., 2001). The second technique is that the strategic leader has the task of ensuring that the next generation of top leaders that are aiming at taking over the organisation are personifying the vision. When the requirements that the organisation has put forth for promotion and even advancement are not in line with the vision, then change is unlikely to last for long (Baum et al., 2001). Some of the ethical issues that can be involved in the application of institutionalization techniques include, harming of the client, the information with regards to the client being kept confidential, going beyond the expertise of the organisation, skipping the discovery phase of consulting and the anticipation and the avoidance of conflict (Beal, 2000). What do you think are the main influences of global competition and environmental factors that need to be taken into consideration in planning for organizational change? The factors that influence global competition and environmental actors that need serious consideration in the planning of organisational change include creativity and innovation (Bhidé, 2000). This is one of the factors that need to be taken in to consideration so as the organisation can adapt to certain environmental factors that put them in a compromising situation with regards with their competitors. For instance in the wine industry in Australia and New Zealand, poor climatic conditions could lead to a low harvest in grapes thus creativity has aided by the invention and discovery of agricultural methods that aid in the yielding of larger harvests (Beverland et al., 2002). Marketing is also another factor that needs to be taken in to consideration when planning for organisational change. Proper marketing practices will ensure that the organisation is well poised to deal with the global competition from other multinational companies (Christie et al., 2000). Bibliography Aldrich, H.E. (1999), Organizations Evolving, London: Sage Publications. Alvesson, M. and Sköldberg, K. (2000), Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research, London: Sage Publications. Ancona, D.G., Goodman, P.S., Lawrence, B.S. and Tushman, M.L. (2001), “Time: A New Research Lens,” Academy of Management Review, 26(4): pp. 645-663. Anderson, K. (2001). The Globalization (and Regionalization) of Wine, Centre for International Economic Studies, Adelaide University, South Australia, Discussion Paper No. 0125. Anderson, K. (2000), Lessons for other Industries from Australia’s Booming Wine Industry, Centre for International Economic Studies, University of Adelaide, South Australia, Policy Discussion Paper 25. Audia, P.G., Locke, E.A., and Smith, K.G. (2000), “The Paradox of Success: An Archival and a Laboratory Study of Strategic Persistence Following Radical Environmental Change,” Academy of Management Journal, 43(5): pp. 837-853. Avital, M. (2000), “Dealing with Time in Social Inquiry: A Tension between Method and Lived Experience,” Organization Science, 11: pp. 665-673. Baum, J. R., Locke, E.A., and Smith, K.G. (2001), “A Multidimensional Model of Venture Growth,” Academy of Management Journal, 44(2): pp. 292-303. Beal, R.M. 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(2000), “Untangling the Origins of Competitive Advantage,” Strategic Management Journal, 21: pp. 1123-1145. Colgate, M.R. and Danaher, P.J. (2000), “Implementing a Customer Relationship Strategy: The Asymmetric Impact of Poor versus Excellent Execution,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28(3): pp. 375-387. Dickson, P., Farris, P.W., and Verbeke, W.J.M.I. (2001), “Dynamic Strategic Thinking,” Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, 29(3): pp. 216-237. Read More