Organizational Development and Change Research Paper

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Organizational Development and Change

Organizational development is something that contributes to a stronger organization. People can receive more skills that will allow them to make better decisions and play a bigger role in the organization's strategy. This can also have a positive effect on organizational change programs as well, because more talented people are more likely to buy into change as they are less threatened by the nature of change and have a better chance to define their role in the change process. There are also other benefits to organizational development in public sector organizations.

Organizational development is the conceptual infrastructure of the organization, designed in a way to increase overall organizational effectiveness. It is comprised of the set-up of divisions and roles within the organization, and the flows of communication and reporting that go along with the divisional/unit structure. Organizational development will influence how an organization performs its tasks and pursues its objectives. Organizational change is something that will be affected by the organizational development, not the least because of the role that leadership plays in both (Greenwood & Hinings, 1988). The change will flow from the development, but because development improves the way that knowledge flows throughout the organization, it can be a significant influencer of any change process.

Organizational change is the process of transforming the elements of the organization. This can include design, culture, strategic mission, resources or other key elements. The organizational change process is typically understood to be genuinely transformative, such that the organization will look and feel different after the change program; it is not intended to understood as minor tweaks or superficial change, but a genuine and meaningful transformation of the organization.

The relationship between the two is that organizational design can influence how organizational change occurs, but also that organizational change also will often affect the design of the organization. Organizational routines, for example, are typically governed by the flows of communication and the loci of control within the organization, and organizational change will typically contain some element of changing the routines (Becker et al., 2005).

Change and development are typically driven by deliberate action from within the organization, though there are times when subtle changes can compound over time to transform the organization regardless of specifically guided process. Inertia is also a concept that arises in change literature, because inertia can affect the culture and design of an organization as well, with a change program needed to alter the track of the organization. Generally, both design and change begin with a re-conceptualization of the company and a specific program to affect change, first by altering the design and then by making changes to the culture, and then more micro-level alterations to the organization.

Change is specifically implemented in a deliberate manner, flowing from a vision of the organization as something different than it is. There is usually a process of organizational diagnosis, wherein the organization is faced with a change to its operating environment, or its mandate, that necessitates changes to other aspects of the organization, how it transforms and how it functions.

III. Communication Skills

Communication skills are essential to the process of organizational development and change. It is an essential component of organizational development because the ideas and concepts that the organization is to work with must be embedded in the institutional knowledge. The more knowledge exists within the organization, the better-prepared the organization will be to affect change, and likely the flexible and open to change the organization will be as well.

Communication is even more essential in a dedicated organizational change process. One of the biggest risks to any organizational change process is that such a process inherently creates uncertainty. The people within the organization become uncertain about their roles going forward, which can result in people becoming more defensive in nature, and resisting change. Overcoming resistance to change, and creating motivation for change, are key areas where communication skills matter the most. Managing perceptions of the change process is essential to ensuring its success, and communication is the key means by which this occurs (Allen, et al., 2007).

Some of the best practices for communication during a period of organizational change are as follows. First, prior to the initiation of the change, management needs to find a way to motivate the people within the company with respect to the need for change. This will typically involving creating a sense of urgency. If the company is doing poorly, this is probably fairly easy, but some change is anticipatory in nature, and the need for change may not yet be apparent.

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The communication of the motivation for the change needs to be full, transparent, and honest, so that even if the people within the organization do not agree with the change, they can see that there was a specific thought process behind it, and that the organization has a new mandate or direction, or vision. The communication of the vision for change is particularly important, because change is more successful when employees buy into the vision.

Communication during a process of organization change has to be frequent, however, continuing throughout the process. The first reason is that frequent communication allows for the change to unfold naturally for the people within the organization. Realistically, the point when the change is announced is just the first visible stage of a process than can take months or even years to complete. Thus, there needs to be consistent communication not only to reinforce the initial message about the need for change and the vision for change, but also there needs to be communication to update on the change process, and to sell some success stories about the change. Moreover, organizational change affects different parts of the organization at different times. Because people often worry about their own roles, and how the change will affect them, it is important that when this is determined, it is communicated effectively, openly and honestly with people at a micro level how that change will affect them. A lot of overcoming resistance to change is about the processes by which the change is communicated, as well as updates on the change, and how the change will affect individual units and people.

Ineffective communication is the opposite of the above. A lack of communication will undermine any change effort. So, too, will change communication that does not allow for people to express their concerns. Resistance to change increases when the organization takes an aggressive approach, not communicating its vision and simply demanding that people accept change. This is especially problematic when people still do not know how the change will affect them directly -- it is hard to support something when it is being forced upon you for no apparent reason, and there is substantial risk involved.

IV. Problem-Solving

Problem-solving at the organizational level is related more to organizational development. Where OD practices increase the overall knowledge level of the organization, they equip the people within the organization with the tools to solve problems at a higher level. Organizations that are poorly-developed tend to rely heavily on senior managers to solve problems; at micro levels people are not empowered to solve problems. Thus, there is tremendous benefit to the organization to have people at all levels trained in problem-solving skills, and empowered to deal with problems themselves. Organizational development programs can improve the abilities of the people within the organization and in doing so free up senior managers for other things. Moreover, a more skilled and empowered workforce is more likely to be happy as well, which can aid when change is required. Thus, improving decision-making relates to both training (OD) and empowerment.

V. Decision-Making

Where there is a greater level of organizational development, decision-making can be pushed to lower levels of the organization. Decision-making in poorly developed organizations will often be governed primarily by top-down decision-making, which is not necessarily good for the health of the organization. Organizational development can help to improve decision-making by creating situations where more people can contribute to decision-making because they are capable and have been equipped with the knowledge and skills to make strong decisions.

VI. Leadership

One of the areas where organizational development can help is with succession planning. The poorly-developed organization will have fewer potential leaders, but where OD is strong, the organization will have better internal candidates, because there will be pathways for workers to follow to leadership positions. The organization in general will be more of a meritocracy. With a deeper pool of leadership candidates, the organization will perform better, and be able to transition from one leadership team to another more easily.

Internships can be a way to improve the depth of the organization, by attracting talented students, and then bringing in the best ones. By creating a pathway to get better people into the organization, and to use unpaid internships to vet new graduates on the cheap, the organization can begin the process of organizational development by improving the quality of people that it….....

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