FOUNDATIONS OF

ORGANIZATION
DEVELOPMENT
III. Participation and Empowerment
One of the most important foundations of organization
development is a participation/ empowerment model.
Participation in OD programs is not restricted to elites or the
top people; it is extended throughout the organization.
To empower is to give someone power, which is done by
giving individuals the authority to make decisions, to
contribute their ideas, to exert influence, and to be
responsible. Participation is an effective form of
empowerment. Participation enhances empowerment, and
empowerment in turn enhances performance and individual
well-being.
For example, autonomous work groups, quality circles, team
building, survey feedback, quality of work life programs,
search conferences, and the culture audit are all predicated
on the belief that increased participation will lead to better
solutions.
Rules of thumb such as "Involve all those who are part of the
problem or part of the solution," and "Have decisions made
by those who are closest to the problem," direct leaders to
push decision making lower in the organization, treat those
closest to the problem as the relevant experts, and give more
power to more people. OD interventions are basically
methods for increasing participation. The entire field of OD is
about empowerment.
IV. Teams and Teamwork
A fundamental belief in organization development is that
work teams are the building blocks of organizations. A
second fundamental belief is that teams must manage their
culture, processes, systems, and relationships if they are to
be effective. Teams and teamwork are part of the foundation
of organization development
Teams are important for a number of reasons.
First, much individual behavior is rooted in the socio-cultural
norms and values of the work team. If the team, as a team,
changes those norms and values, the effects on individual
behavior are immediate and lasting.
Second, many tasks are so complex they cannot be performed by
individuals; people must work together to accomplish them.
Third, teams create synergy, that is, the sum of the efforts of team
members is far greater than the sum of the individual efforts of people
wowing alone. Synergy is a principal reason teams are so important.
Fourth, teams satisfy people's need for social interaction, status,
recognition, and respect-nurture human nature.
A number of OD interventions are specifically designed to improve
team performance.
Examples are team building, intergroup teambuilding, process
consultation, quality circles, parallel learning structures, socio-
technical systems programs, Grid OD, and techniques such as role
analysis technique, role negotiation, and responsibility charting. These
interventions apply to formal work teams as well as startup teams,
cross-functional teams, temporary teams, and the like.
Teams periodically hold team-building meetings, people are trained
as group leaders and group facilitators. Organizations using
autonomous work groups or self-directed teams devote
considerable time and effort to ensure that team members possess
the skills to be effective in groups. The net effect is that teams
perform at increasingly higher levels, that they achieve synergy, and
that teamwork becomes more satisfying for team members.
Teams have always been an important foundation of OD, but there
is a growing awareness of the teams' unique ability to create
synergy, respond quickly and flexibly to problems, find new ways to
get the job done, and satisfy social needs in the work place.
V. Parallel Learning Structures:
Gervase Bushe and Abraham Shani worked in this concern and titled
Parallel Learning Structures. Parallel learning structures are a
mechanism to facilitate innovation in large bureaucratic organizations
where the forces of inertia, hierarchical communication patterns, and
standard ways of addressing problems inhibit learning, innovation,
and change. In essence, parallel structures are a vehicle for learning
how to change the system, and then leading the change process.
Parallel learning structure covers interventions where:
a. A structure' that is, a specific division and coordination of labor is
created that
b. Operates 'parallel' that is, tandem or side-by-side with the formal
hierarchy and structure and
c. Has the purpose of increasing an organization's 'learning' that is,
the creation and/or implementation of new thoughts and behaviors
by employees.
In its most basic form, a parallel learning structure consists of a
steering committee and a number of working groups that study what
changes are needed, make recommendations for improvement, and
monitoring the change efforts.
Additional refinements include having a steering committee plus idea
groups, action groups, or implementation groups, with the groups
serving specific functions designated by the steering committee.
The parallel structure should be a microcosm of the larger
organization, that is, it should have representatives from all parts of
the organization. One or more top executives should be members of
the steering committee to give the parallel structure authority,
legitimacy, and clout.
Parallel structures help people break free of the normal constraints
imposed by the organization, engage in genuine inquiry and
experimentation, and initiate needed changes.
Eg.: At Ford Motor Company, a steering committee and
working teams were used to coordinate the employee
involvement teams.
Applications:
The quality of work life programs of the 1970s and l980s
used parallel structures composed of union leaders,
managers, and employees.
Most socio-technical systems redesign efforts and open
systems planning programs use parallel structures.
High performance organizations often use parallel
structures to coordinate self-directed teams.
Parallel learning structures are often the best way to initiate
change in large bureaucratic organizations, especially when
the change involves a fundamental shift in the
organization's methods of work and/or culture.
VI. A Normative-Re-educative Strategy of Changing:
Organization development involves change, and it rests on a
particular strategy for change that had implications for practitioners
and organization members alike.
Chin and Benne describe three types of strategies for changing.
The first type of empirical -rational self-interest, and will change if
and when they come to realize change is advantageous to them.
The second group of strategies is normative-re-educative strategies,
based on the assumptions that norms form the basis for behavior,
and change comes through re-education in which old norms are
discarded and supplanted by new ones.
The third set of strategies is the power-coercive strategies, based on
the assumption that change is compliance of those who have less
power with the desires of those who have more power.
Chin and Benne indicate the nature of the normative-reeducative
strategy as follows:
Another strategies called normative-re-educative. These strategies
build upon the following assumptions:
Patterns of action and practice are supported by socio-cultural norms
and by commitments on the part of the individuals to these norms.
Socio-cultural norms are supported by the attitude and value systems
of individuals—normative outlooks which undergird their
commitments.
Change in a pattern of practice or action, according to this view, will
occur only as the persons involved are brought to change their
normative orientations to old patterns and develop commitments to
new ones.
And changes in normative orientations involve changes in attitudes,
values, skills, and significant relationships, not just changes in
knowledge, information, or intellectual rationales for action and
practice.
VII. APPLIED BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE:
OD is the application of behavioral science knowledge,
practices, and skills on ongoing systems in collaboration
with system members. Although human behavior in
organizations is far from an exact science, lawful patterns of
events produce effectiveness and ineffectiveness. OD
practitioners know about these patterns through research
and theory.
The aim of this discussion is how behavioral science
knowledge becomes applied behavioral science knowledge.
A conventional distinction is made between:
(1) "Pure" or basic science, the object of which is
knowledge for its own sake, and
(2) "Technology" applied science, or practice, the object of
which is knowledge to solve practical, pressing problems.
A conventional distinction is made between:
1. "Pure" or basic science, the object of which is
knowledge for its own sake, and
2. "Technology" applied science, or practice, the
object of which is knowledge to solve practical,
pressing problems.
OD emphasizes the latter, applied science as follows:
"The problem that confronts a practitioner is
customarily a state of disequilibrium that requires
rectification. The practitioner examines the problem
situation, on the basis of which he or she prescribes
a solution that, hopefully, re-establishes the
equilibrium, thereby solving the problem.
This process is customarily referred to as diagnosis
and treatment. Both diagnosis and treatment
consist of observing a situation and, on the basis of
selected variables, placing it in a classification
scheme or typology. The diagnostic typology allows
the practitioner to know what category of situation
he or she has examined; the treatment typology
allows the practitioner to know what remedial
efforts to apply to correct the problem.
From this "practice theory," the OD practitioner
works; first diagnosing the situation, then selecting
and implementing treatments based on the
diagnosis, and finally evaluating the effects of the
FIGURE 6: Composition of Applied Behavioral Science
Organization development is both a result of
applied behavioral science and a form of applied
behavioral science; perhaps more accurately, it
is a program of applying behavioral science to
organization.
Figure 6 shows some of the inputs to applied
behavioral science. The two bottom inputs,
behavioral science research and behavioral
science theory, represent contributions from
pure or basic science; the two top inputs,
practice research and practice theory, represent
contributions from applied science.
The following are some examples of
contributions from these four sources that are
relevant for organization development.
1. Contributions from Behavioral Science Theory:
i. The importance of social norms in determining perceptions,
motivations, and behaviors (Sherif)
ii. The role of an exchange theory of behavior that postulates that
people tend to exchange approximately equivalent units to
maintain a balance between what is-given and received (Gouldner,
Homans)
iii. The importance of the existing total field of forces in determining
and predicting behavior (Lewin)
iv. The relevance of role theory in accounting for stability and change
in behavior (G. H. Mead)
v. The possibilities inherent in views of motivation different from those
provided by older theories (McGregor, Herzberg, Maslow)
vi. The importance of individual goal setting for increasing productivity
and improving performance (Locke)
vi. The place of social cognitive theory, general theories of learning,
effects of reward and punishment, attitude change theories, and so
on in understanding organizational behavior (Bandura, Skinner,
McGuire)
2. Contributions from Behavioral Science Research:
i. Studies on the causes, conditions, and consequences of
induced competition on behavioral within and between
groups (Sheriff and Blake and Mouton)
ii. Results on the effects of cooperative and competitive group
goal structures on behavior within groups (Deutsch)
iii. Studies on the effects of organizational and managerial
climate on leadership style (Fleishman) Studies on the
variables relevant for organizational health (Likert)
iv. Studies showing the importance of the social system in
relation to the technical system (Trist and Bamforth)
v. Studies on different communication networks (Leavitt), causes
and consequences of conformity (Asch), group problem
solving (Kelley and Thibaut), and group dynamics (Cartwright
and Zander)
3. Contributions from Practice Theory:
i. Implications from the theory and practice of the laboratory training
method (Bradford, Benne, and Gibb)
ii. Implications from theories of group development (Bion and Bennis
and Shepard)
iii. New dimensions in the helping relationship and specifically the
client-consultant relationship (Rogers)
iv. Codification of the practice of management (Drucker)
v. New ideas about the education process (Dewey)
vi. The concept of "management by objectives" (Drucker, McGregor)
vii. Implications of social learning theory and behavior modeling for
supervisor training (Goldstein and Sorcher)
viii. Explorations in intervention theory and method (Argyris)
ix. Developments in consultation typologies and theory (Blake and
Mouton)
x. Implications and applications from theories of planned change
(Lipitt, Watson, and Westley; Bennis, Benne, and Chin)
4. Contributions from Practice Research:
i. Studies showing that feeding back survey research data can
bring about organization change (Mann, Likert, Baumgartel)
ii. Results indicating the importance of the informal work group
on individual and group performance (Roethlisberger and
Dickson)
iii. Results showing the efficacy of grid organization development
in large organizations (Blake, Mouton, Barnes, and Greiner)
iv. Results documenting improved organizational performance
and improved organization climate stemming from a long-
term OD effort in a manufacturing firm (Marrow, Bowers, and
Seashore)
v. Results showing the ability of behavior modeling training to
improve supervisory human relations skills (Latham and Saari)
and organizational effectiveness (Porras)
VIII. ACTION RESEARCH:
The action research model—a data-based, problem-solving
method that replicates the steps involved in the scientific
method of inquiry underlies most OD activities. Action
research involves three processes:
Data collection,
Feedback of the data to the client system members
Action planning based on the data.
Action research is especially well suited for planned change
programs.
Action research is a method that combines learning and
doing—learning about the dynamics of organizational
change, and doing or implementing change efforts.
 …learning never ends
the journey of excellence
continues…

Thank You