Organizational Development

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

SUMMARY 3

AN ARCHETYPICAL ENTRY AND CONTRACTING PROCESS 5

LAWLER'S ENTRY AND CONTRACTING PROCESS 9

ASSESSING LAWLER'S ENTRY AND CONTRACTING PROCESS 11

WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY 14

THEORIES AND MODELS TO MAKE SENSE OUT OF THE DIAGNOSTIC DATA 17

ORGANIZING THE INFORMATION FOR FEEDBACK 22

CARRYING OUT THE FEEDBACK PROCESS 23

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION THAT COULD BE COLLECTED 25

CONCLUSION 28

BIBLIOGRAPHY 29

APPENDICES 30

B.R. RICHARDSON TIMBER PRODUCTS CORPORATION

INTRODUCTION

Organizational Development (OD) is concerned with the performance, development, and effectiveness of human organizations. OD is directed at bringing about planned change to increase an organization's effectiveness and capacity. It is an applied behavioural science that is focused on the organization as a system, and among other issues is concerned with the health of the organization, its effectiveness, its capacity to solve problems, its ability to adapt, change or of self renewal, and its ability to create a high quality of life for its employees.

An organization is defined as two or more people brought together by one or more shared goals. OD promotes the notion that a successful change is a planned change. Monitoring of both internal and external influences needs to be conducted on a continuous basis. To understand how change can be managed, OD draws knowledge and concepts from other disciplines (notably behavioural science, psychology, organization theory).

One of the early approaches to organizational change was provided by Kurt Lewin and his associates. It starts from the premise that targets of change and the social processes underlying them are relatively stable, when forces driving for change are roughly equal to forces resisting the change. To change this status quo requires a three-step process:

1. unfreezing

2. movement

3. refreezing

Unfreezing underscores the need to assess the present situation before change is contemplated. It examines the driving and restraining forces in the change situation that maintains the status quo. This information is essential for unfreezing the current situation and creating a readiness for change among organization members.

Movement involves intervening in the situation to change it. This addresses organizational issues such as human processes, strategic choices, work designs and structures. It shifts the behaviours, attitudes and values of the organization, department and individuals to new levels.

Refreezing stabilizes the organization at a new equilibrium state. If this step is ignored the organization reverts to its previous state. Refreezing rebalances the driving and restraining forces in the changed situation so it remains stable.

Output of change is highly dependent on how the change process unfolds, and the change process will need to be facilitated. The OD process is a recurring cycle (Appendix II). Diagnosis, involvement, further diagnosis, change, evaluation, and reinforcement are the stages that enable complex organizations to make sense of and manage the change process. This paper looks at the B. R. Richardson Timber Corporation case and attempts to analyze some stages of the OD process. It starts with a summary of the case.

SUMMARY

Richard Bowman, who was in charge of industrial relations at B.R. Richardson Timber Products Corporation, contacted Jack Lawler, an Organization Development Practitioner. Bowman said he was looking for someone to conduct a "motivation course" for the blue-collar employees of the lamination plant. He advised that morale in the plant was very low, the plant manager was a bit "authoritative", and that there had been a fatal accident at the plant a few months before. Lawler then arranged a meeting between himself, the President of the company and Bowman; he stated that he would have to conduct a diagnosis before any action could be suggested. After his meeting with Richardson and Bowman, Lawler later made a one day visit to the company with two of his graduate students to gather information, which he would later analyze and present to the company.

These are some of the problems that became evident after evaluating the case. The laminating plant has been growing ever since its inception, it is very profitable and busy, yet Richardson seems to be reluctant to spend money to expand the facilities and to upgrade the machinery and technology, and hire additional staff. Adequate communication at all levels is lacking, and the proper lines of communication are not followed.

Safety is a major issue, there does not appear to be sufficient safety measures in place, and accidents seem to happen frequently. Staff morale is low, staff are dissatisfied, the reward system appears to be inadequate, there is no training and development, and quality of work life seems to be poor. There is an extremely high staff turnover rate. The company appears to be under organized. There seems to be too little constraint or regulations for effective task performance, the leadership and organizational structure, job designs and policies are weakly defined, and fail to direct task behaviour effectively. Communication is fragmented; job responsibilities ambiguous, and the employees lack direction.

B.R. Richardson Timber Products Company appears to have ignored innovative management trends that have emerged over the last decade and now seem to find itself caught in the trap that comes from not taking advantage of new efficiency systems. By having waited, several cracks in the structure have been identified within the organizational structure as a whole and it is having a negative impact on operations. The structure is