TUGAS RESUME PENGEMBANGAN ORGANISASI

CHAPTER 2-7

Disusun Oleh :

Muhammad Audityawan Arief (01012622125016)

Reco Rambang Putra Negsagis (01012622125008)

Vina Vira Febrisa (01012622125005)

Program Studi Magister Manajemen

Fakultas Ekonomi
Universitas Sriwijaya
2021
Organization Development and Change
Chapter Two

THE NATURE OF PLANNED CHANGE

Thomas G. Cummings
Christopher G. Worley

THEORIES OF PLANNED CHANGE

Conceptions of planned change have tended to focus on how change can be implemented in
organizations. Called “teories of changing”, these framework describe the activities that must take
place to initiate anf carry out successful organizational change.

Lewin’s Change Model

One of the earliest models of planned change was provided bt Kurt Lewin. He conceived of change
as modification of those forces keeping a system’s behavior stable. Specially, a particular set of
behavior at ant moment in time is the result of two groups of forces: those striving to maintain the
status quo and those pushing for change. When both sets of forces are about equal, current
behaviors are maintained in what Lewin terned a state of “quasi-stationary equilibrium. To change
the state, one can increase those forces pushing for change, decrease those forces maintaining the
current state, or apply some combination of both. Lewin viewed this change process as consisting of
the following there steps:
1. Unfreezing
This step usually involves reducing those forces maintaining the organization’s behavior at its
present level. Unfreezing is sometimes accomplished through a process of “psychological
disconfirmation”. By introducing information that shows discrepancies between behaviors
desired by organization members and those behaviors currently exhibited, members can be
mitivated to engage in change activities.
2. Moving
This step shifts the behavior of the organization, department, or individual to a new level. It
involves intervening in the system to develop new behaviors, values, and attitudes through
change in organizational structures and processes.
3. Refreezing
 This step stabilizes the organization at a new state of equilibrium. It is frequently accomplished
through the use of supporting mechanisms tha reinforce the new organizational state, such as
organizational culture, reward, and structures.
Lewin’s model provides a general framework for understanding organizational change. Because the
three steps of change are relatively brood, considerable, effort has gone into elaborating the.

Action Research Model

The classic action research model focuses on planned change as a cyclical process in which initial
research about the organization provides information to guide subsequent action. This interative
cycle of research and action involves considerable collaboration among organization members and
OD pratitioners.
Figure 01
Figure 01 shows the cyclical phases of planned change as defined by the original action research
model. There are eight main steps:
1. Problem Identification
This stage usually begins when an escecutive in the organization or someone with power and
influence senses that the organization has one or more problems that might be solved with the
help of an OD practitioner.
2. Consultation with a Behavioral Science Expert
During the initial contact, the OD practitioner and the client carefully assess each other. The
pratitioner has his or her own normative, evelopmental theory or frame of reference and must be
concious of those assumptions and values.
3. Data Gathering and Preliminary Diagnosis
This step is usually completed by the OD practitioner, often in conjunction with organixation
members. It involves gathering appropriate information and analyzing it to determine the
underlying cause of organizational problems. The four basic methods of gathering data are
interviews, process observation,questionnaires, and organizational performance data
(unfortunately, often overlooked).
4. Feedback to a Key Client or Group
The feedback step, in which members are given the information gathered by the OD practitioner,
helps them determine the strengths and weaknesses of the organization or unit under study. The
consultan provides the client wiwth all relevant and useful data.
5. Joint Diagnosis of the Problem
At this point, members discuss the feedback and explore with the OD practitioner whatever they
want to work on identified problems. A close interrelationship exist among data gathering,
feedback, and diagnosis because the consultan summarizies the basic data from the client
members and present the data to them for vlaidation and further diagnosis.
6. Joint Action Planning
This is the begiining of the moving process (described in Lewin’s change model), as the
organization decides how best to reach a different qusi-stationary equilibrium. At this stage, the
spesific action to be thaken depends on the culture, technology, and environment of the
organization; the diagnosis of the problem; and the time and expense of the intervention.
7. Action
This stage involves the actual change from one organizational state to another. It may include
installing new methods and procedures, reorganizing structures and work designs, and
reinforcing new behaviors.
8. Data Gathering After Action
Because action research is a cyclical process, data must also be gathered after the action has
been taken to measure and determine the effects of the action and to feed the results back to
the orgnization. This, in turn, may lead to rediagnosis and new action.

The Positive Model

The positive model focuses on what the organization is doing right. The positive model has been
apllied to planned change primarily through a process called appreciative inquiry (AI). Drawing
heavily on AI, the positive model of planned change involves five phases that are depicated in figure
01.(C).
1. Initiate the Inquiry
This first phase determines the subject of change. It emphasizes member involvement to identify
the organizational issue they have the most energy to address.
2. Inquire into Best Practices
This phase involves gathering information about the “best of what is” in the organization. If the
topic is organizational innovation, then members help to develop an interview protocol that
collects stories of new ideas that were developed and implemented in the organization.
3. Discover the Themes
In this third phase, members examine the stories, both large and small, to identify a set of
themes representing the common dimensions of people’s experience.
4. Envision a Preferred Future
Members than exemine the identified themes, challenge the status quo, and describe a
compelling future.
5. Design and Deliver Ways to Create the Future
It describes the activities and creates the plans necessary to bring about the vision. The process is
continued by renewing the conservations about the best of what is.

Comparisons of Change Models

All three models – Lewin’s change model, the action research model, and the positive model –
describe the phases by which planned change occurs in organizations. Moreover, all three
approaches emphasize the application of behavioral scrience knowledge, involve organization
members in the change process to varying degrees, and recognize that any interaction between a
colsultant and an organization consitutes an intervention that may affect the organization.
GENERAL MODEL OF PLANNED CHANGE
Figure 02

Entering and Contracting

Entering an organization involves gathering initial data to understand the problems facing the
organization or to determine the positive areas for inquiry. Once this information is collected, the
problems or opportunities are discussed with managers and other organization members to develop
a contract or agreement to engage in planned change.

Diagnosing
In this stage of planned change, the client system is carefully studied. Diagnosis can focus on
understanding organizational problems, including theis causes and consequences, or on collectiong
stories about the organization’s positive attributes, the diagnostic process is one of the most
important activities in OD. Gathering, analyzing, and feeding back data are the central change
activities in diagnosis.

Planning and Implementing Change

In this stage, organization members and pratitioner jointly plan and implement OD interventions.
They design interventions to achieve the organizaation’s vision or goals and make action plans to
implement them. Immplementing interventions is concerned with leading and managing the change
process.

Evaluating and Instituonalizing Change

Feedback to organization members about the invention’s result provides information about
whetever the changes should be continued, modified, or suspended. Instituonalizing successful
changes involves reinforcing them through feedback, reward, and training.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF PLANNED CHANGE
The general model of planned change describes how the OD process typically unfolds in
organizations. In actual practice, the different phases are not nearly as orderly as the model implies.
To understand the differences better, planned change can be contrasted across situations on three
key dimensions.

Magnitude of Change
Planned change effort can be characterized as falling along a continuum ranging from incremental
changes that involve fine-tuning the organization to fundamental changes thal entail radically
altering how it operates. Incremental changes tend to involve limited dimensions and levels of the
organization, such as the decision-making processes of work groups. They occur within the context
of the organization’s existing business strategy, stucture, and culture and acre aimed at improving
the status quo.

Degree of Organization
In overorganized situations, communication between management and employeess is typically
suppressed, conflicts are avoidded, and employees are apathetic. In underorganized organizations,
on the other hand, there is too little constraint or regulation for effective task performance.
Underorganized situations aretypically found in such areas as product development, project
management, and community development, where relationships among deverse groups and
participants must be coordinated around complex, uncertain tasks. In overorganized situations,
where much of OD practice has historically taken place, planned change is generally aimed at
loosening constraints on behavior.

Domestic vs. International Settings

Planned change effort have tradionally been applied in North American and European settings, but
they are increasingly used outside of these cultures. Conducting OD in internstional settings can be
highly stressful on OD pratitioners. To be successful, they must develop a keen awareness of their
own cultural biases. Most OD pratitioners are not able to meet all of those criteria and partner with
a “cultural guide”, often a member of the client organization, to help navigate the cultural,
operational, and political nuances of change in that society.
CRITIQUE OF PLANNED CHANGE
Despite their continued refinement, the models and practice of planned change are still in a
formative stage of development, and there is considerable room forimprovement.

Conseptualization of Planned Change

Planned change has typically been characterized as involving a series of activities for carrying out
effective organization development. A related area where current thinking about planned change is
deficient is knowledge about how the stages of planned change differ across situations.planned
change also tends to be described as a rationally controlled, orderly process. Most descriptions of
planned change typically describe a beginning, middle, and end to the process. Finally, the
relationship beetween planned change and organizational performance and effectiveness is not well
understood. OD traditionally has had problems assessing whetever interventions are producing
observed result. The complexity of the change situation, the lack of sophisticated analyses, and the
long time periods for producing result have contributed to weak evaluation of OD effort.

Practice of Planned Change

Critics have suggested several problems with the way planned change is carried out. Their oncerns
are not eith the planned change model itself but with low change takes place and with the
qualifications and ativitie of OD practitioners. A growing number of OD pratitioners ave acquired
skills in a specific technique, such as team building, total quality management, AI, large-group
interventions, or gain sharing, and have chosen to specialize in that method. Effective change
depends on a careful diagnosis of how the organization is functioning. Careful diagnosis can help to
avoid such mistakes.
In situations requiring complex organizational changes, planned change is a long term process
involving considerable innovation and learning on-site. It requires a good deal of time and
commitment and a willingness to modify and refine changes as the circumstances require. Thw quick
fixes have trouble gaining wide organizational support and commitment, however, and seldom
produe the positive results that have been advertised.
Other organizations have not recognized the systemic nature of change. Too often, thy believe that
intervention into one aspect or subpart of the organization will be sufficient to ameliorate the
problems, and they are unprepared for the other changes that may be necessary to support a
particular intervention.
Organization Development and Change
Chapter Three

THE ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTITIONER

Thomas G. Cummings
Christopher G. Worley

THE ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTITIONER

Throughout this text, the term organization development practitioner refers to at least three sets of
people.
Internal and Exernal Consultant
Internal or External consultants who offer professional services to organizations, including their top
managers, functional department heads, and staff groups. OD professionals traditionally have shared
a common set of humanistic values promoting open communications, employee involvement, and
personal growth and development. They tend to have common training, skills, and experience in the
social processes of organizations. That expansion, mainly in response to the highly competitive
demands facing modern organizations, has resulted in a more diverse set of PD professionals geared
to helping organizations cope with those pressures.

Professionals from Other Diciplines Who Apply OD Practices

They are specializing in fields related to OD, such as reward systems, organization design, total
quality, information technology, and business strategy. A growing number of professionals in these
related fields are gaining experience and competence in OD, mainly through working with OD
professionals on large-scale projects and through attending OD training sessions.They are OD
practitioners in the sense that they apply their special competence within an OD – like process,
typicaly by engaging OD professionals and managers to design and implement change programs.

Managers and Administrators Who Apply OD from Their Line or Staff Position
The third set of people to whom the term applies are the increasing number of managers and
administrators who have gained competence in OD and who apply it to their own work areas.
Studies and recent articles argue that OD increasingly is applied by managers rather than by OD
professionals. They have gained the expertise to introduce change and innovation into the
organization.
COMPETENCIES OF AN OD PRACTITIONER
The literature about OD competencies reveals a mixture of personality traits, experiences,
knowledge, and skills presumed to lead to effective practice. All OD pratitioners should have the
following basic skills and knowledge to be effective.

Intrapersonal Skills
Despite the growing knowledge base and sophistication of the field, organization development is still
a human craft. As the primary instrument of diagnosis and change, practitioners often must process
complex, ambiguous information and make informes judgements about its relevance to
organizational issues. Practitioners must have the personal centering to know their own values,
feelings, and purposes as well as the integrity to behave responsibly in a helping relationship with
others.

Interpersonal Skills
Practitioners must create and maintain relationships with individuals and groups within the
organization and help them gain the competence necessary to solve their own problems. Because
the helping relationship is jointly determined, practitioners need to be able to negotiate an
acceptable role and to manage changing ecpectations and demands.

General Consultatation Skills

Iddentifies the ability to manage the consulting process and the ability to design interventions as
core competencies thal all OD practitioners should prosess. OD starts with diagnosing an
organization or department to understand its current functioning and to discover areas for further
development. OD practitioners need to know how to carry out an effective diagnosis, at least at a
rudimentary level. In addition to diagnosis, OD practitioners should know how to design and execute
an intervention. They need to be able to define an action plan and to gain commitment to the
program.

Organization Development Theory

They should have some appreciation for planned change, the action research model, and the
positive approaches to mnaging change. They should be familiar with the range of available
interventions and the need for evaluating change programs. Perhaps more important is that OD
practitioners should understand their own role in the emerging field of organization development,
whatever it is an OD proffesional, a manager, or a specialist in a related area.
ROLE DEMANDS ON ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PRACTITIONERS
Position
Organization developments professional have positions that are either internal or external to the
organization. Internal consultants are members of the organization and mat be located in the human
resources department or report directly to a line manager. External consultants are not members of
the client organization. They typically work for a consulting firm, a university, or themselves.

Although little has been written on internal-external consulting teams, studies suggest that the
effectiveness of such teams depends on members developing strong, supportive, collegial
relationships. Members need to provide each other with continuous feedback and also make a
commitment to learn from each other. In the absence of these team – building and learning
activities, internal-external consulting teams can be more troublesome and less effective than either
internal or external consultants working alone.
Marginality
A promising line of research on the professional OD role centers on the issue of marginality. The
marginal person is one who successfully straddles the boundary between two or more groups with
differing goals, value systems, and behavior patterns. Whereas in the past, the marginal role always
was seen as dysfunctional, marginallity now is seen in a more positive light. There are many
examples of marginal roles in organizations: the salesperson, the buyer, the first-line supervisor, the
integrator, and the project manager.
Evidence is mounting that some people are better at taking marginal roles than are others. Those
who are good at it seem to have personal qualities of low dogmatism, neutrality, open-mindedness,
objectivity, flexibility, and adaptable informationprocessing ability Induviduals with marginal
orientations are more likely than others to develop intergrative decisions that brong together and
reconcile viewpoints among opposing organizational groups and are more likely to remain neutral in
controversial situations.

Emotional Demands
The organization development practitioner role is emotionally demanding. Research and practice
support the importance of understanding emotions and their impact on the practitioner’s
effectiveness. The research on emotional intelligence in organizations suggests a set of abilities that
can aid OD practitioners in conducting successful change efforts. Emotional intelligence refers to
recognize and express emotions. appropriately, to use emotions in thought and decisions, and to
regulate emotion in one’s self and in others. It is, therefore, a different kind of intelligence from
problemsolving ability, engineering aptitude, or the knowledge of concepts. In tandem with
traditional knowledge and skill, emotional intelligence affects and supplements rational thought;
emotions help prioritize thinking by directing attention to important information not addressed in
models and theories. In that sense, some researchers argue that emotional intelligence is as
important as cognitive intelligence.
Evidence suggests that emotional intelligence increases with age and experience. Research also
supports the conclusion that competence with emotions can be developed through personal growth
processes such as sensitivity training, counseling, and therapy. It seems reasonable to suggest that
professional OD practitioners dedicate themselves to a long-term regimen of development that
includes acquiring both cognitive learning and emotional intelligence.
Use of Knowledge and Experience
The professional OD role has been described in terms of a continuum ranging from client centered
(using the client’s knowledge and experience) to consultant centered (using the consultant’s
knowledge and experience). Traditionally, OD consultants have worked at the client- centered end of
the continuum. Organization development professionals, relying mainly on process consultation and
team building, have been expected to remain neutral, refusing to offer expert advice on
organizational problems.
The recent proliferation of OD interventions in the structural, human resource management, and
strategy areas has expanded that limited definition of the professional OD role to include the
consultant-centered end of the continuum. In many of the newer approaches, the consultant may
have to take on a modified role of expert, with the consent and collaboration of organization
members. The consultant’s role might be to present the basic concepts and ideas and then to
struggle jointly with the managers to select an approach that might be useful to the organization and
to decide how it might best be implemented. In this situation, the OD professional recommends or
prescribes particular changes and is active in planning how to implement them. This expertise,
however, is always shared rather than imposed.

CLIENT VS. CONSULTANT KNOWLEDGE

With the development of new and varied intervention approaches, the OD professional’s role needs
to be seen as falling along the entire continuum from client centered to consultant centered. At
times, the consultant will rely mainly on organization members’ knowledge and experiences to
identify and solve problems. At other times, it will be more appropriate to take on the role of an
expert, withdrawing from that role as managers gain more knowledge and experience.
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
Ethical issues in OD are concerned with how practitioners perform their helping relationship with
organization members. Inherent in any helping relationship is the potential for misconduct and client
abuse. OD practitioners can let personal values stand in the way of good practice or use the power
inherent in their professional role to abuse (often unintentionally) organization members.

Ethical Guidelines
To its credit, the field of OD always has shown concern for the ethical conduct of its practitioners.
There have been several articles and symposia about ethics in OD. In addition, statements of ethics
governing OD practice have been sponsored by the Organization Development Institute
(http://members.aol.com/ODInst/ethics.htm), the American Society for Training & Development
(http://www.astd.org), and a consortium of professional associations in OD. The project’s purposes
included preparing critical incidents describing ethical dilemmas and using that material for
preprofessional and continuing education in OD, providing an empirical basis for a statement of
values and ethics for OD professionals, and initiating a process for making the ethics of OD practice
explicit on a continuing basis.

Ethical Dilemmas
Although adherence to statements of ethics helps prevent the occurrence of ethical problems, OD
practitioners still encounter ethical dilemmas. Neither the client nor the OD practitioner is clear
about respective responsibilities. Each party is pursuing different goals, and each is using different
skills and values to achieve those goals. The role conflict and ambiguity may produce five types of
ethical dilemmas: misrepresentation, misuse of data, coercion, value and goal conflict, and technical
ineptness.
1. Misrepresentation
Misrepresentation occurs when OD practitioners claim that an intervention will produce results
that are unreasonable for the change program or the situation. The client can contribute to the
problem by portraying inaccurate goals and needs. In either case, one or both parties are
operating under false pretenses and an ethical dilemma exists. Misrepresentation is likely to
occur in the entering and contracting phases of planned change when the initial consulting
relationship is being established. To prevent misrepresentation, OD practitioners need to gain
clarity about the goals of the change effort, and to explore openly with the client its expected
effects, its relevance to the client system, and the practitioner’s competence in executing the
intervention.
2. Misuse of data
Misuse of data occurs when information gathered during the OD process is used punitively. Large
amounts of information are invariably obtained during the entry and diagnostic phases of OD.
Although most OD practitioners value openness and trust, it is important that they be aware of
how such data are going to be used. Openness is one thing, but leaking inappropriate information
can be harmful to individuals and to the organization. It is easy for a consultant, under the guise
of obtaining information, to gather data about whether a particular manager is good or bad.
When, how, or if this information can be used is an ethical dilemma not easily resolved. To
minimize misuse of data, practitioners should reach agreement up front with organization
members about how data collected during the change process will be used. This agreement
should be reviewed periodically in light of changing circumstances.

3. Coercion
Coercion occurs when organization members are forced to participate in an OD intervention.
People should have the freedom to choose whether to participate in a change program if they are
to gain self-reliance to solve their own problems. However, freedom to make a choice requires
knowledge about OD. Many organization members have little information about OD
interventions, what they involve, and the nature and consequences of becoming involved with
them. This makes it imperative for OD practitioners to educate clients about interventions before
choices are made for implementing them. Coercion also can pose ethical dilemmas for the
helping relationship between OD practitioners and organization members. an effective way to
 resolve this dilemma is to make the change effort as open as possible, with the free consent and
knowledge of the individuals involved. The second facet of coercion that can pose ethical
dilemmas for the helping relationship involves dependency. A major goal in OD is to lessen
clients’ dependency on consultants by helping clients gain the knowledge and skills to address
organizational problems and manage change themselves. dependency can be reduced by
changing the client’s expectation from being helped or controlled by the practitioner to a greater
focus on the need to manage the problem. Such a refocusing can reinforce the understanding
that the consultant is working for the client and offering assistance that is at the client’s
discretion.

4. Value and Goal Conflicts

This ethical conflict occurs when the purpose of the change effort is not clear or when the client
and the practitioner disagree over how to achieve the goals. The important practical issue for OD
consultants is whether it is justifiable to withhold services unilaterally from an organization that
does not agree with their values or methods.

5. Technical Ineptness
This final ethical dilemma occurs when OD practitioners try to implement interventions for which
they are not skilled or when the client attempts a change for which it is not ready. Critical to the
success of any OD program is the selection of an appropriate intervention, which depends, in
turn, on careful diagnosis of the organization. Selecting an intervention is closely related to the
practitioner’s own values, skills, and abilities. Technical ineptness dilemmas also can occur when
interventions do not align with the ability of the organization to implement them. Again, careful
diagnosis can reveal the extent to which the organization is ready to make a change and
possesses the skills and knowledge to implement it
Organization Development and Change
Chapter Four

ENTERING AND CONTRACTING

Thomas G. Cummings
Christopher G. Worley

Entering and contracting are the initial steps in the OD process. They involve defining in a
preliminary manner the organization’s problems or opportunities for development and establishing
a collaborative relationship between the OD practitioner and members of the client system about
how to work on those issues. Entering and contracting set the initial parameters for carrying out the
subsequent phases of OD: diagnosing the organization, planning and implementing changes, and
evaluating and institutionalizing them.

Entering and contracting can vary in complexity and formality depending on the situation. In
those cases where the manager of a work group or department serves as his or her own OD
practitioner, entering and contracting typically involve the manager and group members meeting to
discuss what issues to work on and how they will jointly meet the goals they set. Here, entering and
contracting are relatively simple and informal. They involve all relevant members directly in the
process—with a minimum of formal procedures. In situations where managers and administrators
are considering the use of professional OD practitioners, either from inside or from outside the
organization, entering and contracting tend to be more complex and formal.

ENTERING INTO AN OD RELATIONSHIP

An OD process generally starts when a member of an organization or unit contacts an OD

practitioner about potential help in addressing an organizational issue. The organization member
may be a manager, staff specialist, or some other key participant; the practitioner may be an OD
professional from inside or outside of the organization. Determining whether the two parties should
enter into an OD relationship typically involves clarifying the nature of the organization’s current
functioning and the issue(s) to be addressed, the relevant client system for that issue, and the
appropriateness of the particular OD practitioner.

 Clarifying the Organizational Issue

 When seeking help from OD practitioners, organizations typically start with a presenting
problem—the issue that has caused them to consider an OD process. It may be specific (decreased
market share, increased absenteeism) or general (“we’re growing too fast,” “we need to prepare for
rapid changes”). The presenting problem often has an implied or stated solution. For example,
managers may believe that because costs are high, laying off members of their department is the
obvious answer. They may even state the presenting problem in the form of a solution: “We need to
downsize our organization.” The issue facing the organization or department must be clarified early
in the OD process so that subsequent diagnostic and intervention activities are focused correctly.

Gaining a clearer perspective on the organizational issue may require collecting preliminary
data. OD practitioners often examine company records and interview a few key members to gain an
introductory understanding of the organization, its context, and the nature of the presenting
problem. The diagnostic phase of OD involves a far more extensive assessment of the problematic or
development issue than occurs during the entering and contracting stage. The diagnosis also might
discover other issues that need to be addressed, or it might lead to redefining the initial issue that
was identified during the entering and contracting stage.

 Determining the Relevant Client

The relevant client includes those organization members who can directly impact the change
issue, whether it is solving a particular problem or improving an already successful organization or
department. Unless these members are identified and included in the entering and contracting
process, they may withhold their support for and commitment to the OD process.

Determining the relevant client can vary in complexity depending on the situation. In those
cases where the organizational issue can be addressed in a specific organization unit, client
definition is relatively straightforward. Members of that unit constitute the relevant client. They or
their representatives must be included in the entering and contracting process.

Determining the relevant client is more complex when the organizational issue cannot
readily be addressed in a single unit. Here, it may be necessary to expand the definition of the client
to include members from multiple units, from different hierarchical levels, and even from outside of
the organization.

 Selecting an OD Practitioner

The last activity involved in entering an OD relationship is selecting an OD practitioner who

has the expertise and experience to work with members on the organizational issue. Unfortunately,
little systematic advice is available on how to choose a competent OD professional, whether from
inside or outside of the organization.

For less formal and structured selection processes, the late Gordon Lippitt, a pioneering
practitioner in the field, suggested several criteria for selecting, evaluating, and developing OD
practitioners. Lippitt listed areas that managers should consider before selecting a practitioner—
including their ability to form sound interpersonal relationships, the degree of focus on the problem,
the skills of the practitioner relative to the problem, the extent that the consultant clearly informs
the client as to his or her role and contribution, and whether the practitioner belongs to a
professional association. References from other clients are highly important. The burden of choosing
an effective OD practitioner should not rest entirely with the client organization. Consultants also
bear a heavy responsibility in finding whether there is a match between their skills and knowledge
and what the organization or department needs.

DEVELOPING A CONTRACT

The activities of entering an OD relationship are a necessary prelude to developing an OD

contract. They define the major focus for contracting, including the relevant parties. Contracting is a
natural extension of the entering process and clarifies how the OD process will proceed. It typically
establishes the expectations of the parties, the time and resources that will be expended, and the
ground rules under which the parties will operate.

The goal of contracting is to make a good decision about how to carry out the OD process. It
can be relatively informal and involve only a verbal agreement between the client and the OD
practitioner. Regardless of the level of formality, all OD processes require some form of explicit
contracting that results in either a verbal or a written agreement. Such contracting clarifies the
client’s and the practitioner’s expectations about how the OD process will take place.

The contracting step in OD generally addresses three key areas: setting mutual expectations
or what each party expects to gain from the OD process; the time and resources that will be devoted
to it; and the ground rules for working together.

 Mutual Expectations

The client states the services and outcomes to be provided by the OD practitioner and
describes what the organization expects from the process and the consultant. Clients usually can
describe the desired outcomes, such as lower costs or higher job satisfaction. Encouraging them to
state their wants in the form of outcomes, working relationships, and personal accomplishments can
facilitate the development of a good contract.
 The OD practitioner also should state what he or she expects to gain from the OD process.
This can include opportunities to try new interventions, report the results to other potential clients,
and receive appropriate compensation or recognition.

 Time and Resources

To accomplish change, the organization and the OD practitioner must commit time and
resources to the effort. Each must be clear about how much energy and how many resources will be
dedicated to the change process. Failure to make explicit the necessary requirements of a change
process can quickly ruin an OD effort.

Block has suggested that resources can be divided into two parts. Essential requirements are
things that are absolutely necessary if the change process is to be successful. From the practitioner’s
perspective, they can include access to key people or information, enough time to do the job, and
commitment from certain stakeholder groups. Being clear about the constraints on carrying out the
assignment will facilitate the contracting process and improve the chances for success. Desirable
requirements are those things that would be nice to have but are not absolutely necessary, such as
access to special resources or written rather than verbal reports.

 Ground Rules

The final part of the contracting process involves specifying how the client and the OD
practitioner will work together. The parameters established may include such issues as
confidentiality, if and how the OD practitioner will become involved in personal or interpersonal
issues, how to terminate the relationship, and whether the practitioner is supposed to make expert
recommendations or help the manager make decisions. Failure to address the concerns may mean
that the client or the practitioner has inappropriate assumptions about how the process will unfold.

INTERPERSONAL PROCESS ISSUES IN ENTERING AND CONTRACTING

Entering and contracting are the first exchanges between a client and an OD practitioner.
Establishing a healthy relationship at the outset makes it more likely that the client’s desired
outcomes will be achieved and that the OD practitioner will be able to improve the organization’s
capacity to manage change in the future. The client is likely to feel exposed, inadequate, or
vulnerable. The organization’s current effectiveness and the request for help may seem to the client
like an admission that they are incapable of solving the problem or providing the leadership
necessary to achieve a set of results. Moreover, they are entering into a relationship where they may
feel unable to control the activities of the OD practitioner. As a result, they feel vulnerable because
of their dependency on the practitioner to provide assistance.
 On the other hand, the OD practitioner may have feelings of empathy, unworthiness, and
dependency. The practitioner may over identify with the client’s issues and want to be so helpful
that he or she agrees to unreasonable deadlines or inadequate resources. The practitioner’s desire
to be seen as competent and worthy may lead to an agreement on a project for which the
practitioner has few skills or experience. Establishing a relationship with a client must be approached
carefully; the initial contacts and conversations must represent a model of how the OD process will
be conducted. A number of complex emotional and psychological issues are in play, and OD
practitioners must be mindful of their own as well as the client’s perspectives. Attending to those
issues as well as to the content of the contract will help increase the likelihood of success.
Organization Development and Change
Chapter Five

DIAGNOSING ORGANIZATIONS
Thomas G. Cummings
Christopher G. Worley

Diagnosis is the process of understanding a system’s current functioning. It involves

collecting pertinent information about current operations, analyzing those data, and drawing
conclusions for potential change and improvement. Effective diagnosis provides the systematic
knowledge of the organization needed to design appropriate interventions. Thus, OD interventions
derive from diagnosis and include specific actions intended to improve organizational functioning.
Diagnostic models derive from conceptions about how organizations function, and they tell OD
practitioners what to look for in diagnosing organizations, departments, groups, or jobs. They serve
as a road map for discovering current functioning. A general, comprehensive diagnostic model is
presented based on open systems theory.

OPEN SYSTEMS MODEL

The open systems model recognizes that organizations exist in the context of a larger
environment that affects how the organization performs and in turn is affected by how the
organization interacts with it. The model suggests that organizations operate within an external
environment, takes specific inputs from the environment, and transforms those inputs using social
and technical processes. The outputs of the transformation process are returned to the environment
and can be used as feedback to the organization’s functioning.

The open systems model also suggests that organizations and their subsystems—
departments, groups, and individuals—share a number of common features that explain how they
are organized and function. For example, open systems display a hierarchical ordering. Each higher
level of system is composed of lower-level systems: Systems at the level of society are composed of
organizations; organizations comprise are composed of groups (departments); and groups comprise
are composed of individuals. Although systems at different levels vary in many ways—in size and
complexity, for example—they have a number of common characteristics by virtue of being open
systems, and those properties can be applied to systems at any level.

PROPERTIES OF OPEN SYSTEM

 Environments
 Organizational environments are everything beyond the boundaries of the system that can
indirectly or directly affect performance and outcomes. Open systems, such as organizations and
people, exchange information and resources with their environments. They cannot completely
control their own behavior and are influenced in part by external forces. Organizations, for example,
are affected by such environmental conditions as the availability of labor and human capital, raw
material, customer demands, competition, and government regulations. Understanding how these
external forces affect the organization can help explain some of its internal behavior.

 Inputs, Transformations, and Outputs

Any organizational system is composed of three related parts: inputs, transformations, and
outputs. Inputs consist of human resources or other resources, such as information, energy, and
materials, coming into the system. Inputs are part of and acquired from the organization’s external
environment.

Transformations are the processes of converting inputs into outputs. In organizations, a

production or operations function composed of both social and technological components generally
carries out transformations. The social component consists of people and their work relationships,
whereas the technological component involves tools, techniques, and methods of production or
service delivery. Organizations have developed elaborate mechanisms for transforming incoming
resources into goods and services. Transformation processes also can take place at the group and
individual levels.

Outputs are the results of what is transformed by the system and sent to the environment.
Thus, inputs that have been transformed represent outputs ready to leave the system.

 Boundaries

The idea of boundaries helps to distinguish between systems and environments. Closed
systems have relatively rigid and impenetrable boundaries, whereas open systems have far more
permeable borders. Boundaries—the borders, or limits, of the system—are easily seen in many
biological and mechanical systems. Defining the boundaries of social systems is more difficult
because there is a continuous inflow and outflow through them.

The definition of a boundary is somewhat arbitrary because a social system has multiple
subsystems and the boundary line for one subsystem may not be the same as that for a different
subsystem. As with the system itself, arbitrary boundaries may have to be assigned to any social
organization, depending on the variable to be stressed. The boundaries used for studying or
analyzing leadership, for instance, may be quite different from those used to study intergroup
dynamics.

 Feedback

Feedback is information regarding the actual performance or the output results of the
system. Not all such information is feedback, however. Only information used to control the future
functioning of the system is considered feedback. Feedback can be used to maintain the system in a
steady state (for example, keeping an assembly line running at a certain speed) or to help the
organization adapt to changing circumstances.

 Equifinality

In closed systems, a direct cause-and-effect relationship exists between the initial condition
and the final state of the system: When a computer’s “on” switch is pushed, the system powers up.
Biological and social systems, however, operate quite differently. The idea of equifinality suggests
that similar results or outputs may be achieved with different initial conditions and in many different
ways.

 Alignment

A system’s overall effectiveness is partly determined by the extent to which the different
subsystems are aligned with each other. This alignment or fit concerns the relationships between the
organization and its environment, between inputs and transformations, between transformations
and outputs, and among the subsystems of the transformation process. Diagnosticians who view the
relationships amongthe various parts of a system as a whole are taking what is referred to as “a
systemic perspective.”

Alignment refers to a characteristic of the relationship between two or more parts. It

represents the extent to which the features, operations, and characteristics of one system support
the effectiveness of another system. Just as the teeth in two wheels of a watch must mesh perfectly
for the watch to keep time, so do the parts of an organization need to mesh for it to be effective.

Diagnosing Organizational Systems

When viewed as open systems, organizations can be diagnosed at three levels. The highest
level is the overall organization and includes the design of the company’s strategy, structure, and
processes. Large organization units, such as divisions, subsidiaries, or strategic business units, also
can be diagnosed at that level. The next lowest level is the group or department, which includes
group design and devices for structuring interactions among members, such as norms and work
schedules. The lowest level is the individual position or job. This includes ways in which jobs are
designed to elicit required task behaviors.

ORGANIZATION-LEVEL DIAGNOSIS

The organization level of analysis is the broadest systems perspective typically taken in
diagnostic activities. The figure proposes that an organization’s transformation processes, or design
components, represent the way the organization positions and organizes itself within an
environment (inputs) to achieve specific outputs. The combination of design component elements is
called a “strategic orientation.

To understand how a total organization functions, it is necessary to examine particular

inputs, design components, and the alignment of the two sets of dimensions. The two key inputs
affect the way an organization designs its strategic orientation: the general environment and the
task environment or industry structure.

Organization Environments and Inputs

At the organization level of analysis, the external environment is the key input. There are
two classes of environments: the general environment and the task environment.

The general environment consists of all external forces and elements that can influence an
organization and affect its effectiveness. The environment can be described in terms of the amount
of uncertainty present in social, technological, economic, ecological, and political/regulatory forces.
Each of these forces can affect the organization in both direct and indirect ways.

An organization’s task environment or industry structure is another important input into

strategic orientation. Michael Porter defines an organization’s task environment by five forces:
supplier power, buyer power, threats of substitutes, threats of entry, and rivalry among competitors.
First, strategic orientations must be sensitive to powerful suppliers who can increase prices (and
therefore lower profits) or force the organization to pay more attention to the supplier’s needs than
to the organization’s needs. Second, strategic orientations must be sensitive to powerful buyers.
Third, strategic orientations must be sensitive to the threat of new firms entering into competition.
Fourth, strategic orientations must be sensitive to the threat of new products or services that can
replace existing offerings. Finally, strategic orientations must be sensitive to rivalry among existing
competitors. If many organizations are competing for the same customers, for example, then the
strategic orientation must monitor product offerings, costs, and structures carefully if the
organization is to survive and prosper. Together, these forces play an important role in determining
the success of an organization, whether it is a manufacturing or service firm, a nonprofit
organization, or a government agency.

Design Components

Strategic orientation is composed of five major design components— strategy, technology,

structure, measurement systems, and human resources systems—and an intermediate output—
culture. Effective organizations align their design components to each other and to the environment.

A strategy represents the way an organization uses its resources (human, economic, or
technical) to achieve its goals and gain a competitive advantage. It can be described by the
organization’s mission, goals and objectives, strategic intent, and functional policies.

Technology is concerned with the way an organization converts inputs into products and
services. It represents the core transformation process and includes production methods, work flow,
and equipment. Two features of the technological core have been shown to influence other design
components: technical interdependence and technical uncertainty. Technical interdependence
involves ways in which the different parts of a technological system are related. High
interdependence requires considerable coordination among tasks, such as might occur when
departments must work together to bring out a new product. Technical uncertainty refers to the
amount of information processing and decision making required during task performance.

The structural system describes how attention and resources are focused on task
accomplishment. It represents the basic organizing mode chosen to (1) divide the overall work of an
organization into subunits that can assign tasks to individuals or groups and (2) coordinate these
subunits for completion of the overall work. Structure, therefore, needs to be closely aligned with
the organization’s technology.

Measurement systems are methods of gathering, assessing, and disseminating information

on the activities of groups and individuals in organizations. Such data tell how well the organization
is performing and are used to detect and control deviations from goals. Closely related to structural
integration, measurement systems monitor organizational operations and feed data about work
activities to managers and members so that they can better understand current performance and
coordinate work.
 Human resources systems include mechanisms for selecting, developing, appraising, and
rewarding organization members. These influence the mix of skills, personalities, and behaviors of
organization members. The strategy and technology provide important information about the skills
and knowledge required if the organization is to be successful Appraisal processes identify whether
those skills and knowledge are being applied to the work, and reward systems complete the cycle by
recognizing performance that contributes to goal achievement. Reward systems may be tied to
measurement systems so that rewards are allocated on the basis of measured results.

Organization culture is the final design component. It represents the basic assumptions,
values, and norms shared by organization members. Those cultural elements are generally taken for
granted and serve to guide members’ perceptions, thoughts, and actions. culture is shown as an
intermediate output from the five other design components because it represents both an outcome
and a constraint. It is an outcome of the organization’s history and environment as well as of prior
choices made about the strategy, technology, structure, measurement systems, and human
resources systems. It is also a constraint in that it is more difficult to change than the other
components.

Outputs

The outputs of a strategic orientation can be classified into three components. First, organization
performance refers to financial outputs such as sales, profits, return on investment (ROI), and
earnings per share (EPS). For nonprofit and government agencies, performance often refers to the
extent to which costs were lowered or budgets met. Second, productivity concerns internal
measurements of efficiency, such as sales per employee, waste, error rates, quality, or units
produced per hour. Third, stakeholder satisfaction reflects how well the organization has met the
expectations of different groups. Customer satisfaction can be measured in terms of market share or
focus-group data; employee satisfaction can be measured in terms of an opinion survey; investor
satisfaction can be measured in terms of stock price or analyst opinions.
Organization Development and Change
Chapter Six

DIAGNOSING GROUPS AND JOB

 Thomas G. Cummings
Christopher G. Worley

GROUP-LEVEL DIAGNOSIS

Inputs

• Organization design is clearly the major input to group design. It consists of the design
components characterizing the larger organization within which the group is embedded:
technology, structure, measurement systems, and human resources systems, as well as
organization culture.

Design Components

• Goal clarity involves how well the group understands its objectives. In general, goals should be
moderately challenging; there should be a method for measuring, monitoring, and feeding back
information about goal achievement; and the goals should be clearly understood by all members.
• Task structure is concerned with how the group’s work is designed. Task structures can vary along
two key dimensions: coordination of members’ efforts and regulation of their task behaviors.

• Group composition concerns the membership of groups. Members can differ on a number of
dimensions having relevance to group behavior.

• Team functioning is the underlying basis of group life. How members relate to each other is
important in work groups because the quality of relationships can affect task performance.

• Performance norms are member beliefs about how the group should perform its task and include
acceptable levels of performance.

Outputs

Group effectiveness has two dimensions: performance and quality of work life. Performance
is measured in terms of the group’s ability to control or reduce costs, increase productivity, or
improve quality. This is a “hard” measure of effectiveness. In addition, effectiveness is indicated by
the group member’s quality of work life. It concerns work satisfaction, team cohesion, and
organizational commitment.

INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL DIAGNOSIS

Inputs

The final level of organizational diagnosis is the individual job or position. An organization
consists of numerous groups; a group, in turn, is composed of several individual jobs.

• Organization design is concerned with the larger organization within which the individual job is the
smallest unit. Organization design is a key part of the larger context surrounding jobs.

• Group design concerns the larger group or department containing the individual job. Like
organization design, group design is an essential part of the job context.

• Personal characteristics of individuals occupying jobs include their age, education, experience, and
skills and abilities. All of these can affect job performance as well as how people react to job
designs.

Design Components

• Skill variety identifies the degree to which a job requires a range of activities and abilities to
perform the work.
• Task identity measures the degree to which a job requires the completion of a relatively whole,
identifiable piece of work.

• Task significance identifies the degree to which a job has a significant impact on other people ’s
lives.

• Autonomy indicates the degree to which a job provides freedom and discretion in scheduling the
work and determining work methods.

• Feedback about results involves the degree to which a job provides employees with direct and
clear information about the effectiveness of task performance.

Those five job dimensions can be combined into an overall measure of job enrichment.
Enriched jobs have high levels of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and
feedback about results. They provide opportunities for self-direction, learning, and personal
accomplishment at work.
Organization Development and Change
Chapter Seven

COLLECTING AND ANALYZING DIAGNOSTIC INFORMATION

Thomas G. Cummings
Christopher G. Worley
THE DIAGNOSTIC RELATIONSHIP

In most cases of planned change, OD practitioners play an active role in gathering data from
organization members for diagnostic purposes. For example, they might interview members of a
work team about causes of conflict among members; they might survey employees at a large
industrial plant about factors contributing to poor product quality.

The answers to the following questions provide the substance of the diagnostic contract :

• Who am I? The answer to this question introduces the OD practitioner to the organization,
particularly to those members who do not know the consultant and yet will be asked to provide
diagnostic data.

• Why am I here, and what am I doing? These answers are aimed at defining the goals of the
diagnosis and data-gathering activities.

• Who do I work for? This answer clarifies who has hired the consultant, whether it be a manager, a
group of managers, or a group of employees and managers.

• What do I want from you, and why? Here, the consultant needs to specify how much time and
effort people will need to give to provide valid data and subsequently to work with these data in
solving problems.

• How will I protect your confidentiality? This answer addresses member concerns about who will
see their responses and in what form.

• Who will have access to the data? Respondents typically want to know whether they will have
access to their data and who else in the organization will have similar access.

• What’s in it for you? This answer is aimed at providing organization members with a clear
delineation of the benefits they can expect from the diagnosis.

• Can I be trusted? The diagnostic relationship ultimately rests on the trust established between the
consultant and those providing the data.

METHODS FOR COLLECTING DATA

 The four major techniques for gathering diagnostic data are questionnaires, interviews,
observations, and unobtrusive measures. No single method can fully measure the kinds of variables
important to OD because each has certain strengths and weaknesses. For example, perceptual
measures, such as questionnaires and surveys, are open to selfreport biases, such as respondents ’
tendency to give socially desirable answers rather than honest opinions.

Questionnaires

One of the most efficient ways to collect data is through questionnaires. Because they
typically contain fixed-response queries about various features of an organization, these paper-and-
pencil measures can be administered to large numbers of people simultaneously. Also, they can be
analyzed quickly, especially with the use of computers, thus permitting quantitative comparison and
evaluation. As a result, data can easily be fed back to employees.

Interviews

A second important measurement technique is the individual or group interview. Interviews

are probably the most widely used technique for collecting data in OD. They permit the interviewer
to ask the respondent direct questions. Further probing and clarification is, therefore, possible as the
interview proceeds.

Observations

One of the more direct ways of collecting data is simply to observe organizational behaviors
in their functional settings. The OD practitioner may do this by walking casually through a work area
and looking around or by simply counting the occurrences of specific kinds of behaviors (for
example, the number of times a phone call is answered after three rings in a service department).

Unobtrusive Measures

Unobtrusive data are not collected directly from respondents but from secondary sources,
such as company records and archives. These data are generally available in organizations and
include records of absenteeism or tardiness; grievances; quantity and quality of production or
service; financial performance; meeting minutes; and correspondence with key customers, suppliers,
or governmental agencies.

SAMPLING

Sampling design involves considerable technical detail, and consultants may need to become
familiar with basic references in this area or to obtain professional help.11 The first issue to address
is sample size, or how many people, events, or records are needed to carry out the diagnosis or
evaluation. This question has no simple answer: The necessary sample size is a function of
population size, the confidence desired in the quality of the data, and the resources (money and
time) available for data collection.

TECHNIQUES FOR ANALYZING DATA

Data analysis techniques fall into two broad classes: qualitative and quantitative.

Qualitative Tools :

• Content Analysis

• Force-Field Analysis

Quantitative Tools :

• Means, Standard Deviations, and Frequency Distributions

• Scattergrams and Correlation Coefficients