OD FIVE STAGE MODEL AND DHL

AS we know every organization pass through change process, Organization development is a continuing process of long-term organizational progress consisting of a series of stages; the emphasis is placed on a combination of individual, team, and organizational relationships. Each stage is dependent on the preceding one, and successful change is more probable when each of these stages is considered in a logical sequence. In this section we see if, then how DHL organization passes through change process and through any of two stages of its five stage model. But first we go with the detail of these two stages.

Stage 1: Anticipate a Need for Change:Before a program of change can be implemented, the organization must anticipate the need for change. The first step is the manager's perception that the organization is somehow in a state of disequilibrium or needs improvement. The state of disequilibrium may result from growth or decline or from competitive, technological, legal, or social changes in the external environment. There must be a felt need, because only felt needs convince individuals to adopt new ways. Managers must be sensitive to changes in the competitive environment, to "what's going on out there."

Stage 3: The Diagnostic Phase:After the OD practitioner has get involved and developed a working relationship with the client, the practitioner and the client begin to collect data about the system. The collection of data is an important activity in organizational change that provides the organization and the practitioner with a better understanding of system problems: the diagnosis.

What is Diagnosis?So the question basically is what is Diagnosis? It is the process of understanding how the organization is currently functioning, and it provides the information necessary to design change interventions. It help OD practitioners and client in determining organizational issues to focus on, how to collect and analyze data to understand them, and how to work together to build up action steps from the diagnosis. It is a collaborative process between organization members and the Organizational development consultant to collect relevant information, analyze it, and draw conclusions for action planning. Diagnosis may be aimed at finding the causes of specific problems; be focused on understanding effective processes; or be directed at evaluating the overall functioning of the organization or department to discover areas for future development. Diagnosis provides a systematic understanding of organizations so that suitable interventions may be developed for solving problems and enhancing effectiveness.

Organizational diagnosis is a major practitioner skill. It usually examines two broad areas. The 1st area of diagnosis concerns the various interacting sub elements that make up the organization. These include departments, products, and the relationships between them. The diagnosis may also include a comparison of the top management, middle management and lower levels of management in the organization. The 2nd area of diagnosis concerns the organizational processes. These include communication networks, team problem solving, decision-making, leadership styles, goal-setting and planning methods, and the management of conflict and competition.

DIAGONOSTIC PROCESS: Diagnosis is a cyclical process that involves data gathering, interpretations, and identification of problem areas and possible action programs. Phases of organizational diagnosis are given below.

TENTATIVE PROBLEM INDENTEFICATION: A primary objective of this phase is to determine which units of the system (individual, group and organization) will participate in the diagnosis and to determine where the problem is, and how to solve this problem.

Data collection: The primary objectives of data collection are to gather valid information about the nature of the system systematically and to prepare an analysis of that data for delivery to respondents during feedback. Collection of data proceeds from (unstructured observation) to more structured methods (questionnaires) to produce more valid data.  It is better to take a case history of the organization before observational data collection. The case history should cover the followings points:

1. Identification of data: It includes organization name, location, and type of organization, organization size (financial condition, stockholders, and employees). 

2. Historical data: Complaints, duration and possible determinants, short-range and long-range problems, major crisis of the organization (loss of key personnel, labour problems, financial emergencies, and technological changes), product service history (change and development of organizational goals, sequence of development in product or service).

3. Structural data: Organizational chart, formal job description, financial structure, personnel (size, various educational levels, average tenure, range or skills, absentee rate, turnover rate, accident rate), structure for handling personnel (recruitment, orientation, training, growth of the job, promotion, compensation, performance analysis), rules and regulations (medical, safety, retirement, recreation, other fringe benefits). 

4. Organizational functioning: Organizational perceptions, organizational knowledge (acquisition, use and dissemination of knowledge), organizational language, emotional atmosphere of the organization and organizational action. 

5. Attitudes and relationship: Attitudes towards the task agents, relations to things and ideas, attitudes about self, inter-organizational relationships. 

6. Analysis and conclusions: Appraisal of the effect of the environment on the organization, appraisal of the effect of the organization on the environment, reactions, appraisal of the organization, impairments and level of integration. 

Feedback  Primary objective of feedback is to promote increased understanding of the client system by its members. Effective feedback design relates the content of the feedback to the process by which the analysis is delivered to the system. The process of feedback is the composition of feedback meetings (i.e., who is present with whom), the ordering of the meetings (i.e., which groups receive information first, which is second, etc.), the behavior of the system during feedback and the behavior of the researchers within and between feedback meetings. feedback is probably the period of maximum anxiety during the entire diagnosis. If the system could tolerate the anxiety, system could learn it’s self. Figure is given below.

THE DIGNOSTIC PROCESSFIGURE

Yes

Result Monitored

Diagnoses Work on Problem

Yes NO

NONo Change atPresent

Client Motivated

to Work

Problem Area

IdentifiedMore Data

Data Feedback

Analysis DataCollect Data

Tentative Problem Area

Identify

Figure: Digonostic Model At organizational level

The Performance Gap:One method in the diagnostic process is to determine the performance gap. This is the difference between what the organizations could do and what it actually does. It is the self-assessment gaps of actually four key areas: 1. Organization’s strengths 2. What can be done to take advantage of strengths 3.Organizational weaknesses 4.What can be done to alleviate weaknesses. This gap may be the result of unproductive performance by internal units or may emerge because of competitive changes. A performance gap may also occur when the organization fails to adapt to changes in its external environment.

Diagnostic Model:To diagnose an organization, OD practitioners and members of organization need to have an idea about what information to collect and analyze. Choices about what to look for again and again depend on how organizations are perceived. Conceptual frameworks that people use to analyze structure, culture, and behavior of organizations are referred to as diagnostic models. They describe the relationships among different features of the organization, its context, and its effectiveness. As a result, diagnostic models point out what areas need to examine.

General Environment

Industry structure

Technology

Strategy Structure Culture

HRM Measurement System

Organizational effectiveness

E.g. performance

Input Design components Output

Types of diagnostic models:

1. The Analytical Model2. Socio-technical system3. Force field analysis model

The Analytical model: Analytical model is the model that is used for interdependent issues. Examine four characteristics of departments such as, Degree of department structure, Time orientation of members toward others and Interpersonal member’s direction toward goals. The model’s objective is to help departments achieve integration.

Socio-technical model: Model consists of two systems that are present in each and every organization. First is called social system and second is called technical system. Social system is a system that consists of interpersonal relationships. While technical system is consists of task, tools, and activities of

organization. The systems are interrelated. The diagnosis determines how the systems are

interrelated and what types of feedback is required between the subsystems.

The force field-analysis model: Model that state Organizational behavioral is a balance between forces working in opposite directions. Restraining forces act to keep organization stable. Driving forces act to change organization. When two forces are equal, the organization is in quasi-stationary state of equilibrium. Analysis of forces determines which force to increase or decrease to bring about change.

Conclusion: In sum, the methodology of organizational diagnosis calls for the researcher to be competent in the conventional use of social science tools ( observation, interviews, questionnaires and

archives) and to possess a refined theory and the related behavioral skills to enter, collect and feedback information to complex systems.