Friday, June 12, 2009

Discuss the meaning and methods of OD intervention.

Discuss the meaning and methods of OD intervention. Describe how OD intervention method is being used by your or an organisation you are familiar with citing examples. Briefly describe the organisation you are referring to.


Definition of OD intervention
an od intervention can be defined as “the set of structured activities in which selected organization units engage with a task or a sequence of tasks where the task goals are related directly or indirectly to organizational improvement in an od intervention the entire process of diagnosis, alternative generation and making action choices are jointly conducted and od will also examine the process of such diagnosis, action planning and implementation.
Characteristics of od intervention
First An od intervention will focus on the organizational processes apart from the substantive content of an activity.
Secondly an od intervention would generally focus on a work team as the unit of analysis and change towards effective behaviour
Thirdly od would normally view change as an on-going process and would rely on a collaborative management of work culture.
Method of OD intervention – While a wide range of OD interventions is available to a practitioner and a change agent, presenting them all would only lead to an avoidable confusion. Nor can all interventions be used in any one OD programme. Most authors have therefore developed a typology to comprehend the range and applicability of OD interventions. Analysis of these typologies indicates that they are centred aroud one or more of the following dimensions :

A. Target - What organisational segment is planned to be examined and
changed?

B. Focus - What planned to be changed? Is it the task system or behaviour
etc.?

C. Strategy - How is the change planned to be brought about ?


Od intervention used in BHEL-BLOCK5 PAGE33-34(M)


In order to develop & improve the effectiveness of the human resources in the Organisation, a committee called ‘Human Resources Committee’ was first constituted by BHEL in Bhopal in 1976. The committee is the central body and plays the central role in implementation of all OD efforts. With the help of external and internal resource persons, a number of programmes/workshops have been Organised for the development of the members of this committee improving their problem solving capabilities and decision making. The range of OD interventions are described below.

Job Redesign and Work commitment as an OD intervention

In one of the BHEL units (Hardwar) Job redesign was taken up and as an OD intervention in 1975. This experiment was pursued for around 4 years and very encouraging results were obtained.

i) A more satisfying job, due to increased variety and relief from boredom and monotony
ii) Personal growth for all, by learning additional skills of other trends and acquiring leadership Qualities
iii) Reduction in health/safety hazards
iv) An atmosphere with less tension and jealousy
v) An improved team spirit and morale resulting in improved communication and human relationship
vi) Increased self esteem and pride among the workers.

Workshops were conducted and it was found to be very useful and threw up more questions for wider debate and discussions. By using survey method, a list of programmes or subjects or themes is sent to various. H. O. Ds who respond by ticking the appropriate ones for their executives. As a result of various diagnostic exercises some critical needs of training and development are identified. The workshops on various themes also give valuable idea of the areas requiring more thrust by way of training and development and specific training and development needs are thus identified.

Based on role analysis a draft system with the following objectives has been circulated by the Corporate Personnel for the comments of Personnel/Training (HRD)/Divisional Heads.

. Helping the executives to become more effective in their present and future jobs.
. Enabling the executives to perform at optimum level by determining and meeting their growth needs.
. Helping the executives to visualise their roles more clearly.
. Preventing the obsolescence of their technical and managerial skills.
. Optimising the utilization of training resources by providing appropriate inputs.
. Facilitating the design of need based programmes and identify the training and development needs.
. Preparing data bank of capabilities required for various positions.
. Facilitating job rotation, career and succession planning.

Once implemented, it will provide a valuable data base for planning, training and development activities and identifying appropriate candidates for programmes.

Performance Appraisal and Potenfial Appraisal

In BHEL it has remained so far that the role of superior was limited to evaluator or judge and the role of the appraisee was passive. Now the superiors role is being conceived as helper and counseller and the appraisee is encouraged to become more involved and committed in achieving the objectives.

Performance feedback and Counselling

The need and importance of performance feedback and counseling has been realized. Attempts are being made to cover maximum number of executives in various programme/workshops on performance feedback and counselling to enable them to practice it as an important tool for Human Resource Development. The supervisors also will be covered in such efforts.

Career Planning and Development

Time-cum-merit based promotion was practiced which is able to satisfy the individuals and organizational needs to a great extent. The employees are encouraged and helped to plan a career path. They are liberally sponsored to higher educational programmes in IIMS/IITs.

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