What are the skills required for becoming a successful change agent?

What are the skills required for becoming a successful change agent? Illustrate certain instances where change agent played a successful role in your organisation or organisation you are familiar with.

SKILLS OF A CHANGE AGENT
The different skills that a change agent ought to possess are classified under three broad categories: cognitive skills, action skills, and communication skills. These are not watertight compartment categories; skills under a given category may overlap with the others. Hence the classification attempted below is more of an approximation but at the same time helps in knowing the diverse skills that a change agent should possess and the diverse roles that he plays. The basis for classification is the list of change agent skills suggested in the OD literature of the LTN Institute of Applied Natural Science, U.S.A.

The Steps To Evaluate The Change Process In The Organisation If Any Charge Attempts.
Cognitive skills
Self-understanding: The change agent should be able to analyze and comprehend his own motivation in perceiving a need for change and the desire to bring about a change. He should be able to determine his own strategic role in the light of the contest and his abilities

Conceptualization
• The change agent should be able to determine the possible Units of change.
•Any change tends to have consequences to other sub-systems, and related positions and
role set members.
• He should clearly define objectives with reference to the intended change.
• He must conduct an anticipatory practice in carrying out a stepwise plan.
• He must be capable of eliciting and eliminating alternatives and provide for replanning
and assessment at later stages.
• He must be able to anticipate the mistake, resistance to change and devise ways and
means of overcoming both.
• He must be able to anticipate the degree of willingness among clients to the intended
changes.

Evaluation
The change agent should possess skills of assessment or evaluation. He should be able to assess the client group in terms of its nature, expectations, and internal dynamics. As well as the utility of the evaluative measures. Specifically the required skills of evaluations are:
•determining the size, character, structural make up of the client group.
•determining the degree or extent of felt need for change
•skill in using diagnostic instruments appropriate to the problem, such as: surveys, rating
scales, observation etc.
•evaluation of the problem, causes etc., on an objective basis and not in terms of one’s
own likes and dislikes.
•diagnose of causes of failure and perhaps success also.
•identify the methods of change the clients believe as appropriate.

Action Skills
The change agent plays the roles of a consultant, counselor, facilitator, trainer etc.
As a Counsellor,he should possess skills, such as:
•making catharsis possible if it is be a starting point for a change process (catharsis refers
To giving an opportunity to the client to give vent to his feelings, in other words
‘Unburden his heart’)
•helping the clients examine their attitudes, expectations and motivations.
•dealing with the client’s ideology, myths, values etc., wisely and effectively. Resistance
will develop to change efforts. The change agent should orient the change
effort in such a way that it fits with client’s frame of reference.
•clarifying the nature of relationship and inter-dependence between the client and the
change agent.
The change agent, as a facilitator:
•raises the level of aspiration of the clients. These aspirations however, should be
realistic. The change effort should be perceived to have a reinforcing value to the
client’s increased aspirations.
•develops an awareness of the potentialities of the change, thereby developing positive
expectations towards change.
•creates willingness and a sense of responsibility to engage in the change, thereby enlist
their active participation.
•encourage them to use a step-wise plan and also have patience in its execution.
•develops an awareness of possible sources of help in the change activity.

The change agent, as a consultant is required to:
•make a step-wise plan. The change is in terms of a number of stages or steps, one
leading to another than something that is sudden or drastic.
•make use of appropriate techniques or methods to arrive at group consensus.
•examine decisions in terms of their ‘pros and cons’.
•evaluate the progress made at each of the stages and determine what has been achieved
and what yet to be achieved etc.
•build and maintain morale and team spirit of the clients during the change efforts.
The changing agent, as a communicator is concerned with the spread of change information and the ultimate adoption of the change by the ‘client’s’ system. He should have the necessary persuasive skills to enable the client system realise the need for change and the importance of the change to organisational effectiveness. The opinion leaders at the various organisational levels. His ability to communicate effectively can be gauged in terms of the extent to which he is able to enlist the ‘client’s’ support for the rapidly change and create in them the responsibility to participate and implementation the change effort. To be a successful communicator the change agent should:

• should clear as to what are the goals and objectives of each of his communication
attempts.
•develop his communication plan so that it is consonant with the clients needs, attitudes
and belief system.
•should persuasive to minimize rejection without giving the feeling of forcing or driving
one’s ideas on the clients.
•obtain feedback to determine the effectiveness of communication form time to time.
•make strategic use of informal communication networks so that the formal change
efforts are supported and not resisted.

What is organisational development (OD)? Explain the stages and essentials of success of OD.

What is organisational development (OD)? Explain the stages and essentials of success of OD citing suitable examples.

DEFINITION OF ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT :
OD may be defined as a systematic , integrated and planned approach to improve the effectiveness of the enterprise. It is designed to solve problems that adversely affect the operational efficiency at all levels is based on scientific awareness of human behavior and organization dynamics. Being an organization wide effort, it is directed towards more participative management and integration of individual goals with organization goals. OD is intended to create an internal environment of openness, trust, mutual confidence and collaboration and to help the members of the organization to interact more effectively in the pursuit of organizational goals. Thus the organization is enabled to cope effectively with external forces in the environment.

OBJECTIVES OF ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT :
The objectives of OD may be stated as follows:
• Improved organizational performance as measured by profitability, market share, innovativeness etc.
• Better adaptability of the organization to its environment .
• Willingness of the members to face organizational problems and contribute creative solutions to these problems .
• Improvement in internal behavior patterns such as interpersonal relations, intergroup relations, intergroup relations, level of trust and support among role members, understanding one’s own self and others, openness and meaningful communication and involvement in planning for organizational development.

MODELS OF ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT
Three models of OD are quite popular.
Lwein’s model :
This organizations have an internal equilibrium. Before introducing a change organization should be prepared for the change, otherwise there will be resistance to change attempts. Readying for change would mean disturbing the existing equilibrium i.e., unfreezing or creating motivation to change The change is then introduced which is a new or modified response to solve the organization problems. The change moves the organization to a new equilibrium at which the organization has to be stabilized so that is does not revert to the earlier equilibrium.
Refreezing refers to this process of stabilizing and integrating the change into behavioral pat terns, interpersonal relationships, and individual personalities.
Unfreezing-Changing –Freezing Model
Unfreezing: Creating the need for change, motivating people for change and minimizing resistance to change.
Changing: Transition from old behavior to experimentation with new behavior in terms of cognitive redefinition through identification and scanning .
Re-Freezing: Stabilizing and integrating the change by reinforcing the new behaviors and integrating them into format and interpersonal relationships and in one’s personality.
Larry Griener’s Model
Change according to this model is in terms of certain sequential stages(Fig.).The change process is initiated by external pressure or stimulus on the top management and it is motivated to take action. The succeeding stages of intervention by a change agent are: diagnosis of the problem, invention of a new solution, experimentation with new solution, experimentation with new solution and reinforcement from positive result.



H.J. Leavitt’s model
Leavitt’s model focuses on the interactive nature of the various sub- system in a change process. Organization is a system of four interacting sub-system: task, structure, people and technology. Change in anyone of the sub-system tends to have consequences for the other sub-systems. Hence OD effort should not only focus on the intended change but also the effects of change on the other sub-systems.
Moreover, change can be brought out in any of the sub-systems depending upon the diagnosis of the situation. The planned change may be interpersonal training of the required of the required sort or technological change or structural modification or task modification


In Richardson Hindustan, for four years of Organization development perceivable change was observed in the C.E. and also in a number of managers as a result of the feedback given.
A number of action’ were taken at the top layer, supervisory layer and among unions and workers in the company with equal emphasis given to all these groups of people. In other words, supervisors, union and workers were as high in priority as the other managers.

Monetary compensation, internal promotions and recognition of performance were amongst the first steps that were taken for supervisory and Executive staff. Gradually people were enrolled in task forces, special assignments and projects and for case writing. The live case studies developed were effectively used in training workshops. Emphasis was laid on ‘on-the-job’ training and slightly diverse work assignments before going into job rotation.
The real last test of whether the company will succeed in moving towards the objectives and philosophy that was stated was in the kind of sprit and willingness that is required in the chief Executive, the principal change agent in the company. In the context, the chief Executive has a kind of restlessness about the exercise and a unique quality of being open to feedback. It was found that changing organisation structure or design will not solve problems of collaboration but genuine support from all functions to an organisational objective will help.
Development of Workers
Training as many people as possible in supervisory and executive ranks in counseling skills was done in development of workers. A model was get in moving industrial relations to supervisory levels and personnel has taken a supporting role than that of front line negotiator.
Supervisory Development
Supervisory group was integrated into management and it. Was not treated as a different entity. This was made possible by making them participate in several management forums such as strategic planning, communication meetings, negotiations subcommittees for wage contracts, the annual dinner, by changing performance appraisal system to be in line with executives, giving them assignments which call for higher responsibility, permitting across to company information was given to them through experiential workshops in resolving IR problems on the shop floor. Supervisors were allowed to act on their own and many times condoned their mistakes. Now a worker approaches a supervisor and not be personnel department or the works manager for his problems. Three workshops or IR strategy was held where line management and personnel have participated together.

How do you construct a questionnaire for the purpose of organisational diagnosis?

How do you construct a questionnaire for the purpose of organisational diagnosis? Discuss this with reference to your organisation or an organisation you are familiar with. Describe the organisation you are referring to.

Organisational diagnosis
Organisation is a framework that works when operated by people. The purpose or mission of an organisation provides the direction in which it moves. An organisation has several parts each having its own independent minds and they may not always function in a fully unified way. An organisation can put itself through periodic check ups or diagnostic exercises to assess its growth, dynamism, strength, weaknesses etc.
Most of the calculated management decisions are based on some sort of diagnosis. Every manager irrespective of his level, is in a continuous cycle of diagnosis-decision-action –evaluation, so long as his decisions and actions are not impulsive.
Organisational diagnosis is an exercise attempted to make an analysis of the organisation, its structure, subsystems and processes in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of its structural components and processes and use it as a base for developing plans to improve and/or maximise the dynamism and effectiveness of the organisation
Organisational diagnosis could be done as a periodic routine exercise like the case of periodic medical check up of an individual or may be undertaken whenever there is a cognizable problem that is affecting the functioning of an organisation.
The approaches to organisational diagnosis vary not only with the nature of relationship between the diagnostic and the organisation, but in a very substantive way depends on: (a) the preferred domain of diagnosis,(b) the methodology adopted in diagnosing, and (c) the assumptions in diagnosing.
Since, I am working as Manager (HRD) with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).Today, BSNL is the No. 1 Telecommunications Company and the largest Public Sector Undertaking of India and its responsibilities include improvement of the already impeccable quality of telecom services, expansion of telecom network, introduction of new telecom services in all villages and instilling confidence among its customers.
Responsibilities that BSNL has managed to shoulder remarkably, deftly. Today with a 43million line capacity, 99.9% of its exchanges digital, nation wide Network management & surveillance system (NMSS) to control telecom traffic and nearly 3,55,632 route kms of OFC network, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is a name to reckon with in the world of connectivity. Along with its vast customer base, BSNL's financial and asset bases too are vast and strong.
Being a Personnel Manager of such a large organization, I am quite aware of the process of workshop method being followed in our organisation for organisational diagnosis.

Questionnaire is a very useful diagnostic tool. There are several questionnaire developed by organisational scientists in our country that are useful for diagnostic purposes. These questionnaire could be used with appropriate modifications to suit the diagnostic needs of each organisation. It is advisable to develop organisation specific questionnaire for diagnosing problems unique to the organisation. Comparative data may be available if standardised questionnaire are used for general diagnosis purposes. Participative methods of developing questionnaire enhance the quality of questionnaire through increasing the organisational relevance of items.

Ready made questionnaire have some limitations and some advantages. One advantage is that they are normally standardised and data from other organisations (norms etc.) may be available for interpretation and comparison purposes. The main disadvantage is that they may not suit the needs of an organisation seeking diagnosis. For example, most of the available questionnaire are developed in business settings and hence may be of limited value to educational and such other organisations. Secondly an organisation may be interested in having a look at a few specific aspects than studying everything outlined in the questionnaire.

• Questionnaire for organisational diagnosis normally measure the perceptions of employees or participants in an organisation. It is the aggregate of these perceptions that indicate the organisational strengths and short-comings.
• The employees/participants of an organisation sometimes are in a good position to provide dimensions/variables on which questionnaire can be framed. For example, to diagnose the organisational health of an agriculture university a group of scientists of that university were assembled and requested to make statements about what in their opinion is good and bad in the university. All their statements were collected, edited and a questionnaire was made. Subsequently it was administered to all the scientists in the university. Thus interviews/group discussions/meetings/workshops help in developing questionnaire.
• Another form of developing a questionnaire is to sample test any standardised questionnaire on a group of respondents. The respondents could be asked to indicate variables/items that should be used for diagnosis.
• In preparing a questionnaire, structured questionnaire are more easy to analyse data and for providing statistical information.

Discuss the impact of information technology on organizing work, on the basis of your experience.

Discuss the impact of information technology on organizing work, on the basis of your experience. Explain how it can enable new methods of working. Illustrate referring to your own organisation or an organisation you are familiar with. Briefly describe the organisation you are referring to.


The impact that Information Technology brought to our daily life, and how it shaped our environment is something of a wide scope to explore. And when asked how the impact should be managed, the sky is again its limit. Within my limited scope of background and experience, I am only capable to touch some part, within which there are also room for discussion and confirmation from the participants and experts attending this seminar. I feel honorable to be invited by the committee of this very reputable event, and I will devote my best knowledge to actively contribute in the discussions.
Information Technology as any other technology or means to ease our life is not neutral to the culture of mankind. With its inherent power, those who have it firmly in their hands can control the world, and can express their dominance to others. In relation to it, I would like to quote Dr. Olaf Stapleton and Gregory Bateson :"When one species attains the position of dominance over all the other, i.e. the ecology of this planet, and if that species is both egocentrically greedy and has a powerful set of technologies through which to amplify the expression of that greed, then unless that dominant species can find a way to limit or transform its egocentric greediness into something more wholesome, it will found its planetary nest as surely the night follows the day, perhaps even to its own extinction"
Developed, as well as developing countries alike, are all responsible for the sustainment of our planet earth. The convergence of information technology, telecommunication, and information content, has shown its initial impact, where each of us in line with the mature level of our understanding, simply becomes a node of the network. Orchestrated dynamism is the name of the game, when one like to visualize the related arrangement among the "borderless" nation as expressed by Dr. Kenichi Ohmae. The performance of one node wherever it is located will influence the quality of the whole network, or it should be cut-off from the system. If too many nodes are eliminated, the whole network will at the end bear the strategic costs, because imbalance occurs and as common in close correlation to the law of nature, the ecological system will suffer. It is in fact a common sense when managing the impact of Information Technology should also consider these interrelationships.
To ease my presentation within the limited time-frame, I will systematize it into some tenets that although discretely expressed, is expected to contain significant interrelationships as building blocks for further elaboration in the discussions.
Tenets
Following are some tenets which I consider relevant to be raised for further elaboration in the effort to update our strategic thinking.


1. Digitalization of the electronic related industries are the basic building block that had brought significant changes in our economic vision.
At the technical level, digitalization is a straightforward precondition. When it was widely implemented in telecommunication, computer technology and other related industries, it brought forward to the surface possibilities of convergence among these various industries. The impact is a complete restructuring of many concepts including the conventional economic treatments of supply and demand, and the value aspects of economic commodities.
a. We can see the utilization of knowledge workers in Mainland China by the United States without needing to bring those workers physically to the States. They still stay in China, pay taxes there, thus contribute, to the economy of China. They got work assignments from the states, transported their product to that country almost instantly, without either party needed to move back and forth. They also contribute to the economy of the United States, and become the so called economic alien or popularized as virtual alien. All the transportation means used are the net, the global network. This can only be achieved if all the required ingredients of the products are easily transportable and possesses common character of dimension. Digitizing has made this dream come true. It brought telecommunication, Information Technology and Information Content converge. Text, graphics,sound, images in the form of still as well as moving pictures become common dimension so that processing and transmission can easily be achieved. And as the product in the form of contained knowledge is produced, the next step is simply finding the best suitable mechanism to physically produce it. All these new recruits are China trained and educated, in accordance with their own education system. Although there might exist some difference in pay of the workers in the United States than in China with the same level of capability, the arrangement has brought a Win-Win condition for both economy.
b. Digit which does not posses any physical dimension, but contains enormous size of knowledge has also change the way we are looking at things. An integrated circuit in the form of chips or microprocessor contains information. If the size of the same chip is reduced a thousand times less, but with the same content of information, the economic value of that particular chip is the same. One can experiment by halving the size of an automobile and expect the economic value to be the same or even halved. It never works. If the same information is embedded in a bigger size of media, say in a big tape reel, the only insignificant difference in the economic value is its carrying media, however the content which is information with the embedded knowledge is independent of the size and type of the carrying media.
c. The transporting of bits - the basic ingredient of digit - has in fact caused the economic model of pricing almost fall apart. Dr. Negroponte has shown that tariffs are determined per minute, per mile, or per bit, all three of which are rapidly becoming bogus measures. According to Dr. Negroponte, the system is being ruptured by the wild extremes of time ( a microsecond - which is a millionth of a second - to a day), distance ( a few feet to fifty thousand miles), and numbers of bits (one to 20 billion) . A simple communication device which is called modem that can transmit 2400 bits per second, compare to the same device with a 14,400 bits per second is a straightforward example of how many information the latter can transmit in the same amount of time period compared to the other. If the same tariff hold for both, it would be more economical to use the latter. This again shows to us how our economic rules must be rescripted to allocate the impact of digitizing.


2. Miniaturization and digitizing within the Information Technology domain leads toward the birth of commodities that are subtle, lighter, low energy consumption, and less-impact to the environment, which match beautifully to the new required conditions of a sustained ecological system.
Two critical issues faced by the world to day as we are moving toward the 21st century are, the exponential growth on our planet and the ecological load that growth creates. The other critical issue is the ephemeralization of technology. Dr. Oliver W. Markley , has smartly visualized the coming Global Consciousness Era following the Information era that we are now entering or going to leave behind.
Exhibit-1, shows the time frame it took within the development eras. It took thousands of years to change form nomadic era to agricultural. Then hundred of years from agricultural to industrial, and only decades from industrial to the information era. As the knowledge of people grows exponentially, so did the capability to exploit the limited resources of the planet earth. Fortunately, innovation and creativity which always flourish in line with the growth of knowledge gave birth to groups demanding proper balancing of development by sustaining the ecology of resources. Ephemeralization of technology will occur in two ways. The first is the physical or explicit domain where researchers are now working in the range of nano dimension (10- 9 cm). Nanotechnology is about building molecules an atom at a time - mass production at the molecular level.
The second path to the ephemeralization of technology is through noetic technology. Noetic is a Greek word that refers to science of the intellect. The bridge from the third to the fourth wave is beginning to evolve with the development of virtual reality and biofeedback.
Moreover the two chains must be managed distinctly but also in concert. Companies tend to adopt value-adding information processes in three stages.
First : visibility. Companies acquire an ability to "see" physical operations more effectively through information. At this stage managers use large-scale information technology systems to coordinate activities in their physical value chains, in the process laying the foundation for a virtual value chain.
Second : mirroring capability. Companies substitute virtual activities for physical ones; they begin to create a parallel value chain in the marketspace.
Third :value matrix. Business use information to establish new customer relationships. At this third stage, managers draw on the flow of information in their virtual value chain to deliver value to customers in the new ways. In effect, they apply the generic value adding activities to their virtual value chain and thereby exploit what we call value matrix.
Managers must focus consciously on the principles that guide value creation and extraction across the two value chain separately and in combination. They are fundamentally different. The physical value chain is composed of a linear sequence of activities with defined points of input and output. By contrast, the virtual value chain is non-linear - a matrix of potential inputs and outputs that can be assessed and distributed through a wide variety of channels. A company's executives must embrace an updated set of guiding principles because in the marketspace many of the business axioms that have guided managers no longer apply.

3. Virtual value chain which arise as a direct consequence of Information Technology development, is an empowered means to the conventional physical value chain.
The economic logic of the two chains is different : conventional understanding of the economic of scale and scope does not apply to the virtual value chain (VVC) in the same way as it does to the physical value chain (PVC). Moreover the two chains must be managed distinctly but also in concert. Companies tend to adopt value-adding information processes in three stages.
First : visibility. Companies acquire an ability to "see" physical operations more effectively through information. At this stage managers use large-scale information technology systems to coordinate activities in their physical value chains, in the process laying the foundation for a virtual value chain.
Second : mirroring capability. Companies substitute virtual activities for physical ones; they begin to create a parallel value chain in the marketspace.
Third :value matrix. Business use information to establish new customer relationships. At this third stage, managers draw on the flow of information in their virtual value chain to deliver value to customers in the new ways. In effect, they apply the generic value adding activities to their virtual value chain and thereby exploit what we call value matrix.
Managers must focus consciously on the principles that guide value creation and extraction across the two value chain separately and in combination. They are fundamentally different. The physical value chain is composed of a linear sequence of activities with defined points of input and output. By contrast, the virtual value chain is non-linear - a matrix of potential inputs and outputs that can be assessed and distributed through a wide variety of channels. A company's executives must embrace an updated set of guiding principles because in the marketspace many of the business axioms that have guided managers no longer apply.


4. Organizations with digital assets may be able to reharvest them through a potentially infinite number of transactions.
The following five principles apply to digitalization as suggested by Jeffrey F. Rayport and John J. Sviokla4:
a. The law of digital assets. Digital assets unlike physical ones, are not used up in their consumption. They may be reharvest through a potentially infinite number of transactions. Organization using the traditional chemical means in processing images, can not compete with the digital technology with respect to the speed of processing, and the number of locations that it can be reached.
b. New economics of scale. The virtual value chain redefines economics of scale, allowing small organization to achieve low unit costs for products and services in markets dominated by big organizations.
c. New economics of scope. In the marketspace, businesses can redefine economics of scope by drawing on a scope by drawing on a single set of digital assets to provide value across man different and disparate markets. Using the virtual value chain, the business can coordinate across markets and provide a broader line of high-quality products and services.
d. Transaction cost compression. Transaction cost along the VVC are lower than their counterparts on the PVC, and they continue to decrease sharply as the processing capacity per unit of cost for microprocessors doubled every 18 months. In 1960, it costs about $ 1.- to keep information about an individual customer. Today, it is only less than one cent per customer.
e. Rebalancing supply and demand. These four axioms above combined, creates a shift on the world business' demands from supply - to demand-side. As companies gather, organize, select, synthesize, and distribute information in the marketspace while managing raw and manufactured goods in the marketplace, they have the opportunity to sense and respond to customer's desires, rather than simply making and selling product and services.

5. The network is emerging as the signature form of organization in the Information age, just as bureaucracy stamped the industrial age, hierarchy controlled the Agricultural Era, and the small group roamed in the Nomadic Era Organizational structure flourished from the agricultural and the industrial era.


6. We are empowered to manage our areas of responsibility. We work together to achieve common goals for business success. Full participation, cooperation, and open communication lead to superior results. What all this means for managers is that they must consciously focus on the principles that guide value creation.

Information is not controlled by management hierarchy, but is readily and quickly available to all employees, empowering them to be direct participants in the management of the business. Such changes are driven by advances in computers and microelectronics. As per- sonal computers and compu-ter networks become com-monplace, employees gain a personal information access and processing capacity that is unprecedented. Knowledge is the key to organizational performance. The link between infor-mation technology, knowledge and organizational performance is clear.

7. Information technology provides access to diverse sources for specialized information and enhances our ability to analyze, manage, and apply this information to our work. While the link between teams, knowledge and organizational performance may be less obvious, it is just as important. If teamwork is the key to effective organizations, information is the key to effective teamwork.


8. A global change is underway, a social upheavel in organization that involves everyone. It shakes every place of work, quakes the foundations of our biggest institutions, and our smallest groups, even sends quivers into our homes and communities. It swirls through organizations of all sizes, in all sectors, in all countries, regardless of gender, race, creed, or economic status. Does this means we need to clear out the old, to make the way for the new ? Organizations will have to learn how to share important information with all employees. The backlash will mushroom against purely high-tech approaches to resolving and meeting challenges. At the management level of organization, relation between people tend to move away from hierarchycal and bureaucratic forms, into an equal valued and humanistic relation. Social capital will be seen as a new source of wealth. However, we should keep in mind that we don't arrive in the next century without a heritage.



9. Today's generation straddle two eras, the graying industrial one behind and the sleek information one ahead. Just a decade ago, this was Sunday supplement speculation, to day it is a mainstream. Collectively we are in the middle of a transition. Too far in to go back, yet not far enough along to see how it's going to turn out. In such a condition, we naturally live within several type of waves. If we are realistic, the hierarchy, the top-down pyramid, still holds final rule. Even as virtually everyone vigorously complains about it and finds ways to skirt it, bureaucracy, with its neatly stacked, specialized boxes, continues to spew out more policies and procedures, rules and regulations. Small groups and teams are in - form the shop floor and front desk to the executive suite and boardroom. At the same time, new networks are forming, both within and among older organizational forms. Bureaucracies need to be transformed rather than replaced. And new relationships erupt spontaneously among the departmental boxes as connections multiply. It shows that a real network relation involve various type of organizational development status and values. This model derived from Jessica & Jeffrey Stamps , is a realistic model occuring today. This kind of network relation entertains the interest of various development status, including the developed as well as developing countries, whereby the impact of IT development can be more realistically approached and tamed.


Final Remark


With respect to the impact of information technology, we are at the cross-road to move ahead. When we try to reach certain consensus, on the standard of information interconnection we will realize that there are so many issues to be faced Among which,. the development status of information technology of a nation is one, and the educational infrastructure might be the other. Commitments and consistencies in governance with a solid leadership are the main driver. Only then can we expect, that a new individual of people will blossoms and new style of leadership is emerging, while those to be led are of a completely new ilk. The new type of people will have the following criteria : originated from a much more diverse pool, bringing vast cultural differences with them with a clear mission to maintain an equal balance and equilibrium in the interrelationship of people. To develop healthy, flexible, intelligent organizations for the 21st century in the information technology era, we need to harvest the best of the past and combine it with what is really new. And with information technology as the main driver of change, its impacts to our life and works can be of the best advantage. Surely, some learning from thousands of years of our environment and life of mankind must be worth keeping. There must be continuity as well as change.

Organisation Design

Discuss the meaning and theories of Organisation Design. Describe the key factors affecting organisation design with suitable organisational examples.

New organisation designing are created either by existing organisation or by individuals who create new organisation. Experience shows that personal vision, beliefs and preference of entrepreneur on matters such as delegation determine the shape of an organisation at the time of its foundation and also over time. The shape changes depending on the nature of issues in integration and control. Aging and growth lead to complexity and uncertainty and turbulence in environment (including technology) and provide impetus to reshape or restructure organisations. Discovery of doing things in a better way or dissatisfaction with the existing structure may provide occasions and opportunity to come up with new strategies and structures. Organisations of the future are likely to emphasize on innovation. As such, the design components of an innovative organisation also merit consideration here.
For the purpose of the organisation designing strategies, the following five could be considered as critical dimensions of organisation design:

(i) Environment
(ii) Technology
(iii) Size
(iv) Ownership
(v) Social change and Human aspects

These above five aspects are briefly discussed with a view to discerning their possible effect on organisation design.

(i) Environment
An organisation should be well structured in order to support plans at all hierarchical levels. Without the structure plans cannot be implemented and goals cannot be achieved. Most organisations design a structure that suits their particular purpose and the skills of their staff. A structure needs constant attention if the organisation is to develop.
We intend to help you to understand some of the issues that management has to understand when running an organisation effectively. You will find topics such as internal and external environment, PEST analysis, SWOT analysis, 6M reporting tool, 7S framework, organisational design, organisational Chart, horizontal and vertical communication, and the mission statement.
To begin with, we may consider the broad features of environment such as whether it is relatively stable or not, the rate of change (if any), and the degree of complexity. These aspects are considered to affect the organisation and therefore the design strategy should permit an appropriate fit between the structure of an organisation and its external environment.

To sum up the extreme categories of organisational environment the major propositions are following:
• Organisations with category 1 environment have relatively amend information problems; can design long-range strategies, operations, and tactics more easily-more rapidly and in more detail - and implement them without large alternations; have relatively little internal conflict potential; possess a more mechanical structure; have clearly described and predictable, gradually changing coalitions; and have relatively few problems with their existing decision-making programmes when the environment changes.
• Organisations confronted with a category 49 environment experience the same problems as do those with a category 1 environment; but they experience a higher degree of uncertainty concerning timing in the control of internal problem states.
• Organisations confronted with a category 64 environment have large information problems; have very abstract, tentative sets of strategies, operations and tactics and cannot execute them without expecting large alternations; have very vague coalitions that change unpredictably; and are constantly redesigning decision-making programmes or constantly creating exceptions to existing decision-making programmes.
• Organisations confronted with a category 16 environment have the same problems as are experienced by organisations with a category 64 environment, but they are able to predict and control internal problem states much more easily.

Particular cell represents a separate situation. This typology is not a matrix of interdependencies. Knowing the environmental map or the direction of its movement may mean switching from one category to another.

(ii) Technology
TCS has the following offerings in this area:
S-RCP (Secure Recovery and Continuity Planning Practice):
Business operations are often interrupted by unforeseen events — a tornado that destroys communication lines, a massive computer failure, or the latest virus on the loose can bring your organisation to a grinding halt.

Our Secure Recovery and Continuity Planning (S-RCP) practice can help your organisation to face such challenges. We follow current appropriate standards and established risk management techniques to assess the business effect of unforeseen disasters.

In the context of information systems, disaster recovery entails the restoration of computing and telecommunications services after they have been disrupted by some event.

We approach disaster management in terms of a system's capability to function at an acceptable level in the face of untimely mishaps. In this context, we consider the system in the broadest possible sense to include large-scale systems and entire networks.

How can enterprises arm themselves to address the increasing risks to information security? TCS's S-RCP offering addresses this fundamental question and provides a robust framework for organisations to conduct their operations in an uninterrupted manner in the face of unforeseen disasters

The choice of technology influences how well an organisation can maximise its effectiveness. The basic structure of a TCS organisation should facilitate a technology appropriate to a chosen strategy. Thus there should be a fit between strategies concerning structure and those of environment and technology.


While technological changes affect organisation design choice and strategy and vice-versa, the options depend on a number of limitations and possibilities that the choices create. Sometimes what happens in other organisation in the same sphere of activity might force a kind of consensus on the relevant technology strategy for the organisations.

(iii) Size
The structure of an organisation is, in some ways, a function of size. With raise in size, complexity rises in an organisation and the movement from centralization to decentralization takes a full circle with centralized decentralisation for purposes of optimally designed control and coordination.

(iv) Ownership
In the past it is believed that the organisational purposes vary with the nature of ownership. But such distinctions are less pronounced these days than before. The organisation structures need not vary based on ownership, more so in form than in substance.
To classify sectorally organisations are often sought based on ‘ownership’ criterion. It is further believed that the nature of ownership influences the goals of an organisation, nature of control and attitudes to market situation.

In reality, however, the private enterprises have major public holding and public sector has an element of mixed or joint ownership and enterprise. The rise of Modern Corporation led to definite degree of divorce between ownership and control. The public sector is compelled not to ignore the profit motive altogether while the private sector is under great pressure and obligation to keep public good in mind and discharge its social objectives. Protection and monopoly are transient phases in most economic systems and there is neither pure capitalism nor pure communism anywhere. Therefore notions concerning distinctive nature of organisations in separate sectors have to be updated keeping in mind the changes in the environment of each economic system at separate points of time. The elements and features of organisation, particularly when they are seen in action, do not any longer have universal distinctiveness merely on the basis of ownership criterion.

(v) Social change and Human aspects
Though last motioned, entire five aspects, this is the most influential factor shaping and reshaping the organisation structures warranting, as indicated by the growing body of knowledge on human behaviour, a movement away from traditional control systems to systems based on consensus and commitment.

A number of basic socio-cultural conditions impinge on organisations and their functions. There is a view that in numerous cases socio-cultural restrictions have tended to be the chief cause of below development and poverty in developing societies likes India. It is true hard to measure and quantify whether and how these factors affect organisation and management systems. A definite sense of fatalism, limited aspirations and assigning a low value to time are cited as some of the characteristics of traditional societies like ours. In Hindi the words ‘tomorrow’ and ‘yesterday’ are identical, only distinguished by usage. Both mean one day from now. As the noted social anthropologist Margaret Mead pointed out in her study on Spanish Americans, in traditional societies there is an unable to move easily resistance to change as based on the belief that “it has been so whole along and it continues to be so”.

Group membership shapes the aspirations and desires of a good majority of the people. The joint or extended family consisting of a number of family units-father, mother, sons and their wives, children, nephews and their families living together in one roof pooling and sharing resources. Usually the eldest male member wields authority and control over the members and resources. Over the years caste related mores and taboos are gradually changing and the joint family system is undergoing erosion. While in the past authority and dependence was a part of family and cast structure, progressive strides in urbanisation and modernization have changed the system. Parochial considerations, inter-laced with religion, language and region have had adverse effects on group cohesiveness, cooperation and productivity even in organisational context. Notwithstanding the many changes in the society the dependency among masses continues. There is a tendency to show loyalty to individuals that institutions and excel in individual tasks than group performance. Discount on physical labour and a civil service premium on professional skill through occupational values.