Managing Organizational Approach

Organizational development approach requires corporations to solve problems by revising existing system and company policies to bring in positive changes. In the DuPont story, the author is surprised to see the changes that have taken place in the plant since his last tour. As Organizational development strategy is to transform the beliefs and behavior of the workers so they can adapt to new challenges in the market (Mason 2008). Tom Harris, the plant manager, constantly tried to adopt new ideas to improve the plant in every possible way.

OD’s main objective is to bring about an overall effectiveness and productivity to the organization.

This to be achieved, a professor Gib Akins was asked to show different view points regarding employees work and how they could make alterations to get an end result. The purpose for this was to bring continuous improvement in the plant(Mason 2008). The writer’s evaluation on the interviews conducted from the members of the organization relate to Appreciative inquiry because in this approach you discover on ways to identify a process that works best for the organization and in the future will enhance the change made.

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In the DuPont story, this inquiry led to knowledge of local organization theory used everyday by the employees.

For e. g. to understand the concept of teamwork they would use a metaphor stock-car racing. The plant manager realized the importance of communicating the change in the organization. According to Appreciative inquiry approach we tend to appreciate the strengths of the organization itself rather complaining or focusing on the problem.

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This can be seen from the managers and supervisors enthusiasm towards analyzing the findings of their study and how it can help their organization improve as whole. Effectiveness in work and better practices are emphasized so problems are minimized if not wholly solved(Spurgin 2006).

Appreciative Inquiry model follows four steps: Discover- people talk about the organizational process and when it’s at its best. Dream-people envision the future of the organization on its top. Design-people design ways to achieve such vision. Destiny- the last stage where change is to be implemented (New Paradigm n. d. ) The DuPont story goes through all four stages. The first three have been discussed. In the last step the organization must execute the plans, practices and tactics decided to build the organization towards its dream i. e. Destiny.

This last stage relates to how in the case study the leadership team is encouraged to take the change as an experiment so it is taken and perceived positively by the organizational members as well. If the plan doesn’t work it can be stopped but it has to be given a chance at least once you will loose nothing because at some point in time experiment would turn out to be successful. According to Tom Harris things don’t remain for permanently. This means change has to be there if not today then tomorrow. It is necessary for an organization to stay updated with the latest alteration in the market and its changing modern demand.

This framing of data observation through questions and then analyzing to come to a theoretic assumption is also referred to Sense- making approach. The core purpose of this approach is to fill the gap between people, process and the whole organization (Spurgin 2006). This model sheds light upon the significance of fulfilling these gaps through collecting information like how Tom and other managers learnt. Sense making approach deals with peoples’ strategy to carry out a successful change rather than the object with which they will.

This can be proved by the fact that the plant manager realization on understanding the need for proper supervision, top class performance, and leadership roles to make improvements as well as transforming the culture of change. All these three approaches are meant to affect the health of the organization in a good way. As organizational change is important so are these models that have been used in the case study as well. For an organizational change to be successful it has to be communicated well throughout the organization and its members only then any organization would makes its vision into reality.

2. How compatible are these three approaches? Why? Organizational development, Appreciative inquiry, Sense-make approaches are compatible in such that they all are benefiting the plant in its own way. As organizational development approach focuses on identification of problems, causes solution and then designing plan for solving the problem, on the other hand Appreciative Inquiry concerns for issues and challenges facing the organization(Coghlan, Preskill, Catsambas n. d).

Its intention is to discover what is being done best in the organization like how professor Gib Akin wanted to assist employees on building up their potential and capability instead of recognizing a particular problem to work on. This is an absolute thought to make best out of what you have already then to worry about or turn to the list of problems. The value of this theory is that it lets members share their experiences of success so that they occur more often in the future. This is the reason why Tom and other managers found out about how local model theory works of teamwork(Coghlan, Preskill, Catsambas n.

d). Sense making approach is relates to the case study because in this to make assumptions and come to a theory information was collected by the writer through interviews for 6 months. Also he spent time with the workers to learn their behavior and everyday work life. With this evaluation he came to a conclusion that a common sense model they follow is local organization theory through which they get along with each other. For teamwork stock-car racing metaphor is used that explains powerful team bond that exists between them.

With the new findings the mangers had the opportunity to compare their old ones and come to possible solution for continuous improvement regardless the problem still remains. As organizational development approach claims to increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness, this is reflected on how the leadership core team was given instructions to treat change as experiments. When change is termed as experiment the more people will be entitle to carry out thought process and will know how and when to calculate results.

Their interpretation beforehand can most likely give out positive feedback(Coghlan, Preskill, Catsambas n. d). Organizational development values include: Respecting people, showing trust and support, orientation is to power equalization, with some confrontation and participation of all the members. The techniques with which organizations work with are as follow: Sensitivity training: Here there is unstructured communication between the individual respecting each others’ differences and conflicts. This was followed in the case study through the professor Gib Akins attempt to improve the well being of employees.

Similarly the plant manager Tom Harris confronted with the university in Virginia where he indented to get new ideas to his business operations. Survey feedback: In this tool after conducting your findings the group discusses the results and identifies members’ different perspective. Although in the DuPont story a proper group discussion did not take place but findings of their study were still able to gain enough knowledge from it. Process Consultation: In this process an outside assistance is needed through a consultant who is an expert in problem solving. This OD technique was not taking into consideration in change at DuPont.

Team Building: here the objective is to create coordination among the team members with trust and frankness. The case emphasized the team to take change as experiment but team building should also have encouraged. Intergroup Development: this is concern with overcoming conflicts, differences of perception of stereotypes that groups have for each other. To minimize clashes among the groups Tom should also use this technique so the change is successfully implemented in the long run( Scribd n. d. ) Bibliography Coghlan, A ; Preskill, H ; Catsambas, T. , n. d. An overview of appreciative inquiry in evaluation.

Google Docs (Internet) Available from:<http://docs. google. com/gview? a=v&q=cache:Yzud7qIyAg4J:weblogs. elearning. ubc. ca/mathison/Appreciative%2520Inquiry+how+compatible+are+organizational+development,+Appreciative+Inquiry,sense-making+approaches. &hl=en&gl=pk>[Accessed 30th July, 2009] Mason, L. J. ,2008) 6 Keys to Increase Profits Using Organizational Development - The Role of Human Resources. Available from: <http://ezinearticles. com/? 6-Keys-to-Increase-Profits-Using-Organizational-Development---The-Role-of-Human-Resources&id=1224214> [Accessed 30th July, 2009] New Paradigm. ,n. d. ) Appreciative Inquiry .

Available from: <http://www. new-paradigm. co. uk/Appreciative. htm>[Accessed 30th July, 2009] Scribd (n. d. ) Organizational Culture and Change Management (Internet) Available from:< http://www. scribd. com/doc/16506917/Organizational-Culture-and-Change-Management>[Accessed 30th July, 2009] Spurgin, K. M. ,2006). The Sense-Making Approach and the Study of Personal Information Management. Available from: http://74. 125. 153. 132/search? q=cache:UKlsoY6feSQJ:pim. ischool. washington. edu/pim06/files/spurgin-paper. pdf+what+is+Sense-make+approach&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk>[Accessed 30th July, 2009]

Updated: May 20, 2021
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Managing Organizational Approach. (2020, Jun 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/managing-organizational-change-new-essay

Managing Organizational Approach essay
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