Organization development, as a long – term strategy for
organizational change, plays key role in organizational improvement. The basic
problem in a change effort which is not comprehensive is that it does not work
properly unless there is a proper change in the internal environment of the
organization in which people work. Since OD attempts to being comprehensive
change in the organization, it is quite suitable for improving organizational
performance on long – term basis. Thus
OD can be utilized for the following results in the organization:
1.
To
place emphasis on humanistic values and goals consistent with these values;
2.
To
treat each human being a s a complex persons with a complex set of needs
important in his work and his life.
3.
To
increase the level of trust and mutual emotional support among all
organizational members.
4.
To
increase the level of enthusiasm and personal satisfaction at all levels of the
organization.
5.
To
increase the level of self and group responsibility in planning and its
implementation.
6.
To increase the openness of communications in
all directions – vertically, horizontally and laterally.
7.
To
create an environment in which authority in which authority of assigned role is
augmented by authority based on knowledge and skills.
PROBLEMS IN ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT
Organization development, however has invited sharp criticism as a
strategy to increase organizational viability and effectiveness because many OD
programmes have failed. Much of the enthusiasm created at the beginning of OD
programmes vanished over the period of time. In early 60’s, OD became quite
successful with many professional consultants offering high services and
programmes to various organizations. By 70’s however, substantial
disenchantment with OD became evident because of many controversial OD techniques
like sensitivity training, confrontation techniques etc. research studies have
also failed to conclude significant contributions of OD in all organizations,
particularly in bottom – line ones. Therefore, OD can not be taken as panacea
for curing all organizational problems. In general, OD is criticized on the
following lines:
1.
There
is discrepancy between ideal and real situations. OD ties to achieve ideal
without taking into account real.
2.
OF
makes people unit for the real organizational world because no organizations
can fully adopt open system concept.
3.
Resistance
to change is a natural phenomenon and OD puts undue pressure to change. Hence,
it fails even as a long term strategy.
4.
OD
fails to motivate people with low level of achievement needs. If an
organization is laden with these people, it is useless to try OD.
5.
OD
programmes are often quite costly and only large organizations can afford this
luxury without any guarantee of positive outcome.
It can be seen that many of these criticisms are based on reality
and experience. People realized its dysfunctional aspects only when many OD
efforts failed. However it may be emphasized that OD programmes are likely to
fail when these are not undertaken properly. In fact, there have been cases of
wrong implementation of OD programmes and hence failure. For example, Evans has
identified three factors which have been possible for the failure of OD
programmes:
1.
Failure
of the management consultant group to correctly tailor the programme to actual
needs of the organization.
2.
Failure
to correctly model appropriate personnel behavior in the programme.
3.
Failure
to increase employee motivation through participation and development of
personal growth and self – esteem.
Thus it can be visualized that OD itself may not be dysfunctional
but application may be. Therefore in order to make best use of OD efforts, some
specific efforts are required. Some of these efforts are as follows:
1.
There
should be genuine support of OD programme from top management.
2.
Organization
must formulate the objectives of OD programme very clearly and specifically.
3.
Enough
time should be allowed so that the effects of OD programme are realized.
4.
There
should be proper use of OD interventions. These should be based on the specific
needs of the organization.
5. Only fully competent OD consultant should be pressed for the
service and he should develop understanding with internal change agents.
