Organization Development, Term Paper Example

Overview and Scenario

Organization Development (OD) is a relatively new science, and consequently one evolving in the process of its ongoing applications. First appearing as a field of study in the 1960’s and one born from strict laboratory analysis which was not meeting organizational needs, the disciplines of modern OD arose to fill a substantial gap. Business everywhere was changing and expanding, and cold assessments of issues impeding progress may have been accurate, but were in essence existing in a vacuum; they offered no tools to make necessary changes, and OD increasingly came into prominence: “OD values more clearly and consistently apply in the kind of society and economy we seem to be becoming…living within organization structures that often require high degrees of personal, immediate involvement…” (Golembiewski xxiv).

Given how the nature of OD today integrates humanistic approaches with structural imperatives, the following case scenario permits a comprehensive view of how OD can be adapted to a specific issue. In this instance a successful restaurant chain, Bob’s, is aware of an issue within many of its stores: although the company policy is to promote from within, the stores are having to go outside for management, despite continued efforts to alert established employees of the opportunities for advancement and to render them as attractive as possible.

CEO Bob has been apprised of how much more it is costing his company to completely train  people in management who have no experience at all in Bob’s policies and procedures, whereas existing employees would require far less initiation time. Moreover, as replacements for any personnel being promoted would be at the server and/or busboy level, training costs there are greatly reduced. The Bob’s policy of internal advancement was devised to motivate existing employees and create an incentive that would both benefit the employee and the restaurant, as greater commitment evinced by the promoted employee would translate to a more harmonious and efficient store. Also, again, the additional costs of training new managers from scratch would be avoided.

As there is clear evidence of an employee apathy in regard to applying for management positions within the entire company, Bob must conclude that there is a structural flaw at play, since no isolated environment can be pointed to as lacking. He has assembled a team from the corporate offices to investigate, and hopefully rectify, this pervasive issue.

Initial Process of OD Analysis

The team commences by using the tool of information gathering. In this instance, the team is aware that the facts of the case are known, at least in regard to numbers; the information they seek goes to cause, and they conclude that this can best be achieved through Human Resources HR)  interviews conducted at a selected sampling of store locations. Moreover, the team agrees that only through hearing what the employees disinclined to seek advancement have to say will valuable information emerge. The team is as well aware that this issue cannot simply be “handed off” to HR, as it reflects a larger organizational dilemma. “The role of the HR function is often one of providing people, training, and isolated HR efforts after others have formulated organizational strategy…” (Yaeger, Sorenson 133).

Various HR offices within Bob’s stores set up personnel interviews over a determined period of two weeks, in which low-level staff is encouraged to openly express their feelings and attitudes as to why they would choose to refrain from seeking company advancement. At the end of this time, the results are conveyed to the corporate team for perusal.

What this research indicates is a dual issue. It appears that, due to the inherent nature of Bob’s operations as restaurants, a large number of his service employees are there with no long-term goals in mind. Many are in college and earning money at Bob’s until they can pursue the careers they most desire. Others indicate a mistrust of management in general, as the work ethic of the managers is either less apparent to these employees or generally lacking altogether. Then, some employees candidly expresses that they believe they earn more in gratuities than managers do in salary, and are not motivated to leave their sphere for the sake of what to them is merely a title.

Conversely, those workers employed in the kitchen revealed a more prevalent desire to advance. Here, the obstacles preventing these employees from applying for kitchen management positions, or even those in the culinary areas, were of low expectations of these applications being favorably viewed. Training and language barriers were, to these workers, in the way of their being considered.

All these results on the table, the corporate teams then employs the tool of focused analysis. They are pleased with the initial approach they took, in that the information before them, culled from interviews, is highly reliable as a reflection of genuine employee attitudes: “Interviews are the most widely used method in collecting data in OD” (Rothwell, Stavros, Sullivan 247). Moreover, as each HR department within Bob’s so compliant established in each interview the foundation of the interviewed employee’s perceived value to the company as the reason for the interview, thus creating an atmosphere in which the workers felt completely free to be honest.

Action Planning

Bob’s corporate team faces a deadline and must turn in an effective analysis with recommendations on how to reverse the trend of apathy in regard to promotion within the company. As they have determined the predominant causes of the problem, they are empowered to devise solutions.

The team consensus is that this is not one issue, but several, and that layers of response are appropriate. They further deduce that a simultaneously humanistic and more business-oriented approach must be enacted, and they proceed to employ the OD tool of isolating all the relevant factors as they match them to the most advisable courses of probable address.

They begin with the kitchen issues, realizing that the obstacles here in recruiting management from within are more tangibly evident. It is the team’s recommendation that the company invests in offering inducements for those employees wishing to improve their language skills and gain a command of English they do not as yet possess. By affiliating itself with local colleges, the company will not only be evincing a humanistic support for its employees, but generating a great deal of exposure within the college environments, which may well translate into increased applications for employment with Bob’s. Then, workers availing themselves of this incentive and assistance will likely forge a deeper connection to their employer, one which will exponentially benefit both employee and restaurant.

The team further urges a greater degree of involvement from kitchen managers and chefs already placed. They must no longer see, for example, the dishwasher as one in a line of transient employees, but someone who, properly motivated, may grow to be a far more valuable asset and colleague. “…Increased employee involvement can lead to…continuous performance improvements, and greater employee flexibility, commitment, and satisfaction” (Cummings, Worley 350). Empowered merely through such recognition, low-level kitchen employees will likely respond with renewed energy.

Regarding the restaurants’ floor staffs, the team suggests that an active interface be set in place between management and servers. First and foremost, the “mystique” regarding management must be erased and the employees should be made aware of the actual and essential functions managers perform. The team proscribes regular management meetings at which servers are encouraged to attend, as well as an open-door policy at all times. The team has deduced, based on the data before them, that the lack of respect for management at Bob’s can be eradicated through exposure; the manager cannot be perceived as “hiding in his office”. Then, this lessening of disrespect for the managers should infuse a respect for management within service employees, and consequently render management a more desirable consideration.

Along these lines, the team also urges an individualized approach be mandated from current management. That is to say, it is incumbent upon them to spot those servers most promising in regard to manager status. Further, it should be required that these managers develop stronger relationships with these people at work, to better convey to them the advantages in staying with the company and rising within it. The server with his or her eye on a different career may then reevaluate that path, now that a greater scope of what management at Bob’s has been revealed.

As part of this same action plan, the team concludes its report in urging that, in both restaurant floor and kitchen, an over-all empowerment applied with discretion be set into motion. Trust and responsibility levels must rise, if the workers at Bob’s are to feel connected with the company to begin with, and not see it merely as a paycheck. From such an active demonstration of company faith in its workers will arise either a matching degree of suitable response, or a further disregard which will serve to more expeditiously end an employment undesirable to begin with. The team feels that, if Bob’s initiates their suggestions, a reversal of the unfortunate apathy within the workforce to seek advancement will dissipate.

Works Cited

Cummings, T.G., and Worley, C.G. Organization Development and Change. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.

Golembiewski, R. T.  Ironies in Organizational Development. New York, NY: Transaction Publishers, 2002. Print.

Yeager, T. F., and Sorensen, P.F. Strategic Organization Development: Managing Change for Success. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2009. Print.

Rothwell, W.J., Stavros, J.M., and Sullivan, R.L. Practicing Organization Development: A Guide  for Leading Change. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2009. Print.