What 3 activities are involved in entering an OD relationship?

Related

Entering and Contracting

The planned change process described in

Chapter 2 generally starts when one or more

managers or administrators sense an opportunity

for their organization, department, or group,

believe that new capabilities need to be devel-

oped, or decide that performance could be

improved through organization development. The

organization might be successful yet have room

for improvement. It might be facing impend-

ing environmental conditions that necessitate a

change in how it operates. The organization could

be experiencing particular problems, such as

poor product quality, high rates of absenteeism,

or dysfunctional conflicts among departments.

Conversely, the problems might appear more

diffuse and consist simply of feelings that the

organization should be “more innovative,” “more

competitive,” or “more effective.”

Entering and contracting are the initial steps

in the OD process. They involve defining in a

preliminary manner the organization’s problems

or opportunities for development and estab-

lishing a collaborative relationship between

the OD practitioner and members of the client

system about how to work on those issues.

Entering and contracting set the initial param-

eters for carrying out the subsequent phases

of OD: diagnosing the organization, planning

and implementing changes, and evaluating

and institutionalizing them. They help to define

what issues will be addressed by those activi-

ties, who will carry them out, and how they will

be accomplished.

Entering and contracting can vary in complex-

ity and formality depending on the situation.

In those cases where the manager of a work

group or department serves as his or her own

OD practitioner, entering and contracting typi-

cally involve the manager and group members

meeting to discuss what issues to work on and

how they will jointly meet the goals they set.

Here, entering and contracting are relatively

simple and informal. They involve all relevant

members directly in the process—with a mini-

mum of formal procedures. In situations where

managers and administrators are considering

the use of professional OD practitioners, either

from inside or from outside the organization,

entering and contracting tend to be more

complex and formal.1 OD practitioners may

need to collect preliminary information to

help define the problematic or development

issues. They may need to meet with represen-

tatives of the client organization rather than

with the total membership; they may need to

formalize their respective roles and how the

change process will unfold. In cases where the

anticipated changes are strategic and large in

scale, formal proposals from multiple consult-

ing firms are requested and legal contracts are

drawn up.

This chapter first discusses the activities and

content-oriented issues involved in entering

into and contracting for an OD initiative. Major

attention here will be directed at complex

processes involving OD professionals and client

organizations. Similar entering and contracting

issues, however, need to be addressed in even

the simplest OD efforts, where managers serve

as OD practitioners for their own work units.

Unless there is clarity and agreement about

what issues to work on, who will address them

and how that will be accomplished, and what

timetable will be followed, subsequent stages

of the OD process are likely to be confusing and

ineffective. The chapter concludes with a discus-

sion of the interpersonal process issues involved

in entering and contracting for OD work.

4

What are the three basic components of OD process?

What are the 3 keys areas steps of contracting OD generally addresses?

What are the activities of OD?

What are the steps involved when conducting OD?