Interventions In Operational And Strategic Change

Organizational Change and Interventions

Change is a law that must exist for either an individual or an organization to survive and thrive. In order to consistently move towards the desired state, organizational change includes generating an imbalance in its current situations and patterns, either unintentionally or on purpose. There are various interventions that can be used to change an organization. Organizational interventions can be leveled and geared toward system, group, or individual changes.

Individual Changes

Interventions can take place at the person, group, or subdivision levels within an organization. Interventions aimed at a specific employee inside a company are referred to as individual changes. This may involve recruiting talent while hiring, onboarding, and mentoring particular workers. When an individual change is implemented to aid an organization adopt a new course, it becomes an organizational development change. A major intervention in individual change is staffing and talent management. This intervention involves recruiting, selecting, replacing, or retrenching employees in order to have the right workers working towards the organization's initiative of change. In addition, an organization may train its existing employees towards total quality implementation so as to ensure positive interactions and bring forth the quality of work. Individual OD can as well take coaching intervention. The purpose of coaching is to recognize dysfunctional behaviors that make employees unproductive and finding mechanisms to improve them. Even though the interventions are aimed at individual changes, such interventions can become lead to strategic change if applied with the aim to ensure a leadership or cultural shift.

Group and Team Changes

Another form of change intervention is change directed towards groups or teams within an organization. As Burke illustrates, groups are vital in an organization as they are the means by which individual employees experience the organization and determine how an employee perceives the organization (2014). Action learning, team building, and networks are the main interventions of team and group change. With action learning, the problems of the team at the workplace are identified and conflicts resolved. Instead of sending employees for off-site training, they are engaged in a reflection and dialogue to determine a course of action which is then put to trial for a period of time before the team reconvenes to reflect on its effects before committing to it. Team building is another form of team change intervention which involves activities for enhancing how teams function. This form of intervention seeks to establish and prioritize team goals and work towards enhancing interpersonal relations of team members. An organization may also constitute networks which are formed of groups and teams that come together due to specific interests in support of its members. When networks are formed in support of strategic organization change by being inclusive and diverse, they become strategic change interventions (Bartunek & Moch, 1987).

Subsystem Changes

Change can also occur at the subsystem level. This form of change involves trying a new process at a given subdivision before promoting it to other divisions. This form of macro intervention involves survey feedback, mergers and acquisition, and large-scale interventions. With survey feedbacks, members of an organization are reviewed of their overall organizational satisfaction. Their response is then analyzed and feedback meetings held to share the results with other employees. This form of intervention is the earliest OD intervention widely used to justify change as it improves an organization culture. Another form of system change is the use of large-scale intervention which involves assembling an important group to solve a problem, strategize, or revise existing mission statements. This form of intervention requires very careful logistic preparation but can greatly impact change in an organization if well utilized. Mergers and acquisitions are other forms of intervention that affects system change. This form of intervention is integrated into an organization if it needs to integrate separate cultures, share resources, or find effective ways to operate. However, if employees fail to understand organization goals, mergers and acquisitions are bound to fail. According to Burke (2014), mergers and acquisitions can fail if there is an imbalance in power and expertise since the success of the intervention is unrealistic, lacks perceived equity, and lacks contingency plans.


References


Bartunek, J. M. (1987). First-Order, Second-Order, and Third-Order Change and Organization Development Interventions: A Cognitive Approach. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 23(4), 483-500. doi:10.1177/002188638702300404


Burke, W. W. (2014). Organization change: Theory and practice.

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