HRM372 Organisational Development Assignment Sample
Introduction
Organizational development is a science-based approach which helps in effective change management procedures across organizations through development, improvement, and reinforcement of strategies, processes and structures. The current research aims to illustrate the aspects of organizational development and role it plays in assisting organizations in VUCA environment.
Organizational development
The study of organizational change and performance which has been successful is termed as organizational development. In the opinion of Lau, Lee and Chung (2019), the background of study of organizational development rests in 1930s when a number of psychologists across the world realized the influence of organizational structures and processes on behavior of employees. Furthermore, organizational processes also act as determinant factors in motivation of workers. In the contemporary business world, the expansion of organizational development has taken place in alignment with changing environment of businesses which are highly dynamic and complex (Mishra, 2017). The areas that organizational development primarily focuses on are knowledge management, organizational learning and transformation of organizational values and norms. The theory of organizational theory includes organizational climate which is determined by unique personality of each of the workers of an organization, and also their attitude and beliefs, organizational culture which is determined by organizational norms and values and organizational strategies which help in identification of business issues and formulate effective strategies for providing competitive advantage to the firm.
Core value of organizational development
The core value of organizational development rests on providing value to the workers associated with an organization. As stated by Achterbergh and Vriens (2019), organizational development opposes human resource management which considers workers as important resources of an organization. However, on the other hand, organizational development considers workers as human beings instead of resources. Therefore, there should be adequate opportunities for growth and development so that the organization could grow as a whole. Furthermore, the core value of organizational development also lies in achieving goals and objectives of the organization through hands of its employees. As mentioned by Dobrai and Farkas (2016), the importance of organizational development lies in creating an environment which poses a number of challenges for the employees to work in. This provides them with ample room to grow and develop and also constitute a better working environment. The gradual development of workers and adherence to a challenging environment enable them to influence business procedures of an organization and thus, there is growth of a positive relationship between the employees and the organization. Organizational development has realized that each of the workers in an organization has a complex set of needs. Therefore, the purpose of organizational development is to identify the needs of each worker and help them achieve those in the context of organizational processes. The areas of focus of organizational development are operations management, training and development and technological innovation.
Objectives of organizational development
In the course of enhancing organizational procedures and operations, the primary objective of organizational development is to increase level of interpersonal trust among employees through interpersonal communication. Furthermore, as commented by Lewis, Boston and Peterson (2017), another important objective of organizational development is also to increase trust level and satisfaction of employees. Thus, their needs are always heard and identified and the organization aims at helping them achieve those. Moreover, they are also made to work under a challenging environment where workers constantly gain assistance from end of their higher authorities which fosters a positive working environment and also increases commitment of workers towards the company. In the course of employment, there are plenty of issues identified by the workers. Therefore, another objective of organizational development is also to face the issues, encounter them and implement necessary risk management strategies so that problems could be solved. This increases collaboration and cooperation among employees and there are lesser chances of conflict management due to fostering a better relationship among workers. As observed by Terziev and Georgiev (2018), one of the primary areas of focus of organizational development is operations management. Henceforth, another objective of organizational development is to improve the daily business processes and improve them in a way, so as to improve operational efficacy.
Role of organizational development in assisting organizations in VUCA environment
Kurt Lewin’s change management model
One of the distinctive features of organizational development is change management, by means of which businesses are able to thrive under difficult situations and adapt to dynamic nature of business. The VUCA framework shall be used to understand complexity and issues associated with a business. Change is an integral part of a business and it helps businesses to constantly adapt to the changes and new requirements of business to be competitive. As influenced by Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016), the Kurt Lewin’s model of change shall be taken into account in this regard for understanding the concept of change management and its impact on organizations through organizational development.
The first stage of this model is ‘unfreeze’ which involves identification of the change that is necessary. Thus, the individuals of an organization identify the business issue which is not in compliance with environment and decide to change it for betterment of business operations. In this stage, it is important to break status quo and implement a new strategy which needs to be followed by the business. Communication is one of the key features in this regard which helps other workers, members and stakeholders of the business to identify importance of change. Thus, this makes them resistant towards change. Furthermore, in this stage, it is also important to start from the core. That is why, the beliefs, values and organizational policies might be challenged so that a thorough change can be established.
The second stage is change where there is an occurrence of uncertainty. Thus, the crux of this stage lies in changing that uncertainty and looking for new opportunities by means of which uncertainty can be solved. As influenced by Burnes (2020), it is also important to look for ways that will support the newly implemented change. Therefore, the behavior and working procedure of employees is impacted at the preliminary stage. However, this is a time consuming process as members of an organization shall be little resistant to change. Thus, communication process is implemented in order to embrace the new direction and seek involvement of each of the members. Thus, motivation also plays a crucial role in this regard as it helps in transition process of the change without any issue of lack of resistance from end of the organizational members.
The third stage of refreeze where there is embrace of new changes incorporated into an organization and thus, the final changes should be permanently implemented in the business. According to Codreanu (2016), organizational chart is a major factor for refreeze along with consistent job description. This helps members be consistent with the new change procedure and also be well-acquainted with their new job role. It is important to institutionalize the changes and thus, ensuring that changes are being incorporated on an everyday basis. This helps the employees be well-equipped with the change and therefore, be confident of it.
There are various challenges in organizational development, such as implementation of a humanistic approach in problem-solving as considering humans as important resources of an organization has been a status quo. Therefore, it is important to maintain the humanistic approach in organizational problem-solving and it helps in strategic direction of the organization. However, as opposed by Sarkar (2016), despite the challenges of organizational development, it is a highly beneficial factor for business organizations as it assists organizations adapt to VUCA environment with help of technology. In the future world, there are plenty of challenges that might be faced by business organizations. This makes organizational development an indispensable factor for addressing the issues due to Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.
Volatility
The advancement of technology has resulted in it being an indispensable factor for business organizations. Therefore, in a world of uncertainty, the implementation of technology has been one of the topmost priorities which help in digital conversations to be carried on in businesses. As reported by Nair, Pahurkar and Phule (2019), the importance of technology lies in offering opportunities to businesses with focus on enhancement of operational procedures. However, the nature of technology is disruptive and it poses a number of threats to the business at different stages where technology shall be disrupted by an external business environmental factor. This creates a volatile situation in an organization, as a result of which there is hindrance to digital communication. As a result of that, the whole of business communication would be ceased. In this regard, the importance of organizational development lies in implementation of humanistic approach which helps in considering workers as human beings. The assistance of organizational development to organizations during volatile situation lies in providing opportunities to the business to diversify. For instance, there is much growth and advancement of mobile technology and therefore, it can be implemented in organizations to combat the issues due to technological disruption in businesses (Nandram and Bindlish, 2017). The purpose of OD would be to provide a sense of shift of technology and incur a beneficial effect of it on the organization.
Uncertainty
In terms of uncertainty, the importance of organizational development is to remove the uncertainties which are prevalent during an organizational change procedure. According to Antonacopoulou (2018), one of the biggest issues of uncertainty faced by organizations in global field is labor shortage. Due to the current situation of pandemic, it is estimated that by end of 2020, there will be skilled labor shortage by 40 million. This increases risks for businesses to avail highly skillful and efficient employees. Moreover, as a result of this, there are also potential risks for organizations to have potential leaders. Leadership plays an extremely crucial role in organizational development. Therefore, when there is inadequacy of skillful and knowledgeable labors, it shall lead to poor organizational development, leading to an uncertain environment for the business. However, through organizational development, the focus is given on skill enhancement and development of existing employees so that there could gain adequate skills and be well competent. The focus of organizational development is given on complex need identification and motivation of employees which also helps in betterment of their performance (Ruksana and Ahmed, 2019). This culminates in development of leadership roles of existing employees and thus, strong leadership role eradicates the uncertain business environment to a huge extent.
Complexity
The current nature of business is highly complex because of imposition of international regulations from end of government. As influenced by Bawany (2018), industrial regulations which are formulated by government focus on plenty of factors including learning and development, fair employee policies and disclosure of important business decisions. However, this incurs a risk of privacy and safety in global platforms related to compliance. As a result of that, the learning and development process gets affected. The role of organizational development in this aspect is promotion of sales and growth. Therefore, OD helps in standardizing the processes in global field which would help in solving issues of compliance.
Ambiguous
Historically, leadership training is about providing training to the leaders. However, the current ambiguous business nature has resulted in providing training to each of the employees so that they could gear up for better leadership roles. As stated by Jari and Lauraéus (2019), OD is associated with providing growth opportunities to each of the workers equally. Therefore, the workers of an organization shall develop themselves for assuming roles of leadership. In the process, they identify their job roles at root level to identify their current roles and extent to which they shall need to develop further. This helps in solving ambiguous environments in organizations.
Conclusions
To conclude, the importance of organizational development lies in providing growth opportunities to workers of an organization and therefore, they can gain skills and knowledge for continuous development. The purpose of OD is to foster collaborative relationships among employees and motivate them. This helps in an effective change procedure. OD also assists organizations in VUCA environment by allowing enough room to workers to grow and meet the requirement of skilled labor.
Reference List
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