The Learnin Org

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

SUMMARY 3

AN ARCHETYPICAL ENTRY AND CONTRACTING PROCESS 5

LAWLER'S ENTRY AND CONTRACTING PROCESS 9

ASSESSING LAWLER'S ENTRY AND CONTRACTING PROCESS 11

WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY 14

THEORIES AND MODELS TO MAKE SENSE OUT OF THE DIAGNOSTIC DATA 17

ORGANIZING THE INFORMATION FOR FEEDBACK 22

CARRYING OUT THE FEEDBACK PROCESS 23

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION THAT COULD BE COLLECTED 25

CONCLUSION 28

BIBLIOGRAPHY 29

APPENDICES 30

B.R. RICHARDSON TIMBER PRODUCTS CORPORATION

INTRODUCTION

Organizational Development (OD) is concerned with the performance, development, and effectiveness of human organizations. OD is directed at bringing about planned change to increase an organization's effectiveness and capacity. It is an applied behavioural science that is focused on the organization as a system, and among other issues is concerned with the health of the organization, its effectiveness, its capacity to solve problems, its ability to adapt, change or of self renewal, and its ability to create a high quality of life for its employees.

An organization is defined as two or more people brought together by one or more shared goals. OD promotes the notion that a successful change is a planned change. Monitoring of both internal and external influences needs to be conducted on a continuous basis. To understand how change can be managed, OD draws knowledge and concepts from other disciplines (notably behavioural science, psychology, organization theory).

One of the early approaches to organizational change was provided by Kurt Lewin and his associates. It starts from the premise that targets of change and the social processes underlying them are relatively stable, when forces driving for change are roughly equal to forces resisting the change. To change this status quo requires a three-step process:

1. unfreezing

2. movement

3. refreezing

Unfreezing underscores the need to assess the present situation before change is contemplated. It examines the driving and restraining forces in the change situation that maintains the status quo. This information is essential for unfreezing the current situation and creating a readiness for change among organization members.

Movement involves intervening in the situation to change it. This addresses organizational issues such as human processes, strategic choices, work designs and structures. It shifts the behaviours, attitudes and values of the organization, department and individuals to new levels.

Refreezing stabilizes the organization at a new equilibrium state. If this step is ignored the organization reverts to its previous state. Refreezing rebalances the driving and restraining forces in the changed situation so it remains stable.

Output of change is highly dependent on how the change process unfolds, and the change process will need to be facilitated. The OD process is a recurring cycle (Appendix II). Diagnosis, involvement, further diagnosis, change, evaluation, and reinforcement are the stages that enable complex organizations to make sense of and manage the change process. This paper looks at the B. R. Richardson Timber Corporation case and attempts to analyze some stages of the OD process. It starts with a summary of the case.

SUMMARY

Richard Bowman, who was in charge of industrial relations at B.R. Richardson Timber Products Corporation, contacted Jack Lawler, an Organization Development Practitioner. Bowman said he was looking for someone to conduct a "motivation course" for the blue-collar employees of the lamination plant. He advised that morale in the plant was very low, the plant manager was a bit "authoritative", and that there had been a fatal accident at the plant a few months before. Lawler then arranged