The Concept of Organizational Development in Pakistan
By: ALI MUJAHID AND STUDENTS OF IOBM
Preface The subject matter of “Organization Development in Pakistan� refers to neither a textbook nor a research paper; rather it is a concise manual, which is trying to give an overview of the subject. The main goal of this manual was to develop the concept of Organizational Development, so that new ideas can be developed in this subject.
Understanding Organizations The concept of an organization is to help a group of people to reach their desire goals and objectives. Organizational development is there to improve the organization performance so that the destination can be reached easily. For this to occur the task of the organizational developer is to continuously monitor the external environment and the internal culture to propose the necessary changes. In order to understand this phenomenon we will be using a simple analogy.
A Simple Analogy This is a simple Organization: -
Now Imagine this simple organization has wheels
If the organization has wheels, then it is suppose to reach a destination. We could call this destination anything like goals, objectives or vision.
Like any other mode of transportation, this organization would also require fuel. The fuel is revenue generator
In order to achieve a goal the organizational developers proposes various changes that are needed to take place. Sometimes they propose to add a new department:-
Alternatively, sometimes eliminate a department
CASE STUDY
Company:
Opal Laboratories (Pvt) limited.
Location:
Karachi, Pakistan
Case Topic:
Performance Appraisal Implementation
History: Opal Laboratories a mid – sized family owned business back till 2005, had no concept of a Human Resource Department.
CEO felt the need to implement a formal appraisal system as upper level management from outside the organization was being hired.
Between the years 2005 and 2006, the company developed
/
Department.
formulated
a
Human
Resource
Emergence of the HR dept: HR
manager
was
promoted
from
within
the
organization’s existing employees. ‘’She was a highly capable individual’’ says the CEO. Her job description entitled her to design and implement a performance appraisal system that was both objective and covered all aspects of the jobs; gradually allowing employees to adapt to the new system. The internal assessment of the organization made the manager realize that the older employees felt resentment towards the new method of evaluation, Appraisals was a mere waste of time and that there was a trust issue between the employees and the management. The employees felt their jobs to be in jeopardy and wanted to find a way out of it. The employers on the other hand wanted employees to realize the
benefits of an appraisal system i.e. depict what they were doing wrong and how to fill those gaps. Resistance from the employees end: Employees felt resentment towards the HR Manager. Some people filled out the forms and encouraged others to give it a chance, only they were to benefit from this feedback and in turn the company would benefit, giving them a better chance to acquire personal satisfaction, recognition and monetary rewards as well. Resistance intervention by management for a positive change model: One employee in particular who resented the appraisal forms was moved as a senior manager in a sister company where he was required to carry out appraisals of
subordinates.
appraisals
and
Shortly provided
after the
he
conducted
relevant
feedback,
the he
realized the importance of conducting an appraisal and saw the benefits it provided. He called upon the HR
Manager and requested her to conduct his appraisal in order to weed out his short comings. He realized he too had problems that needed to be addressed and was highly grateful to the CEO for bearing with his attitude. Conclusion: Today, every employee except for the production labor is required
to
have
his/her
appraisal
conducted.
This
guarantees their place in the organization and helps them set better benchmarks pushing them further to better realize the capabilities and areas of improvement. Sometimes a proposal to change the culture of the organization is necessary:
CASE STUDY
Company: National Bank of Pakistan Case topic: Establishment of Training and development department in a bureaucratic cultured organization.
History: National Bank of Pakistan realized that they are falling behind other banks and in competition with other giants. Their main challenge was their bureaucratic culture, which was hindering their communication hence the established a Training &Organizational Department. This
department
offers
training
courses
to
its
employees. It is due to these programs one can easily see a change happening in the bank.
One
of
their
successful
project
was
"Imply
Communication" In this program all regional head attend a meeting with everyone even the clerical staff. Here they solve and discuss issues which would put NBP on the pathway to success.
Sometimes organization merges or buys another organization
The Big Picture
Please study the following picture. You would notice that there is an organization on the lower left side which is about to start its journey to its goal. Now in order to reach their goal they have to choose three pathways. The swaps, the forest and the
mountains. These pathways are called strategies. The strategy,
which
is
chosen
by
the
organization,
is
dependent on the core competency of the people who is driving the organization. If they are expert in mountains then should choose the mountain route, however if they are expert in jungle then they should use jungle route. Now imagine that they have chosen the strategy and they have decided to go through the jungle. In addition, right in the middle the organization faced a calamity and started to fall apart. Firstly, the organization will try to repair itself. This repairing is called Intervention. There are several types of interventions (which would be discussed at a later stage). Therefore, the organization decides that they need to change the strategy and chose the swaps to reach the Goal. For this organization have
to initiate the change they would have to do several things like a training program. People who were used to going through the jungle; would now go through the swaps. The culture of the organization would also change.
Diagnosing the Organization It
is
very
crucial
for
organization
to
continuously
diagnose itself. Just to see if they are going in the right direction. The objective of this diagnosis is not limited to look for problematic area but also to develop efficient processes,
which
would
help
the
organization
performance. Diagnostic occurs at three stages, at the organizational level, group level and at the individual level. A good diagnostic is dependent on the questions that are asked at all three levels.
Habib Bank has their own way to diagnose the organization. The Organizational Department in HBL co-ordinate itself with other departments. Each department proposes new changes to the OD department. Then the OD department takes their proposal and then recommends necessary changes and the training, which has to be required.
Meezan Bank continuously takes feedback from their employees just to see how they are going. The feedback is in the form of Questionnaires. With the help of this survey, the process of Organizational Development becomes easier. Like recently, the employees were not satisfied with the new location of the head office. This was mainly due to security reason. As soon as the top management found about this they immediately started Meezan Shuttle Service. A small air conditioned bus with armed guards pick and drop employees from office to work.
The Change Model To develop an organization the organizational developers have to continuously bring changes. There are several models of change. Lewin gave the earliest model of change. His model was based on three basic steps; Unfreezing, Movement and Refreezing. This manual would also like to propose a change model. The main objective of this model is to further simplify the Lewin change model. This model has also got three steps. It is called the “WHO� model.
The Functionality of the WHO Model Step1: Discuss Why are we bringing the change? What are we trying to change Where would this change occurs This step is justifying the necessary changes that have to take place.
Step 2: Discuss how this change would occur. In this stage the organization, have to discuss the type of intervention. There are four types of interventions:1. Strategic Change Intervention Under this Intervention, the change agent resolves the following Issue: What product or services should be launched Which values would guide the organization Strategic Management process 2. Technostructural Intervention Similarly, technostructure would resolve these issues: How to improve the process of production and services How to design work How each department would co-ordinate with each other
3. Human Resources Intervention This intervention deals with these issues: How to attract competent people How to retain them How to recognize and reward them 4. Human Process Intervention Finally, Human Process Intervention would deal with these issues: Leadership Communication Decision making Solving Problems
Step3: Discuss Orchestrate (Implementation)
Application of WHO Model Step 1: Why
Sales were declining due to severe competition given by the international brand
Human resource was also the challenge. Nobody wanted to work for them because the office was located on MA Jinnah (Security reasons)
Step 2: How
The company hired Mr. Mujahid Hamid who retired from Unilever china.
Step 3: Orchestrate (Implementation)
They moved their office to Dolmen Mall Clifton
They office space was designed to have a contemporary look
Open door policy was initiated
For Consultation and Training About.me/alimujahid