Organizational Change

1. Why is diagnosis so vital in organizational change programs?

The diagnosis of present and potential problems involves the collection of information that reflects the level of organizational effectiveness. Data that measure the current state of production, efficiency, satisfaction, and development must be gathered and analyzed. The diagnostic data also establish the basis for subsequent evaluation of the organizational development effort.

2. Explain the concept of organization intervention and why any particular management or organization change can be considered an intervention?

Through diagnosis, management associates the problem with skill, attitudinal, behavioral and structural cause and selects the appropriate intervention. If employee participation is inappropriate because the necessary preconditions don't exist, management must unilaterally define the problem and select the appropriate method. Whether the problem is related to skill or attitudinal, behavioral, or structural causes, the strategy must include the provision of learning principles.

3. Might some managers attempt to implement a particular intervention, such as TQM, without first diagnosing whether the intervention would be appropriate for their organization's problem?

Once they identify areas of resistance the model helps them find ways to overcome those barriers. Having managers use it with their employees helps those employees make adjustments to their own attitude and provide managers with useful feedback about areas they need to address with their staffs. ADKAR can be useful, it stands for: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement, in building organizational change.

4. Why is it important for managers to reduce the resistance to change exhibited or covertly practiced by employees?

Managers must reduce the employees' resistance for change because such resistance may result to passive resignation to deliberate sabotage of employees to the change process. Without employees' participation during the change process, it would be very hard for the organization to achieve its desired ends.
5. Evaluate the ethical issues associated with downsizing an organization by reducing its labor force to increase the organization's long - run chance of survival. What other ethical issues can you identify in the practice of organizational development as you understand it thus far?

Ethical issues normally deal with the ways the organization view its constituents. It is always told that reducing the labor force for the sake of increasing the organization's chance of survival is evidence that organizations view its employees as one of its least consideration. However, change is vital for the organization to continue its operation amidst changing business demands.Other ethical issues includes the misuse of data in terms of organizational development. People who are handling the needed data may become subjective on its presentation and interpretation, thus coming up with appropriate change program would be difficult.

6. Describe the relationships among the steps of the change model depicted in this chapter and the process of unfreezing - new learning - refreezing. Which steps of the model are related to which elements of the relearning process?

Learning Principles and Changes are Unfreezing old Learning, Movement to new Learning, and Freezing the learned Behavior. These principles are internal which is subject to the employees and the managers. The change models always deals with the process of initiating change in an organization. The different models are always focused on how the organization will come up with its expected outcomes and how will it win its employees participation during the process. The first steps in the models always has something to do with its employees resistance or acceptance to change, while the last steps with the restoration or assimilation of the intervention into the entire process or operation of the organization.

7. How is the appreciative inquiry approach to organizational change different from a problem-solving approach?

Problem-solving method is focused on the identification of problems, shortfalls and deficiencies of the organization. This includes the survey method wherein the issues of the employees are being assessed.

8. What would be the characteristics of an organization or situation for which the use of reason would be an effective approach for managing change? Are such organizations and situations relatively rare?

If an organization will use reason as an effective approach for managing change, that same organizations are considered as sincere, open and optimistic. Initiating change in the organization would require the organization to explain the reasons for change thus there is a need for the presentation of needed data to the employees or to those who will be affected by the change. Employees who will have the same rational as the organization or those who will be after the organization's goal will definitely participate on the implementation of such process.

9. Explain the difficulties that you would encounter in attempting to obtain diagnostic information from members of two groups that believe they're competing for scarce resources.

Obtaining diagnostic information from members of different groups may lead to difficulties in interpreting and gathering accurate data. Thus, it would also be difficult to identify the organization's real problem which will result to the difficulty in the designing or structuring the appropriate change program.

10. Explain why a change program should be evaluated and why such an evaluation is so difficult to conduct.

If there are organizational diagnosis about the identification of the problem and then implementing it, then evaluation of a change program is a must. It is only through evaluation that an organization will determine if it is achieving its desired outcome of the intervention the organization itself is undergoing.