Interventions on Team Functioning, Large-Scale Broad-Based Organizational Change Interventions, Wider Applicability, Demographic Trends, Supporting Innovations, Cautious Decision Making, Impact of Technology, Leadership Development, Positive Psychology Interventions

1. Current Trends in
Organizational Development

2. Interventions on Team
Functioning
 Small teams – building blocks of
organizations
 Success of organization dependent
on individual teams
 E.g. – Dell
 Same incentive system
 People work in teams of two
 Profit sharing incentive
 Hourly metrics are posted on
monitors
 360° performance appraisals keep
people focused on achieving their
goals as a team.
 Teamwork is all about people who
are interested in each other's
growth

3. Large-scale broad-based
organizational change interventions
• Organization level interventions are
required today due to many reasons.
• Volatile competitive environments
• For real change to occur, the entire system
must be involved.
• E.g. – Amazon
• With the “single store” strategy,
transformed itself from an Internet
retailer to a platform for commerce.
• Small businesses and individuals given the
opportunity to place their products on
Amazon
• In exchange for this visibility, Amazon
developed a contract that included a fee
schedule and responsibilities and activities
that each organization would perform.
• Also engaged in more traditional
marketing arrangements where the Web
site served as a marketing vehicle for
other companies

4. Wider Applicability
• Extent of OD application has grown widely –
schools, healthcare, start-ups, government
organizations
• E.g. – China
• To assist in the development of China’s
human resource development capacity, OD
practitioners from Switzerland were called in
to act as technical advisors to a unit of the
Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP)
• OD practitioners recommended a
combination of action learning (AL) and
action research (AR) methods.
• Covered different topic areas - comparative
public administration, human resource
management, organizational theory and
development, adult learning.
• The intervention allowed the Chinese
government to acquire cutting edge know-
how in management development and
training.

5. Demographic Trends
• Slowing population growth rates, an increasing
proportion of older workers, and a diverse and global
workforce.
• OD consultants can develop programs to account for
these changes.
• E.g.- Coaching programs
• Organizations, whether they operate primarily in
their home country or abroad, will need to develop
policies and operating styles that embrace the
changing cultural, ethnic, gender, and age diversity of
the workforce.
• E.g. – American Express
• One of the biggest controversies that the company
faced was a class action gender discrimination
lawsuit in 1999
• The company not only made a conscious effort to
recruit a diverse workforce, but it also created a work
culture where diversity was valued and promoted.
• The company partnered with several profit and non
profit organizations to ensure that it had access to a
diverse pool of candidates in its recruitment efforts.
• Culture and policies at AmEx ensured that diversity
was promoted in all parts of the organization.

6. OD Supporting Innovations
• Pressures to reduce the cycle time of innovation
and the OD activities that support them are
increasing.
• For example, innovation is likely to be more
synchronous (anytime, anywhere) as well as
more virtual and less face-to-face. In global
organizations, innovation occurs in a variety of
locations, cultures, and time zones.
• OD Practitioners have to think and work in the
same direction
• E.g. - Whirlpool
• Faced with stagnation in revenues, profits, and
market share due to the lack of innovative
products.
• Used the services of a consultancy firm, to
develop I-consultants and various I-mentors
from within the organization
• To form a coaching network to coach/mentor
the employees and help them develop an
innovation mindset.
• Analysts felt that these efforts had borne fruit,
judging by the consistent growth in Whirlpool's
revenues since 2002.

7. Cautious Decision Making
• Organizations of all types are cautious of
decision making when it comes to large
expenditures.
• One such trending decision osfof Mergers &
Acquisitions.
• E.g. - Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company
Limited (MAHYCO formed a strategic alliance
with Monsanto India Pvt. Ltd.
• Different corporate cultures posed a special
challenge.
• MAHYCO’s – Loyalty, Commitment, Formal
Relationship, Resistance to Change
• Monsanto – Fast-paced
• The OD team then met with the top leaders
at MAHYCO and Monsanto India and
proposed an appreciative inquiry (AI)
process and formal management education
(ME) session for the alliance building
program.

8. Impact of Technology
• Organizations going towards using
technologies to exchange ideas, develop
technologies, or discuss implementation
• This will produce different types of group
dynamics from those found in face-to face
meetings.
• OD practitioners will need to be comfortable
with this technology and to develop virtual
facilitation skills that recognize these
dynamics.
• A more structured and assertive approach will
be necessary to ensure that all members have
an opportunity to share their ideas.
• Processes of visioning, diagnosis, data
feedback, and action planning will have to be
reengineered to leverage new information
technologies.
• E.g. – OD patterns must explore patterns of
social media communication.
• OD practitioners must be data analysts to help
clients make sense of large data and plan
interventions accordingly.

9. Leadership Development
• With globalization and other trends, power is not
concentrated with one person.
• Succession Planning becoming important.
• E.g. – Infosys
• Leadership crisis in 2007
• In early 2012, the company found itself with a new
management team that had taken over from its
more illustrious founders.
• Many senior leaders of Infosys were expected to
retire in a period of ten years from 2011.
• Had to quickly develop a pool of leaders.
• Established the world's largest leadership
development institute at Mysore.
• Leadership model intended to groom leaders to gain
knowledge on various situations and also to enhance
their decision making skill.
• The company developed a three-tier pyramid for
developing leaders at all levels of employees at
Infosys and also established a robust process for
identifying and including talents into different
leadership tiers.
• The Infosys Leadership institute designed a "Nine
pillar model" to inculcate leadership based on the
organization's requirements and the employee's
area of interest.

10. Positive Psychology Interventions
• Emphasis on life-giving interventions
• Because it all boils down to effect
productivity.
• E.g. - Google
• Corporate wellness program focuses on
the health, happiness, and work-life
balance of the employees, and is
considered as being instrumental in its
business growth.
• Inculcates a feeling among the
employees that they are taken care of
by the company and given an
opportunity to make their work
enjoyable, healthy, and creative.
• Teaches lessons on what makes people
happy and healthy that helps Google to
build a unique office environment.
• Provides lasting benefits not only to the
employees, but also to the company
itself.