TYPES OF OD INTERVENTIONS

Based on the underlying causal mechanisms, Robert Blake and Jane

Mouton have identified the following methods of interventions.
1. Discrepancy intervention: This calls for attention to a contradiction
2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.
9.

in action or attitudes that then leads to exploration.

Theory intervention: Here behavioral science knowledge and theory
are used to explain present behavior and assumptions underlying the
behavior.
Procedural intervention: which represents a critiquing of how
something is being done to determine whether the best methods are
being used.
Relationship intervention: Focuses attention on inter-personal
relationships (particularly those where there are strong negative
feelings) and surfaces the issues for exploration and possible
resolution.
Experimentation intervention: In this method, two different action
plans are tested for their consequences before a final decision on one
is made.
Dilemma intervention: in which an imposed or emergent dilemma is
used to force close examination of the possible choices involved and
the assumptions underlying them.
Perspective intervention: which draws attention away from
immediate actions and demands and allows a look at historical
background, context and future objectives in order to assess whether
or not the actions are still on target.
Organization Structure intervention: calls for examination and
evaluation of structural causes for organizational ineffectiveness.
Cultural intervention: examines traditions, precedents, and practices
in a direct focused approach.

TYPES OF OD INTERVENTIONS

TEAM BUILDING
Team building refers to intense group activities the goals of which are the
improvement and increased effectiveness of various teams.
Team building activities may be directed at Intact Teams or Special Groups
(like project teams, inter-departmental teams, etc.)
Focus areas of team building are: diagnosis, task accomplishments, team
relationships, team and organization processes.
Varieties of Team Building Interventions
Formal Groups (In tact work
Special Groups
teams)
A. Diagnostic Meetings
A. Diagnostic Meetings
B. Team Building Focused on:
B. Team Building Focused on:
Task Accomplishment,
Task accomplishment,
including problem solving,
especially special problems,
decision making, role
role and goal clarification,
clarification, goal setting, etc.
resource utilization, etc.
Building and maintaining
Relationships, especially
effective interpersonal
interpersonal or inter-unit
relationships, including bossconflict, and underutilization
subordinate relationships and
of each other as resources.
peer relationships.
Processes, especially
Understanding and managing
communications, decisiongroup processes and culture
making, and task allocations.
Role analysis technique for
Role Analysis technique for
role clarification and
role clarification and
definition.
definition.
Role negotiation techniques.
Role negotiation.

TYPES OF OD INTERVENTIONS
SURVEY FEEDBACK

Survey feedback consists of a process of systematically collecting data

about the system and feeding back the data for individuals and groups at all
levels of the organization to analyze, interpret meanings and design
corrective action steps.
The two major components of this process are: a) use of a climate or attitude
survey and, b) the use of feedback workshops.
Steps in the survey feedback process
1. Organization members at the top of the hierarchy are involved in the
preliminary planning.
2. Data are collected from all organization members.
3. Data are fed back to the top executive team and then down through
the hierarchy in functional teams. This involves an interlocking chain
of conferences.
4. Each supervisor presides at a meeting with his or her subordinates in
which the data are discussed and in which (a) subordinates are asked
to help interpret the data (b) plans are made for making constructive
changes, and (c) plans are made for the introduction of the data at the
next lower level.
5. Most feedback meetings include a consultant who has helped prepare
the superior for the meeting and who serves as a resource person.
Survey feedback will succeed, when
a. The team accepts the data gathered as valid.
b. The team accepts responsibility for part it plays in the problem
identified.
c. The group commits itself to solving the problems.

TYPES OF OD INTERVENTIONS
SURVEY FEEDBACK

A typical survey questionnaire may contain questions pertaining to some or

all of the following:
Leadership
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Managerial support
Managerial goal emphasis
Managerial work facilitation
Managerial interaction facilitation
Peer support
Peer goal-emphasis
Peer work facilitation
Peer interaction facilitation

Organizational climate
9. Communication with company
10.Motivation
11.Decision making
12.Control within the company
13.Coordination between departments
14.General management
Satisfaction
15.Satisfaction with company
16.Satisfaction with supervisor
17.Satisfaction with job
18.Satisfaction with pay
19.Satisfaction with work group

TYPES OF OD INTERVENTIONS

INTERGROUP DEVELOPMENT
The focus of Intergroup development is on improving Intergroup relations.
Goals are:
Improve and increase Intergroup communication and interaction
Reduce amount of dysfunctional competition
Replace a parochial, independent point of view with an awareness of
the necessity for interdependence of action calling on the best efforts
of all groups.
Steps in the Intergroup interventions
Step 1
Meeting between leaders of groups with consultant facilitator.
Step 2
The Intergroup intervention begins at this stage. The two groups meet
separately and build two lists: one list stating what they feel about the other
group, and another list listing what the other group thinks about their own
group.
Step 3
The two groups meet each other and share the contents of the lists made by
them.

TYPES OF OD INTERVENTIONS

INTERGROUP DEVELOPMENT
Step 4
The groups return to their separate meeting places, and take stock of
information gathered in step 3. As a first step they react to and discuss what
they have learned. Usually, this discussion itself leads to clarifications of
many of the feelings of the group about the other. As a second step, they are
asked to make a list of the still unresolved issues between them. This list is
usually much smaller than the first lists produced by them.
Step 5
The groups meet again and share their new, small list of unresolved issues.
After discussing the two lists, they produce a single list of the most
important, urgent and critical issues that need to be resolved immediately.
They will then prioritize the points, prepare action plans and decide on who
will do what to implement the action plan.
Step 6
Follow up meetings are held between the groups to take stock of progress
on action taken and making mid-course corrections, if any.

TYPES OF OD INTERVENTIONS

PROCESS CONSULTATION
Process consultation model is similar to team-building interventions, except
that Process Consultation (PC) places greater emphasis on diagnosing and
understanding process events in an organization. The process consultants role
is more non-directive and questioning as he or she gets the groups to solve
their own problems.
The crux of this approach is that a skilled third party (consultant) works with
individuals and groups to help them learn about human and social processes
and learn to solve problems that stem from process events. According to
Schein, the chief goal of PC is as follows:
The job of the process consultant is to help the organization solve its own
problems by making it aware of organizational processes, the consequences of
these processes, and the mechanisms by which they can be changed. The
process consultant helps the organization to learn from self-diagnosis and selfintervention. The ultimate concern of the process consultant is the
organizations capacity to do for itself what he has done for it. Where the
standard consultant is more concerned about passing on his knowledge, the
process consultant is concerned about passing on his skills and values.

Kinds of PC interventions.
1. Agenda-setting interventions, consisting of
Questions which direct attention to interpersonal issues
Process-analysis periods
Agenda review and testing procedures
Meetings devoted to interpersonal process
Conceptual inputs on interpersonal-process topics
2. Feedback of observations or other data consisting of:
Feedback to groups during process analysis or regular work time
Feedback to individuals after meetings or after data-gathering
3. Coaching or counseling of individuals
4. Structural suggestions:
Pertaining to group membership
Pertaining to communication or interaction patterns
Pertaining to allocation of work, assignment of responsibility, and
lines of authority.

TYPES OF OD INTERVENTIONS

T GROUP (LABORATORY TRAINING, SENSITIVITY TRAINING)

T Groups are essentially unstructured, agendaless group sessions for about
10 to 12 members and a professional trainer who acts as the catalyst and
facilitator for the group.
T Group has high relevance for developing skills of importance and for
personal growth and development of the individual.
The data for discussion in these unstructured groups are data provided by
the interactions of the group members as they strive to create a viable
society for themselves. Actions, reactions, interactions and concomitant
feelings accompanying them are the data for the group. The groups usually
meet for 3 days to two weeks. Conceptual material relating to
communication skills, interpersonal relations, individual personality theory
and group dynamics is a part of the program. The group experience is the
main learning vehicle.
T group is a powerful learning laboratory where individuals gain insights
into the meaning and consequences of their own behavior, the meaning and
consequences of others behaviors and the dynamics and processes of group
behavior.
The most frequently used T group format is called Stranger Lab and
consists of three trainers and 30 35 participants from a variety of
organizations. Another format consists of several clusters of two or three
individuals from different parts of the same organization, with people from
the same department assigned to different T-groups.

TYPES OF OD INTERVENTIONS

T GROUP (LABORATORY TRAINING, SENSITIVITY TRAINING)

Goals of T group or Laboratory Method
1. Increased awareness and sensitivity to emotional reactions and
expression of himself and in others.
2. Greater ability to perceive and learn from the consequences of his
actions through attention to feelings, his own and others. Emphasis is
placed on development of sensitivity to cues furnished by the
behavior of others and ability to utilize feedback in understanding
his own behaviors.
3. Enable the individuals to develop personal values and goals
consonant with a democratic and scientific approach to problem and
personal decision and action.
4. Develop concepts and theoretical insights, which will serve as tools
in linking personal values, goals and intentions to actions consistent
with these inner factors and with the requirements of the situation.
5. Foster the achievement of behavioral effectiveness in transactions
with ones environment. Enable individuals to better integrate
intentions and actions and provide a valid insight into self.