Ans.

1) Definition of organizational development and discuss the importance

of OD to managers:- OD is the act, process, or result of furthering, advancing,
or promoting the growth of the organization. OD is anything done to better an
organization. But definition is too broad and all-inclusive.
Definition by Beckhard in 1969:- OD is an effort planned organisation wide
and managed from the top, to increase organisation effectiveness and health
through planned interventions in the organisations processes using
behavioural science knowledge.
Bennis, 1969 defines OD as a response to change, a complex educational
strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes, values and structure of
organisations so that they can better adapt to new technologies, markets,
and challenges, and the dizzying rate of change itself.
The importance of OD to managers are as follows: Organizational change:- The area of companys operation where
change is needed is identified, analyzed and their effects are projected
to draw out change management plans aimed at increasing the
effectiveness of employees.
Growth:- It serves as an important tool of planning and managing
corporate growth. OD analysis helps to know the rate of companys
growth by identifying sales projections and consumer demand.
Work processes:- OD analyses work processes to check efficiency and
accuracy. Managers analyses various alternate processes for greater
efficiency and implement plans to improve company methods.

 Product innovations:- Competitive analysis, technology development,

consumer preferences, target market research, patents and
trademarks are some of the processes of OD that assist product
innovation.

Reasons why individual resist to change are as follows:

Selective perception:- You know that people have a natural tendency to

perceive the same thing differently. When changes are initiated, as per
their psychology, individuals tend to focus on how they will be
personally affected rather than seeing the big picture for the entire

organisation.
Lack of Information:- People will resist change if they lack knowledge

about why the change is required and what is expected from them.
Fear of the unknown:- Individuals usually resist change when they are

uncertain about how it will affect their well being.

Habit:- It is easy to understand that many people prefer familiar action

and events, even if they are not optimal.

Resentment towards the initiator:- You would know or have even
experienced that individuals may resist change where they feel that it
is illogical and unreasonable, or when the timing and manner of
implementation lacks the concern for the people expected to carry it
out. You can simply assume the result of such change is either
resentment or anger.

Ans.2) Definition of OD Interventions:- According to Cummings and Worley,

2001: The term intervention refers to a set of sequenced planned actions or
events intended to help an organization increase its effectiveness.
Interventions purposely disrupts the status quo; they are deliberate attempts
to change an organisation or sub unit towards a different and more effective
state.
Additionally, French and bell, 1999, called OD interventions as a set of
structural activities in which selected enterprise units engage themselves
into a sequence of tasks which will result in organisation improvement. It
can be simply phrased as the actions initiated to produce desired results.

Characteristics of OD Interventions:- It is the set of planned activities,

related to the needs of the organisation to bring its overall development and
development of its individual members. Here are the following
characteristics of OD Interventions:

Humanistic approach:- OD interventions hold a positive belief about the

capabilities and potentials of the employees in undertaking the task of

organisation and staff improvement.

Planned and structured approach:- You can simply define it to be based
on a set of well-planned and structured strategy for managing change
by recognizing the importance of dynamic environment in which an

organisation exists.
Problem solving tool:- OD interventions works as a tool to identify the
problems the organisations faces, and involves data gathering, taking

corrective actions, assessment of progress, etc.

System-oriented approach:- OD interventions works for organisation as
a whole involving an extensive participation of structures,
technologies and individuals. All together this forms a part of

organisation.
Practical approach:- Based on the concept of behavioural science, OD

interventions should be both realistic and practical.

Persuasive:- Strategies are planned for individual, group and at

organisation level to manage the problems encountered at every level.

Top-bottom approach:- OD interventions recognizes the importance of
commitment, support and involvement by top management in a similar

way as supported by the organisation culture.

Change agents:- The success of OD interventions depends on the sets
of attributes that practitioners use to bring about desired changes. For
instances, set of values; assumptions about people, organisations and
interpersonal relationships; the goals and objectives both for the
practitioners and for the organisation and its members; and the
structured activities that are the means to implementing the values,
assumptions and goals.

Ans.3) The reasons for setting up goals in the organization are as follows: For achieving a better outcome
For changing the individuals behavior
Focusing on the development of the employees

Channel of communication between superior and subordinate

Lead to the positive performance and for more effective reviews
Reduction in subjectivity
Motivates and encourage the improvement and strategies of the
performance.

The advantages of setting up goals are as follows: Help the people to show them the right path that is where they
are going for the accomplishment of the desired outcome.
Create the environment for constructive feedback, principles of
participative management and enhances the communication
between officer and individual.
Analyse fair and clear evaluation of performance of the
organisation.
The disadvantages/ barriers to goal setting are as follows:

Sometimes the goals/actions are difficult to quantify and qualify

Uncertain of what you want
Lack of focus
Fear of commitment
Having inappropriate expectations
Inability to visualize the results
Afraid to face fear.

Ans.4) Learning organisation refers to an organisation which aims at

transferring, creating and acquiring knowledge for modifying the behavior in
order to reflect new insights and knowledge. Thus, it is a place where an
individual is having a chance to expand and enhance his/her skills and
knowledge to their capacity for creating the desirable outcomes which they
desire, where the collective aspirations are set free, where the people
continuously have the choice to learn and where their expensive and new
patterns of thinking are nurtured. The essence of learning organisation
according to Gephart is:

Systematic critical thinking

a spirit of experimentation and flexibility
centered towards people (community)
continuous learning at the systems level
emphasis is on knowledge sharing and generation.

From the business context, the major primary aims of the learning
organisation are as follows:

Making explicit knowledge visible and accessible- on demand

Capturing the tacit knowledge
Disseminating the knowledge effectively
Implementing a culture of knowledge sharing and continuous learning.

Characteristics of learning organisation

The characteristics of the learning organisation are as follows:

Strategic orientation: Before taking any decisions, learning

organisations has to take care of both its customers and employees.

Openness: There should be openness in the learning organisation for

both the tolerant of debate and criticism as well as enquiry also.

Innovation: There must be organic culture and structure in the learning
organisation which allows it to evolve rapidly. Also, it must have the
deep skill and the capacity to deal with internal uncertainty and
complexity.

Impact of Technology in Organisations:

Technology critically affects strategic options and result in creation of
issues and opportunities that managers have to take care of in running
their organisations effectively. Present environment technology is casting
an ever increasing influence in your workplaces and posses a current
challenge for the managers. A rapid and efficient business expansion can
be called for technology implication on organisation. The impact of
technology on business firms can be analysed as:
1. Business strategy and policy: New opportunities for innovation in
products and services have been created by technology.
2. Organisation culture: Newer types of technology like intranets,
groupware and electronic mail are considerably changing the
manner in which information flows between the groups,
departments or between them and their suppliers and customers.
As a result a more innovative and open cultures have emerged in
business environment which are drastically changing the
organisation cultures.

3. Organisational structures: Technology has enabled organisations to

have a large span of control and a flattening group ware which is
purely result of initiatives like Business Process Reengineering
(BPR) aimed at cost cuts.
4. Management processes: Technology at present is supporting highly
routine business processes as well as supports unstructured
management processes.
5. Work/roles: Technology is bringing about a drastic change in
organisation and professional work or roles.
6. Workplace: You can say that technology has created different
avenues for workplace reorganizations.
Ans.5) Downsizing refers to reduction in the overall size and cost of
operations of an organisations by reducing the total number of employees.
Organisational downsizing constitutes a set of activities undertaken by the
management of an organisation designed with the purpose of improving the
organisational efficiency, competitiveness and productivity.
Types: - A company can downsize using one process or a combination of
types of activities. The manufacturing industry historically uses employee
layoffs to accomplish the goal. Layoffs imply that the company, because of
decreased demand for its products, does not need its current number of
employees. However, the implication is that, when demand increases, it will
re-employ some or all the staff that was laid off. Other common types include
termination, early retirement offers, or even spin offs (creating a smaller
company from the existing corporation to produce or offer products or
services). Some companies use a combination of types to reach the
employment level they need.
Significance: - Downsizing often generates both a positive and negative
significance. The negative, employees losing jobs and income, creates the
loudest general headlines. Along with the obvious negatives of workforce,
downsizing implies that the company or the overall economy is having
serious problems. Investors may also believe that company stock prices may
rise in future as bottom line results improve. Downsizing activities in public
companies has more general significance than similar actions at private
companies, since their reporting requirements are less stringent. When many

companies choose downsizing, the significance to the entire economy is

usually negative.
Misconceptions: - The public typically assumes that the company or the
economy is in a serious downturn. If enough people believe this, a selffulfilling prophesy sometimes results, causing company or economy to suffer
further. Downsizing may be the outcome of poor results, an economic
downturn, or simply a company taking advantage of business conditions to
improve their already successful operations.
Effects: - The effects of downsizing also vary from company to company.
Some employees are able to keep their jobs and their companys condition
may improve. However, many now-former employees face serious financial
problems. Those employees who have kept their jobs must take on added
responsibilities and duties (usually for no additional compensation) with
which they are unfamiliar and/or untrained. Therefore, remaining employees
and company operating efficiency typically suffer, at least in the short term.
The ability of the staff to adapt and the company to help and support them
has major effects on the success or failure of downsizing.
Ans.6)

Learning organisation refers to an organisation which aims at

transferring, creating and acquiring knowledge for modifying the behavior in

order to reflect new insights and knowledge. Thus, it is a place where an
individual is having a chance to expand and enhance his/her skills and
knowledge to their capacity for creating the desirable outcomes which they
desire, where the collective aspirations are set free, where the people
continuously have the choice to learn and where their expensive and new
patterns of thinking are nurtured.
The characteristics of the learning organisation are as follows:

Strategic orientation: Before taking any decisions, learning

organisations has to take care of both its customers and employees.

Openness: There should be openness in the learning organisation for

both the tolerant of debate and criticism as well as enquiry also.

Innovation: There must be organic culture and structure in the learning
organisation which allows it to evolve rapidly. Also, it must have the

deep skill and the capacity to deal with internal uncertainty and
complexity.
Steps for starting organisational learning process are shown below;
1. Knowledge of theory, research and practice: - In the first step there are
multiple researchers and theories which addressed only part of
ogranisational learning system that builds a foundation for valuing
information about organisation action.
2. Understanding of Organisational Learning systems model:- In the
second step, theories, researches and stores of practice are integrated
into a map or quilt which provides a dynamic social basis for accessing
the organisational actions of both performing and learning.
3. Asking questions for inquiry: - In the third step, the organisation start
with the generation of new ideas which is concerned with the learning
system.
4. Convert the new information into meaningful knowledge:- In this step,
the questions that are generated in the third step to get information
about organisation, is valued to give the answers.
5. Analyse inputs and outputs of each sub-system: - In this step, the
analysis is done for the new information which allows the organisation
to develop knowledge of its challenges and strengths by using the
context of the organisational learning system.
6. Respond to the challenges of each subsystem are as follows;
a) Challenges of the meaning and memory subsystem include;
Lack of cultural profile
Lack of alignment in multiple
b) Challenges of the action/reflection subsystem includes;
Resistance to the dual nature of knowledge
Lack of readiness
Lack of organisational reflection
c) Challenges of the environmental interface subsystem includes;
Lack of understanding of role of management cognition and
the environmental interface subsystem
Inappropriate screening
Lack of variety of environmental interface actions.
7. Take action:- In this last step, the organization learning system
contains necessary functions. The guiding function of memory and

meaning subsystem is the most influential which is impenetrable to

change.