Organisational Development

This article discusses the importance of organizational development, the role of HR, and methods for implementing organizational development in a case study of Sprockets Cycles.

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Overview of Organizational Development................................................................................2
A New Design and Structure......................................................................................................3
Organizational Development methods.......................................................................................4
The Role of the HR in Organizational Development.................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Organizations often require implementation of changes in a very systematic way. For
this Organizational development is required to ensure that the approach taken for the
implementation of change in order to improve and enhance the company in countless ways is
carried out in a positive way to ensure positive results. Various kinds of strategies,
individuals and countless processes are brought together to ensure that a company can
successfully carry out the required plans in order. Sprockets Cycles located in Dalkeith,
Scotland, is a very well established shop which repairs bicycles. It is situated in the heart of
the town center and had been operating for over 50 years. However, financial difficulty had
soon set in and a local business bought the place. The have decides to bring in an
Organizational Development executive who will ensure that the customers are retained, brand
image is maintained and profits are made by carefully ensuring that the company keeps up
with changes and forgoes any orthodox managerial techniques that might be holding back the
company form doing well (Zuber-Skerrit 2003). The culture at the business is a little
downbeat and as the new OD consultant, I will be exploring what changes can be made and
the strategies that can be undertaken to ensure that the company gets back on track.
Overview of Organizational Development
Organizational development helps in molding the organizational culture according to
the market needs. As a consultant, I know that the organization has to undergo changes to
keep up with the market demands and to ensure that the organization does not retain any
process that is not benefitting the company in any way. This can be achieved by effectively
communicating changes. Change will happen continuously and if a company is orthodox, the
company will be suffering because change is not being implemented. Customers look for
modern changes in the business and modern instruments that will be giving them a better

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experience of service (Proctor & Doukkakis 2003). Thus organizational development steps up
in these cases to ensure that the organization can cope with the changes and keep up with
them all the while continuing to deliver their business in the best of ways.
For a company like Sprockets Cycle this kind of change is required as the company
was not doing well, despite having a firm foundation in the kind of business they were
dealing with. The structure and hierarchy is extremely tall and bureaucratic that makes
business difficult as power is highly concentrated in the hands of the owners who are the
main decision makers. The family who owns it had all the control in their hands and they
never allowed the front line staff, the mechanics or even the helpful assistants to participate in
the work. Even the HR department that is run by only on HR is kept aloof and he does not
take part in any activity like OD. Therefor it is evident that the work culture one is talking
about is a little downtrodden.
OD in this case has a considerable role to play because first and foremost, this
company requires an integration of all the departments and the people in it. If the executive
decision makers keep all the powers in their hands and refuse any kind of feedback from the
employees who are responsible for making the business work and interact on a regular basis
with the customers. Sprockets is an old organization but it is a small organization, yet
organizational development will be required to ensure that the organization gets back on its
track after suffering from a steep decline in business. Organization development can be
implemented for all kinds of organizations because it refers to the development of various
processes in such a way that ensures that the organization does well in the future.
A New Design and Structure
A new design and a newer organizational structure will be a welcome change that will
be helping the organization work in a way that is lot more inclusive of all the people within

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the organization and will be taking their feedback as well. Instead of a being a structure
where all the power is vested within the family, this structure will be ensuring that the head or
the topmost manager of the company will be conducting regular meetings with the other
people who will be managing their line of the business. A little amount of flexibility needs to
be allowed to these people to take decisions because they will be understanding their work
better than the topmost management. This business requires a lot of technical knowledge and
the front line staff and the mechanics will be more aware of the processes that can be
undertaken to modernize the business. If they can communicate the newer requirements of
the customers they have and if they can help the company devise plans that will help attract
new customers, their ideas should be very welcome (Bucchanan, Claydon & Doyle 1999). A
business cannot be run solely by the owners, the other people involved in it should play a
considerable part as well. This structure should also contain the HR as he or she shall be
responsible for ensuring that the communication flows freely within the organization.
Organizational Development methods
The first method that is required for the Organizational Development of the business
is the method of team building. Each team will be responsible for various kinds of work each
team will have a supervisor who be responsible for reporting to the topmost management.
Working in a team will help the employees work to the best of their abilities and they will
also be motivated better to work together. Forming groups in this case will be helping
organizational effectiveness.
It is evident that various teams like a team of mechanics and front line operators are
already present within the organization. They are allowed a supervisor to get rid of the
problem of them not being involved in organizational decisions are the supervisor will be
helping their messages and problems reach the topmost management (Todenem 2005). Group

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discussions will also help them solve problems amongst themselves an in case a problem
arises that cannot be solved within themselves, the problem will be escalated to higher
authorities smoothly who can then look into the problem.
This kind of team building will also be helping during sensitivity training that will be
helping the members of the tem be sensitive to the needs and wants of the other team
members as well. Awareness of group functioning will also be spread in similar way.
Then the managerial grid has to be managed to ensure that it is both product oriented
and people oriented. Firstly if it is people oriented and the employees are given the
importance they deserve, they will be able to be function better that will in turn help the
management understand the service the business provides in a better way (Waddle,
Cummings & Worley2004). In this way the company will be product oriented in a better way
as well. The companies that can carry both out hand in hand tend to have a better standing in
the market because the employees are the hearts of the organizations and they tend to have a
better understanding of the products and the services the company provides and the changes
that may be required to help each of them sell better. This can be done by a six phase
management training program. This will be consisting of Seminar training that will be
helping them, understand their own managerial styles. This is to be followed by helping them
facilitate team building and development. After that the manager can be helped with
intergroup development. Then the manger should be able to gain an idea about the ideal and
model organization. This is to be followed by the accomplishment of goals. The final steps
deal with the execution of programs.
Management by Objectives is an important process that can be followed to bring
about Organizational Development. The goals that should be set for the organization should
be goals that are decided upon by both the management and the employees (Smith 2006). The

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join objectives will make the parties have a say in the objectives and the processes that should
be followed in order to achieve it. This will be increasing meaningful communication in
between both the parties and each party will be participating in the decision making process
unlike before. This improvement because of the linking of the two kinds of parties will be
affecting overall organizational effectiveness.
The Role of the HR in Organizational Development
The Human Resources department plays an important role during any kind of change.
It is seen that in this company the role of the HR is mostly stagnant and this can be put to
good use. It is being discussed that the organizational development of this business will be
bringing in major changes to the method of communication within the organization and
making the organization more open to internal communication (Zaug & Thomm 2002). The
HR department can ensure that this kind of communication is happening effectively and can
be working on any kind of problem this process hits. Then HR can be asked for his ideas
during the strategic planning of every year, especially during the strategic plan that will be
adopted to push the business back into the market and help it regain the former status. The
work in this organization is highly labor intensive as well and thus the HR will be
instrumental in helping ensure that the people within this organization are happy with the
work and are being effectively able to carry out the tasks that are allocated to them. HR can
pay attention to the areas that may require a reduction in the concentration of labor and in
areas that might require an increase in labor (Tyson 1999). The making of the role of the
supervisors that will be heading each kind of team can be trained by the HR and briefed about
the kind of work they are supposed to do. The HR will check if the person being recruited as
the supervisor has an idea about the work and can be keeping an eye on the work correctly.
The HR will also ensure that all levels of employees are carrying out their tasks efficiently
and if they are having a problem with anything, the HR should be approachable. The HR is

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also responsible for ensuring that everyone in the organization is aware if all internal and
external rules and the repercussions that might follow if they are not compliant in nature.
Conclusion
In conclusion it is evident that the business, Sprockets Cycles in Dalkeith, Scotland,
will be benefitted by an organizational development consultant because I will be enabling this
year’s old business to do better than it used to by carefully taking into consideration the
feedback of the employees and by integrating them into the everyday work of the company. If
the company gets rid of the orthodox hierarchy it follows and opens itself to suggestions and
a kind of framework that allows free flowing communication within all the departments, it is
ensured that the company will doing well. The company just needs to ensure that the free
flow of the communication does not stop and that the employees feel like they have a voice,
by carefully keeping into consideration the suggested changes, the company will be doing
better than before and effectively imbibing a better organizational culture that will be
profitable as well.

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References
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Proctor, T. and Doukakis, I., 2003. Change management: the role of internal communication
and employee development. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 8(4),
pp.268-277.
Smith, I., 2006. Continuing professional development and workplace learning–15: Achieving
successful organisational change–do's and don'ts of change management. Library
Management, 27(4/5), pp.300-306.
Todnem By, R., 2005. Organisational change management: A critical review. Journal of
change management, 5(4), pp.369-380.
Tyson, S., 1999. How HR knowledge contributes to organisational performance. Human
Resource Management Journal, 9(3), p.42.
Waddell, D., Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2004. Organisation development & change.
Thomson.
Zaugg, R. and Thom, N., 2002. Excellence through implicit competencies: Human resource
management–organisational development–knowledge creation. Journal of Change
Management, 3(3), pp.199-211.
Zuber-Skerritt, O., 2003. Emancipatory action research for organisational change and
management development. In New directions in action research (pp. 78-97). Routledge.