topic 9 change interventions ii

8/10/2019 Topic 9 Change Interventions II

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INTRODUCTION

The previous topic describes several change interventions addressing humanresource issues at the individual level. Human resource issues deal with how toset goals to increase job performance, how to solve personal problems, how totrain and develop individual employees for career growth, how to achieve betterwork-life balance and how to enhance their well-being. This topic describeschange interventions dealing with interpersonal process, technological andstructural and strategic issues at the group and organisational levels.

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

1. Identify interpersonal process, technostructural and strategicinterventions;

2. Explain the various change interventions at the group andorganisational levels;

3. Explain the various change interventions dealing with technologicaland structural issues; and

4. Explain the various change interventions dealing with strategicissues.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

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TOPIC 9 CHANGE INTERVENTIONS II112

INTERPERSONAL PROCESSINTERVENTIONS

Interpersonal process issues concern how to communicate, solve problems orresolve conflicts between groups, how to make decisions in teams, how tointeract with others by improving interpersonal skills and how to lead groups ofemployees. The interpersonal process interventions described in this sectioninclude T-groups, process consultation, third-party intervention, team buildingand intergroup relations. These interpersonal interventions were discussed byCummings and his colleagues (Cummings & Worley, 2005; Waddell, Cummings,& Worley, 2004).

(a) T-groupsT-groupor sensitivity training, is designed to help individuals gain a betterunderstanding of themselves and of others. T-group techniques helpindividuals improve personal functioning by understanding how their

behaviour affects others. They also help individuals develop more effectiveways of relating to other people by exploring member interactions andrelationships within a work group. A T-group typically consists of 10 to 15people who meet with a professional trainer to learn about groupdynamics, leadership and interpersonal relations.

As stated by Waddell, Cummings, and Worley (2004), the overall objectives

common to most T-groups are to:

(i) Increase awareness of ones own behaviour and understand theimpact of ones behaviour on others;

(ii) Gain an understanding and sensitivity about the behaviour of others;

(iii) Better understand group dynamics and intergroup processes;

(iv) Increase diagnostic skills in interpersonal and intergroup situations;

(v) Increase the ability to transform learning into action; and(vi) Improve an individuals ability to analyse his or her own interpersonal

behaviour.

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TOPIC 9 CHANGE INTERVENTIONS II 113

(b) Process Consultation

Process consultants help organisation members assess and improve humanprocesses such as communication, decision making, problem solving andtask performance. Effective consultants are good helpers, assisting others ingetting things done, in solving problems and in achieving the goals theyhave set. Hence, process consultation is both a philosophy and a techniqueaimed at performing this helping relationship. This philosophy makes itclear that those who are receiving the help own their problems and thatthey will learn how to analyse and resolve the problems. In brief, processconsultation is an approach to helping people help themselves. It does notoffer expert help in the form of solutions to problems.

Process consultation deals primarily with these five important groupprocesses:

(i) Communications;

(ii) The functional roles of group members;

(iii) The ways in which the group solves problems and makes decisions;

(iv) The development and growth of group norms; and

(v) The use of leadership and authority.

When is process consultation appropriate? It is most applicable when:

(i) The client has a problem but does not know the source of the problemor how to resolve it.

(ii) The client is uncertain about what kind of help or consultation isavailable.

(iii) The nature of the problem is such that the client would benefit frominvolvement in its diagnosis.

(iv) The consultant can accept the goals set by the client and has somecapacity to enter into a helping relationship.

Process consultation the creation of a helping relationship that helpsthe client to perceive, understand, and act upon the process events thatoccur in the clients environment with the aim to improve the situationas defined by the client (Cummings and Worely, 2005, p. 220).


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(v) The client is capable of learning how to assess and resolve his ownproblem.

(vi) The client ultimately knows what change interventions or options aremost applicable.

(c) Third-party Intervention

Third-party interventions focus on conflicts arising between twoindividuals or two groups of people. Conflict between individuals orgroups can arise from a variety of sources differences in perceptions andpersonalities, conflicting task orientations and goals and competition forscarce resources. Third-party interventions are used primarily in situationsin which conflict significantly disrupts task completion and workrelationships among employees.

The ability of the third-party consultants to facilitate conflict resolution isthe key. When conflict arises between individuals or groups, third-partyconsultants must help the parties involved interact with each other directlyand facilitate the diagnosis of the conflict and its resolution. Third-partyconsultants must be sensitive to the situation and be able to determine themost appropriate strategy to resolve the conflict. Finally, the third-partyconsultant must be seen by the parties involved as neutral and unbiasedregarding the issues and outcomes of the conflict resolution. (Cummings &Worley, 2005; Waddell, Cummings, & Worley, 2004).

Conflict resolution strategies used by the third-party consultant mayinclude compromising and collaborating.

(i) CompromisingCompromising involves each partys willingness to give upsomething in order to resolve the conflict. This is the distinguishingfeature of the compromising strategy. When each party seeks to giveup something, sharing occurs, resulting in a compromised outcome.There is a willingness to accept a solution that is satisfactory to both

parties involved. No clear winner or loser results from this strategy.

(ii) CollaboratingCollaborating involves cooperation and the search for a mutually

beneficial outcome. The aim of this conflict resolution is to satisfy notonly a partys own goals but also the goals of the other party.Information sharing is an important characteristic of this strategy

because all parties collaborate to identify the common ground and the


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potential solutions that satisfy all of them. This will result in a win-win situation where the goals of all parties are completely achieved.

(d) Team BuildingA team is a group of people working interdependently with a commongoal. They hold each other accountable for their own team performance.Team buildingis any formal activity intended to improve the developmentand functioning of a work team. McShane and Von Glinow (2009) describedthe four main types of team building activities goal setting, role definition,interpersonal processes and problem solving.

(i) Goal SettingThis type of team building activity involves setting team performancegoals, maintaining the teams motivation to accomplish these goalsand establishing a feedback system on the achievement of the teamsgoal.

(ii) Role DefinitionA role is an organised set of behaviour assigned to a particularposition. Role definition involves the understanding of the teamsroles, examining members perceptions of their own roles, as well asclarifying the role expectations they have of other team members.Various interventions to define and clarify roles may be applied,ranging from open dialogue to structured analysis of the team work

process. Role definition clarifies team norms and standards, whichdictate how team members should behave and how they should worktogether and function as a whole.

(iii) Interpersonal ProcessesThis category of team building covers a broad range of activities toenhance interrelationships among the team members. Opencommunication, building trust and conflict management fit under thiscategory. Open communication and building trust enhance interactionand build relationships among the team members, while conflict

management aims to reduce or remove conflict to minimise itsdysfunctional consequences on the team performance.

(iv) Problem SolvingThis type of team building activity aims to enhance problem-solvingand decision-making skills of the team members. Problem-solvinginterventions include activities to improve members analytical andreasoning skills. The aim is to increase their abilities to define theproblem, develop alternatives, analyse and evaluate alternatives andselect the best solution.


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(e) Intergroup RelationsThe ability to diagnose and undertand intergroup relationsis important forthe organisation for at least three reasons:

(i) Different groups in the organisation must often work together toaccomplish organisational goals.

(ii) Groups within the organisation often create problems and demandson each other.

(iii) The quality of the relationships between groups can affectorganisational effectiveness and efficiency.

Two common intergroup relations interventions are microcosm groups and

intergroup conflict resolution. These two interventions help improveintergroup processes and enhance organisational performance.

(i) Microcosm GroupsA microcosm group consists of a small number of individuals toaddress a specific issue (Cummings & Worley, 2005; Waddell,Cummings, & Worley, 2004). For example:

A group made up of organisation members from different ethnicbackgrounds, races and cultures created to address workforcediversity issues in the organisation.

If the issue to be addressed is organisational communication, thenthe group should consist of people from all hierarchical levels andfunctions.

A cross-functional group made up of members from variousfunctions may be created to address coordination problemsamong the functional departments within the organisation.

Microcosm group interventions are simple, flexible and versatile.They can be formed and dissolved easily for a variety of purposes.

Microcosm groups have been used to diagnose many organisationalissue such as solving communication and coordination problems,integrating two cultures during mergers and acquisitions, smoothingthe transition in a restructuring exercise and addressing dysfunctionalpolitical processes.

(ii) Intergroup Conflict ResolutionThe intergroup conflict intervention is designed to resolve problemsand dysfunctional conflicts between two groups within an organisation.Conflicts between groups or departments may arise due to different


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task orientations, conflicting goals and competing for limited budgetsand resources.

Approaches to resolving intergroup conflict form a continuum frombehavioural methods to attitudinal change methods (Cummings &Worley, 2005; Waddell, Cummings, & Worley, 2004).

Behavioural Methods

Behavioural methods are oriented to keeping the relevant groupsphysically apart and specifying the conditions under whichinteraction between groups will occur. Little attempt is made tounderstand or change how members of each group see the other.Behavioural interventions seem most applicable in situations inwhich task interdependence between the conflicting groups is

relatively low and predictable. For example, the task interactionbetween the production and maintenance departments might belimited to scheduled periodic maintenance on machinery. Here,the upper management can physically separate the departmentsand specify the limited conditions under which they shouldinteract.

Attitudinal Change Methods

Attitudinal change methods assume that perceptual distortionsand stereotyping underlie the conflict and need to be changed to

resolve it. These methods seem most appropriate when taskinterdependence between the conflicting groups is high andunpredictable. For example, the task interaction between the salesand marketing groups is high. The two groups need to workclosely together to deal with unpredictable demands for productsand services. When conflicts arise due to misperceptions, theconflicts must be resolved by changing the groups respectiveattitudes or how members of each group perceive each other.

1. Name two interpersonal process interventions and briefly describethem.

2. What is team building? Describe some common types of teambuilding activities.

SELF-CHECK 9.1


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TECHNOSTRUCTURAL INTERVENTIONS

This section describes the three technostructural interventions listed in Table 8.2of Topic 8. They are work design, downsizing and reengineering. Theseinterventions focus on an organisations structure (such as division of labour andhierarchy) and technology (such as work processes and job design). These changemethods intend to increase organisational competitiveness and performance. It isexpected that appropriate work designs and organisational structures will resultin organisational effectiveness (George & Jones, 2005).

(a) Work Design

This section examines two approaches to work design the motivationalapproach and the sociotechnical systems approach.

(i) The Motivational ApproachThe motivational approach rests on motivational theories and

attempts to enrich employees work experience. Work experience canbe enriched by giving employees more responsibilities and autonomyover their work and by providing opportunities for advancement andgrowth. Job enrichment involves designing jobs with high levels ofmeaning, responsibility and feedback. The Job Characteristics Modelproposed by Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham in the 1970s is oneof the most popular approaches to job design for job enrichment(George & Jones, 2005; Robbins, 2003). According to the jobcharacteristics model, any job which involves five core dimensionswould be intrinsically motivated to the employees. The five core job

dimensions are:

Skill VarietyThe extent to which a job requires an employee to use a number ofdifferent skills and abilities.

Task IdentityThe extent to which a job requires the employee to perform awhole piece of work from the beginning to the end of the workprocess.

Work designconcerns with creating jobs and work groups that generatepositive employee outcomes in employee motivation, satisfaction andproductivity.

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Task SignificanceThe extent to which a job has an impact on the safety, lives, andwork of other people. It is about the importance of the job in terms

of its impact on others.

AutonomyThe degree to which a job allows employees the freedom andindependence to carry out their work. The employees have controlover how their job should be done.

FeedbackThe extent to which the employees know about the results of theirwork. The employees obtain clear information about their

effectiveness in performing the job.

Hackman and Oldham argued that these five core dimensionsdetermine how employees react to the design of their jobs.Employees reaction to their jobs are reflected in three psychologicalstates, as follows:

Experienced Meaningfulness of the WorkThe extent to which employees feel their jobs are significant,meaningful and worthwhile. Employees experience meaningfulness

of their work when they perceive that their jobs are high in skillvariety, task identity and task significance.

Experienced Responsibility for Work OutcomesThe degree to which employees feel personally responsible fortheir job performance. Employees feel responsible for their workoutcomes when they perceive autonomy in doing their jobs.

Knowledge of ResultsThe extent to which employees know how well they perform on

the jobs when feedback regarding their performance is provided.

Hackman and Oldham further argued that these three psychologicalstates would result in positive personal and work outcomes such ashigh motivation, high job satisfaction, high job performance, lowabsenteeism, and low employee turnover. Figure 9.1 summarises therelationships among the five core dimensions, the three criticalpsychological states, and the key outcomes for the organisation.


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Figure 9.1: The job characteristics modelSource: George & Jones (2005)

Table 9.1 presents various ways to redesign jobs to enrich employees jobexperience based on the Job Characteristics Model.

Table 9.1:Ways to Redesign Jobs to Increase Job Enrichment

Change MadeCore Job Dimensions

Increased

Example

Combine tasks so that anemployee is responsible fordoing a piece of work from

start to finish.

Skill variety

Task identity

Task significance

A production worker isresponsible for assemblinga whole bicycle, not just

attaching handlebars.

Group tasks into naturalwork units so thatemployees are responsiblefor performing an entire setof important organisationalactivities rather than justpart of them.

Task identity

Task significance

A computer programmerhandles all programmingrequests from one divisioninstead of one type ofrequest from severaldifferent divisions.


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The most common application of sociotechnical systems approach isself-managed work teams. Self-managed work teams consist ofmembers performing interrelated tasks with a high degree of

autonomy. They are also referred to as autonomous, self-directed,self-regulating, or high-performance work teams. Self-managed workteams have the following characteristics:

Team members have the ability to lead and manage themselves.

They determine how the team will perform its tasks.

They plan, schedule and organise their task assignments and workmethods.

They collectively have control over their pace of work. They may influence the selection and inclusion of new team

members.

They may also work with suppliers and customers directly.

Self-managed teams typically are responsible for a completeproduct or service, or a major part of a larger production process.

The team may set its own production goals within the broaderorganisational constraints.

Frequently they are paid on the basis of knowledge and skillsrather than seniority.

Pay is based on team rather than individual performance.

(b) Downsizing

Downsizing reduces costs and bureaucracy by decreasing the number ofemployees, reducing the layers of management, eliminating functions andproducts and merging units or divisions. Reducing the size of theorganisation is typically accomplished by headcount reduction andorganisation redesign. Headcount reduction can be done through layoffs,redeployment, early retirement, or attrition as a result of voluntaryresignation and death. Organisation redesign focuses on reducing the

Downsizing refers to interventions aimed at reducing the size of theorganisation (Cummings & Worley, 1005, p. 287).


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number of departmental units or managerial levels. This can be donethrough restructuring, reorganisation, delayering, divestiture (sellingoff)and outsourcing.

In practice, downsizing generally involves laying off redundant employees.at the lower-level. However, it has now increasingly claimed the jobs ofemployees at the upper level such as staff specialists, middle-levelmanagers, and senior executives.

(c) Reengineering

The final restructuring intervention discussed here is reengineering.Reengineering streamlines work processes and transform how organisationstraditionally produce and deliver their goods and services. This interventionradically redesigns organisations core business processes to create tighterlinkage and coordination among different work activities. This streamlineswork processes and makes them faster and more responsive to changes incustomer demands and competitive environments. It also helps improve the

critical measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed.

Change resulting from reengineering requires an almost revolutionarychange (change that is rapid, dramatic and broadly focused) in howorganisations design their work, business processes and structures. Itresults in radical changes in the way organisation members think and do.Organisations involving in reengineering ignore the routines or the old wayof doing things. Instead, they require managers to dramatically redefine the

business processes in the organisation. They are required to analyse eachstep in the business process to identify opportunities for improvement and

change. A business process is any activity that is vital to the speed deliveryof products and services to the customers; or a process that promotes highquality in products and services or cost efficiency. Examples of businessprocess are order processing, product distribution, inventory control andproduct design and development.

Reengineering the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign ofbusiness processes to achieve dramatic improvements in performance

(Cummings & Worley, 2005, p.295).


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Management starts the reengineering intervention with the customers inmind. They ask such questions as How can we reorganise the way we doour work to serve our customers better? and How do we improve our

business processes to provide the best quality and lowest cost products toour customers? Very often, when organisations ponder these questions,they discover better ways to organise their work activities.

Cummings and Worley (2005) described the following steps included inmost reengineering efforts:

(i) Prepare the OrganisationReengineering begins with the assessment of the organisationscontext its internal and external environments. The assessment of the

organisations current situation and its competitive environmentestablishes the need for reengineering efforts. The dynamic andcomplex environment that the organisation is facing can signal a needfor radical change in how the organisation competes.

(ii) Specify Organisation Stratey and ObjectivesThe business strategy and objectives determine what businessprocesses are critical for strategic success. They guide decisions aboutthe focus of reengineering efforts. In the absence of such information,the organisation may focus on processes that are less important orthose that can be outsourced.

(iii) Fundamentally Rethink the Way Work Gets DoneThis step lies at the heart of reengineering and involves the followingthree main tasks:

Identify and Analyse Core Business Processes

Core processes are critical for strategic success. They include anyactivities that contribute to the success of the organisation. Core

business processes can be assessed in terms of customer-focusedactivites, costs, and value-added activities.

Define Performance Objectives

Performance goals are set in this step. The highest possible level ofperformance for any core business process should be determined.The performance goals can be measured in terms of speed,quality, cost, flexibility, responsiveness, or other measures ofperformance.


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Design New Processes

The last task in this step is to redesign current business processesto achieve radical changes and breakthrough goals. Redesign of

processes may be done according to the following guidelines:

Begin and end the process with the customer as the focus.

Streamlining the process by eliminating or combining steps.

Attend to both the technical and social aspects of the process tomaximise both product and human satisfaction.

Do not be constrained by past practices or the old way ofdoing things.

Identify the critical information required at each step of theprocess.

Ensure that work gets done right the first time.

Listen to people who do the work as they know best.

(iv) Restructure the Organisation Around the New Business ProcessesThis last step in reengineering involves changing the organisationsstructure to support the new designed business processes.

Restructuring the organisation may involve the following changes:

Functional departments to process teams.

Simple tasks to multidimensional work.

Controlling of employees to empowerment.

Activity-based performance measures and compensation to result-based.

Hierarchical structure to flat organisation.

Managers from supervisors to coaches.

Executives from scorekeepers to leaders.


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STRATEGIC INTERVENTIONS

Strategic interventions discussed in this section include culture change,stimulating innovation, total quality management and organisational learningand knowledge management.

(a) Culture ChangeOrganisational culture refers to a system of shared meaning held byorganisation members that distinguishes the organisation from otherorganisations (Robbins, 2003, p. 525). It is the set of values, beliefs, principles,

attitudes, norms and assumptions that are shared by organisation members.It consists of a set of behaviours, perceptions, decisions and commonexpectations that govern the ways in which organisation members think, feel,

behave and interact with each other and with people outside theorganisation.

The topic of organisational culture has become increasingly important toAmerican companies in the past 15 years. Culture change has become acommon form of OD intervention (Cummings & Worley, 2005). A growingnumber of managers have recognised the power of organisational culture in

shaping employee values and actions. A well-managed organisationalculture can contribute to the success of the organisation. In fact, researchhas shown that organisational culture has an impact on firms performance.A culture which is consistent with the business strategy and externalenvironment enhances the firms ability to achieve a high level ofeffectiveness.

9.3

Explain the concept of sociotechnical system.

SELF-CHECK 9.2

List the ways to enrich your current job.

ACTIVITY 9.1


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Culture change involves the diagnosis of existing culture and makenecessary changes in the basic values and beliefs underlying organisational

behaviour. The following describes how a customer-responsive culture can

be developed to illustrate the managerial actions needed to change anorganisation to a desired culture (Robbins, 2003).

A customer-responsive culture requires service-oriented employees withgood listening skills and the willingness to walk the extra mile to please thecustomer. Service employees need to have the autonomy to meet changingcustomer-service requirements. They should be provided with decisiondiscretion to do their jobs as they see fit. Robbins (2003) described severalmanagerial actions that can be taken to create a customer-responsiveculture. These actions are designed to create or change employees with the

competence, ability and willingness to serve customers efficiently.

(i) SelectionThe starting point to build a customer-responsive culture is hiringservice-oriented people with the right attitudes and personalities.Studies show that friendliness, courtesy, helpfulness, patience,attentiveness and listening skills are associated with customer-oriented employees.

(ii) SocialisationNew employees need to understand managements expectations.Even if they possess a customer-friendly attitude, they still need to besocialised into the organisations goals and values. Socialisation is theprocess that adapts new employees to the organisations culture.

(iii) TrainingTraining is given to the existing employees to make them morecustomer-focused. The content of the training programmes will varywidely but should focus on improving customer service, activelistening, showing patience, displaying emotions and customerproblem-solving.

(iv) Sructural DesignOrganisational structures should be more organic to give employeesmore control over their jobs. This can be achieved by low formalisation,i.e., reducing company rules and regulations. Employees are moreresponsive to customers needs when they have some autonomy orcontrol over the service counter.


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(v) EmpowermentService employees should be empowered with autonomy to make day-to-day decisions about job-related activities. Empowerment is an

important element of a customer-focus culture. It allows employees tomake on-the-spot decisions to solve customers problems immediately.

(vi) LeadershipTop management plays an important role in cultivating or changingorganisational culture. Leaders in customer-responsive cultures needto convey a customer-focus vision and show by examples that theyare committed to serving customers well.

(vii) Performance Evaluation

Performance evaluation should be behaviour-based. Behaviour-basedevaluations appraise employees on the basis of how they behave oract towards the customers. It motivates employees to engage in

behaviour that is conducive to improved service quality.

(viii) Reward SystemsIf employees are required to serve customers well, they should berewarded for their good service. Recognition, promotion and payincrement should be contingent on outstanding customer service.

(b) Stimulating InnovationInnovation is a new idea applied to initiating or improving a product,process or service. All innovations involve change, which can range fromsmall incremental changes to radical breakthroughs. Organisationalinnovation includes product development and modification, new productiontechnologies, new organisational structures, new or revised administrativesystems, new plans or programmes for organisation members.

How can an organisation become more innovative? Innovative organisationswere found to exhibit certain characteristics. Change agents should considerintroducing these characteristics into the organisation if they want to developan innovative climate. Innovation can be stimulated or encouraged by thefollowing: (Cummings & Worley, 2005; Paton & McCalman, 2008; Waddell,Cummings, & Worley, 2004).

(i) Organic StructuresThese are flexible, adaptive structures that make the adoption ofinnovations easier and faster.


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(ii) Interunit CommunicationInnovative organisations are high users of committees, task forces,cross-functional teams and other mechanisms that facilitate

interaction across departmental units.

(iii) Organisational CultureA culture that encourages risk taking, experimentation and creativity;and that rewards both successes and failures. It also practisesparticipative management where employee involvement andsuggestions are highly encouraged.

(iv) Training and DevelopmentInnovative organisations promote training and development to keep

organisation members current with updated knowledge and skillsand to facilitate idea generation.

(v) Idea Champions

Individuals who actively promote the idea, build support, overcomeresistance and ensure that the innovation is implemented. Usually topmanagers take up the role of idea champions.

(vi) Research and DevelopmentA research and development department provides a platform toconduct systematic research to come up with new products andservices. It is also a formal venue for the implementation ofinnovations.

(c) Total Quality ManagementTotal quality management (TQM) is a management philosophy and set ofpractices developed to improve the quality and production efficiency of anorganisation with the customer in mind. It grew out of a manufacturingemphasis on quality control and represents a long-term effort to orient allemployees and work activities around the concept of quality. The adoptionof TQM signals a radical change in the way they organise their activitiesaround their customers. It generally leads to continuous, incrementalchange; and all functions are expected to work together to improve quality,customer service, lower costs, and reduce wastes.


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According to Cummings and Worley (2005), TQM typically is implementedin five major steps:

(i) Obtain Long-term Senior Management CommitmentCommitment and support from the top management are neededthroughout the change process. Top executives must be willing toallocate substantial resources to TQM implementation, particularly tomake large investments in training.

(ii) Train Members in Quality MethodsTQM implementation requires extensive training and learning in theprinciples and tools of quality improvement. Employees typicallylearn problem-solving skills and simple statistical process control

techniques, usually referred to as the seven tools of quality.

(iii) Start Quality Improvement InterventionsIn this implementation step, quality teams apply quality methods toidentify areas for improvement. They identify variations inproduction processes and output, take actions to minimise deviationsfrom quality standards, monitor improvements, and repeat thiscontinuous improvement cycle indefinitely.

(iv) Measure ProgressThis step involves measuring work processes, products, and servicesagainst quality standards. Evaluation of TQM efforts is important

because they set the standards of quality and cost to ensure theorganisations competitive position.

(v) Reward Quality AccomplishmentsIn this final step of TQM interventions, the organisation links rewardsto improvements in quality. Employees are rewarded for process-oriented improvements such as increased on-time delivery,improved responsiveness to customer complaints, gains in customersperceived satisfaction with product performance, and reduction inproduct development time. The linkage between rewards andprocess-oriented improvements reinforces the concept of continuousimprovement, which is an important part of any TQM efforts.

(d) Organisational Learning and Knowledge ManagementOrganisational learning and knowledge management refers to the capacityof an organisation to learn, change and improve. This intervention aims tohelp the organisation to gain the capability to improve continuously bydeveloping and sharing knowledge. It involves two interrelated change


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processes: (1) organisational learning, which refers to an organisationscapability to acquire and develop new knowledge, and (2) knowledgemanagement, which focuses on how the knowledge can be organised and

used to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Knowledge management is a process of organising and distributing anorganisations collective wisdom so the right information gets to the rightpeople at the right time (Robbins, 2003, p. 575). These two changeprocesses can be a source of strategic renewal for sustained competitiveadvantage in todays highly complex environment.

Organisational learning interventions focus on the learning capabilities ofthe organisation. It is about how organisations can be designed to promote

effective learning processes, and how these learning processes can beimproved continuously. Knowledge management interventions address theoutcomes of the learning processes, that is, how the knowledge obtainedcan be used strategically throughout the organisation (Cummings &Worley, 2005; Waddell, Cummings, & Worley, 2004). Thus, the keyoutcome of organisational learning processes is knowledge or intellectualcapital.

Organisation knowledge includes what employees know about workprocesses, products and services, customers, competitors, and the industryenvironment. Such knowledge may be explicit and documented in the formof manuals, handbooks, research reports, documents, and databases. Or, itmay be tacit and reside in employees skills, memories, and intuitions.Given the increasingly advanced information technologies, knowledgemanagement interventions have focused heavily on explicit, writtenknowledge so it can be readily accessed and applied to organisationalprocesses.

How do managers change an organisation to make it into a learningorganisation? A learning organisationpurposefully takes steps to maximisethe potential for organisational learning to take place. It is an organisationwith the capability to learn, adapt, and change. Cummings and Worley(2005) described several organisation features found to promote effectiveorganisational learning and knowledge management. They are:

(i) StructureLearning organisations should have structures that emphasise onflexibility, few layers, teamwork, strong interunit communication andcoordination, and networking across organisational boundaries. These


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structural features promote information sharing, involvement indecision making, and system thinking.

(ii) Information SystemsLearning organisations rely heavily on information and communicationtechnologies. Information technologies are needed to gather andprocess a large amount of data. The information systems oforganisations provide the infrastructure for organisational learning andknowledge management. These systems facilitate rapid acquisition,processing, distributing, and sharing of rich, complex information andenable organisations to manage knowledge strategically.

(iii) Human Resource HR) Practices

HR practices should reinforce learning and the acquisition andsharing of new skills and knowledge. Performance appraisal, rewardsystems, and training and development should be designed toaccount for knowledge development and long-term performance.

(iv) Organisational CultureLearning organisations have strong cultures that promote openness,employee participation, risk taking and experimentations. Thesecultures nurture creativity and innovation; they provide employeeswith the freedom to try new things and learn from mistakes.

(v) LeadershipOrganisational learning and knowledge management depend heavilyon learning leadership. The leaders of learning organisation build alearning vision and provide the needed support to lead employees inthat direction. They actively play the role of learners and cultivate aculture for learning.

Name two strategic interventions and briefly describe them.

SELF-CHECK 9.3


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The interpersonal process interventions being described in this chapter

include T-groups, process consultation, third-party intervention, teambuilding and intergroup relations.

T-group or sensitivity training helps individuals gain deeper personalunderstanding and develop more effective ways of relating to other people.

Process consultation aims at developing a helping relationship to improvehuman processes such as communication, interpersonal relations, decisionmaking, problem solving and task performance.

Third-party interventions focus on resolving conflicts arising between twoindividuals or two groups of people.

Team building is any formal activity intended to improve the developmentand functioning of a work group.

Intergroup conflict resolution helps two groups work out dysfunctionalrelationships.

Work design concerns with creating jobs and work groups that generate high

levels of employee satisfaction and performance.

Downsizing involves reducing the size of the organisation through employeelayoffs, organisation restructuring and outsourcing.

Reengineering refers to the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign ofbusiness processes to achieve dramatic improvements in performance.

1. Organisational culture is difficult to change. Do you agree ordisagree with this statement? Defend your position.

2. If you were the manager, how would you promote creativity andinnovation in your organisation?

ACTIVITY 9.2


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Culture change involves the diagnosis of existing culture and make necessarychanges in the basic values and beliefs underlying organisational behaviour.

The concept of innovation encompasses product development andmodification, new production technologies, new structures andadministrative systems and new programmes for organisation members.

Total quality management is an ongoing and constant effort of anorganisation to find new ways to improve the quality of its goods andservices.

Organisational learning and knowledge management are two interrelatedinterventions that can act as a source of strategic renewal for sustained

competitive advantage. A learning organisation purposefully takes steps tomaximise its learning capacity. It is an organisation with the capability tolearn, adapt and change.

Culture change

Downsizing

Innovation

Intergroup relations

Job characteristics model

Job enrichment

Knowledge management

Learning organisation

Organisational learning

Process consultation

Reengineering

Self-managed work teams

Sensitivity training

Team building

T-groups

Third-party interventions

Total quality management

Work design


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Cummings, T. G., and Worley, C. G. (2005). Organization development andchange(8th ed.). South-Western.

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topic 9 change interventions ii

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