OD Applications:: Application of OD in Business Enterprises

OD Applications:
In the current context of global business, every organization strives to maintain its competitiveness
around four levels of competitiveness i.e. Cost, Quality, Service and Speed. Organizations,
irrespective of being profit oriented or non-profit oriented – Cost, Quality, Service and Speed
continues to be the standard parameters to determine efficiency and effectiveness. From time to time,
organizations re-orient themselves to achieve higher degrees of adherence to these four parameters.
Re-orientation is better understood in the context of change and broadly organizations are exposed to
two levels of change – the one that the organization itself volunteers to undertake and the other that
the organization gets subjective to due to changes in its operating external environment.
OD merits its application whenever an organization embarks upon a process of “Planned Change”
(see Models of Change). Planned Change could be to achieve operational efficiencies as well as
strategic objectives i.e. Changes at the activities level of the manufacturing process, changes at the
ground level for distribution process, centralizing or de-centralizing a process. As also to achieve a
strategic objectives of alignment of the Legacy System to a new system during Mergers and
Acquisition, towards Total Human Resource Alignment essential for any significant enterprise level
endeavor that the enterprise embarks upon – either strategic or operational.
Thus, the applications of OD can only be illustrated and not exhausted. In a way every organization
irrespective of its nature and purpose could have a scope for application of OD.
Application of OD in Business Enterprises
Scope for OD exists in Startups as well as matured organizations.
 For Startups – OD merits its application to generate a sense of achievement, belongingness,

commitment, a never-give-up-attitude and to generate a competence of working with optimal
resources. In other words total alignment of the purpose of the Startup and the motives of the
people working in it in the collective mindscape.
 For Matured organizations – As organizations continue to exist successfully, over a period of

time it is often seen that a sense of comfort, well being, secured and that of ‘been there, done
that’ tends to creep into. This often leads to a state of complacency, eroding the overall sense of
urgency in the organization, often directly impacting efficiency. In such states, often leaders
chase resolutions through technical or business processes and tend to lose the game. The
Leaders or Boards which after recognizing these symptoms adopt an OD approach involving the
complete action research method of Identifying the Problem, discussing with an OD Expert,
doing a diagnosis, collecting data, Sharing Feedback, discussing the feedback with the OD
Expert, choosing the action to be taken, followed by review and feedback – often leads the
organization through a successful process of change revamping and re-vitalizing the
organization.
Application of OD in Non-Business, Non-Profit Social Enterprises

It is not business organizations only which are exposed to external environmental changes as well as
need for change internally. Non-profit Social Enterprises like Hospitals, Self-help Groups, Non
Government Organizations, Charitable Trusts and Institutions are also exposed to external changes in
the environment they operate and often feel the need to change their internal ways of working. OD
Interventions in the field of Education, Health Institution and Rural Governance was the focus area
of Dr. Uday Parikh in India about 40 years ago. The Instruments for measuring Hospital
Effectiveness and Community perception of Health Care System developed by Dr. Uday Parikh, A.
Thimmappaya, S.N. Chattopadhyay and K.G. Agarwal is a pioneering work in the application of OD
in the Health sector.
Application of OD in Defense
US Air Force Systems Command, Brooks Air Force Base, Texas 782-35-6501, Special Projects
Office in its unclassified document no. ONB0704-0188 in April 1989 reports that the values,
methodology and effectiveness of Organization Development were especially applied in the
Department of Defense. The office reports that an early application of OD in DOD was at the Air
Force Materials laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The idea originated in Aug 1971, when
the entire AFML Management Team, including the Director, Deputy Director, Chief Scientist,
Division Chiefs, and Staff Office Chiefs, participated in a 1 week OD Seminar at the Federal
Executive Institute (FEI), Charlottesville, Virginia. The AFML Management Team wanted to make
more effective use of its manpower, and they came away from the seminar convinced that OD would
be a good tool for achieving this result. The effort was strongly supported by Laboratory Director,
who had been introduced to OD in 1969 at the FEI’s in-residence Executive Education Course, and
was also strongly supported by another high-ranking member of AFML who studied OD while on
Sloan Fellowship at Stanford University. Thus, the program had high-level support – a key ingredient
for OD success.
The OD program began with the selection of two outside consultants from among several who visited
the laboratory. Next, all Division Chiefs and Staff Heads and the Laboratory Director met together at
the FEI for 1 week, during which a team development session was held. This session was the first
step in formal training of what was called the Laboratory “Executive Group”. Subsequently, other
teams received similar training, but not at FEI. Division Chiefs met with Branch Chiefs and in some
cases, Branch Chiefs met with Branch Members.
The short-range goal of the OD program was to establish an effective top-level management team.
The long-term goal on behalf of the organization were: (a) to reduce or eliminate dysfunctional
competition, (b) to improve communication, (c) to increase the use of goals and objectives, (d) to
establish uniform decision making with maximum decentralization, and (e) to enhance the career
development of AFML personnel.
Application of OD in Mergers & Acquisition
In case of Mergers and Acquisition, beyond the due-diligence of the safety, security of the business
processes, interests and stakes, the biggest difference and the widest deviation that the new entity
experiences is the ‘on-ground’ differences in ways of working. When Processes change, People also
need to change the way they manage and work on the processes.
OD has a scope of application of M&A, in terms of aligning the mindscape of the people from the
Legacy System to the New System. Typical problems that exist in the Mergers & Acquisition is the
organizational change process characterized by anxiety, crises of identity acculturation, role conflict,
job security and perceptions of fairness and equity amongst people who run the process. When
Leaders and Boards take awareness and understanding of the human side of M&A and adopt an OD
approach, it helps the new entity systematically introduce interventions that works on behavior and
psychology of people so as to make them ready to accept and align to the new and emerging ways of
working.
Application of OD in Leadership Development
OD in an organization can be seen as a 3-tier system – Individual Level, Interpersonal Level and
Organizational Level. Often, to increase the effectiveness of the larger organization the focus is laid
on the individuals and on increasing their effectiveness as Leaders. Organizations often embark upon
a planned change initiative at the Individual Level to develop a set of new leaders, thereby targeting
changes at the organization level. This being a planned change, is an area of application of Values,
Principles and Methodologies of OD. When OD is applied to Leadership Development, a scientific
logic is raised and reasoning emerges on the kind of leadership to be developed – transactional or
transformational.
The OD approach to Leadership Development helps the organization to avoid a one-size-for-all
recommendation to specific recommendation of interventions and methodology for different levels of
leadership to be developed. Not all leaders at all levels are to be developed to become
Transformational Leaders. Organization needs leaders who are required to perform transactional
functions too. An OD approach makes the development process scientific and empirical,
distinguishing it from a Qualitative Organization wide mandate that may not show sharply visible
results over a period of time.

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OD Applications:

 For Startups – OD merits its application to generate a sense of achievement, belongingness,

 For Matured organizations – As organizations continue to exist successfully, over a period of

Application of OD in Non-Business, Non-Profit Social Enterprises

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