Organizational Development Scenario
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1. You are an OD practitioner that has been called on to help in the merging of two financial organizations (both international organizations). One organization is primarily in the property and casualty business but has also recently purchased an HMO organization focused on healthcare and insurance. The other organization is a large provider of life insurance, pension insurance and other financial investment businesses. The first company mentioned has an entrepreneurial culture. The second company is very process driven and approaches work in a very team-based manner. Your job is to assist leadership in facilitating an effective merger so that the overall organization can quickly return to profitability and be perceived by shareholders as an effective combination of talent and business units. How would you diagnose what is needed? What suggestions might you make to have competing cultures merge into one that works together effectively? What types of information might you collect and what tools might you use to effectively diagnose what is needed? What type of suggestions would you suggest to the new leadership to effectively manage change? What type of human resource or process interventions might be required to handle resistance to change?
2. You have been asked by leadership to use your OD expertise in creating an employee involvement culture globally for a company that has traditionally been a very hierarchical, top-down based organization that has only minimally used employee suggestions. What type of interventions might you suggest and why? What would you suggest to management for strategies, tools or techniques to measure the success of this endeavor?
3. You have been assigned as a coach to support a project leader of a new Lean Six Sigma team. The leader has been given some challenging goals which include a 33% increase in patient satisfaction and a similar decrease in operating expenses associated with patient care. What techniques would you suggest the leader use at the start, middle, and end of this six month project to ensure effective results and an ongoing team consisting of members that are on this team on a part time basis.
4. As you approach 2013, you are given some key goals that your Organization Development unit will be assigned to support. One of the goals is to help the organization to return to productivity following a recent downsizing just completed in the later part of 2012. The other goal is to develop a strong talent management program globally to develop and retain talent that you have been losing to competitors. Discuss the strategies that you might use in addressing both goals. What would you develop, implement and measure to ensure successful accomplishment of these goals? How might you use other personnel (ex: leaders) in accomplishing these goals.
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1. In facilitating an effective merger, there are several things that need to happen prior to the merger officially take place. A strategy must be mapped out which includes a communication flow and how the cultures (of the two organizations) will be merged. Next, a SWOT analysis of each organization should be conducted to determine how to merge the strengths and weaknesses of the organizations. The following is the flow of the suggested steps; these steps embrace an analysis review:
• Management - review non-financial issues; will people in the two companies be able to work together? What are the benefits of merging the two companies? What is the purpose of the merger? Management must be upfront with all employees; laying everything out, not leaving anything for undue speculation.
• Top leadership - there can only be one CEO or President; power issues must be addressed along with conflict resolution.
• Address - personal issues of the employees; combine the company strategies; constant communication; there has to be the integration of cultures, including processes and technologies.
As an OD practitioner, I will help management agree on a clear and specific set of goals, focusing on measurable results. Focusing on results will bring any misunderstandings of processes and procedures to the open and initiate conflict resolution. Also included is what's called scenario planning; researching the "what ifs" by exploring the concerns of the members.
As an OD practitioner, I will also assume the position of process consultant, helping management explore other options that may not necessarily include a merger. Guide management to bring out any hidden assumptions that they may have about each other, expressing them in clearly, directly, and precisely thereby providing an accurate flow of information. Furthermore, part of the process is setting up reward systems, setting up milestones and celebrating all of the achievements, regardless of how small and insignificant they may seem. The reward system will also involve sharing visions and values. A thorough cultural assessment will take place to integrate separate organizational cultures into one. The process of cultural change will comprise each organization sharing their individual visions to determine which ones should be adopted for a new organization.
In addition, as an OD practitioner, my duty will be a coach, working with each level of the organization to build trust and encourage conflict resolution. Working with process teams will be very important, so as to explore best practices in each organization and revising them to fit into the newly merged one. Lastly, integrating the initiatives of each organization, for example, projects, services, customer features, and the likes; and determining which will be implemented and which will be eliminated.
Above all, I watch key processes; "keep an eye on all important systems and processes...human issues as well as financial, and using the most appropriate organizational development tools" (Zatz, 2012).
The human resources (HR) role in handling resistance is that "HR can act as a facilitator, and can also act as a coach to individual executives [and as such] may be able to mold ...
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