An organizational development plan can simply be defined as a guiding strategy for efforts that have been purposively planned to increase the relevance and most importantly viability of an organization. In the twenty first century where the dynamics in which organizations operate are always changing, organizations cannot afford to remain static lest they lose their relevance. Organizations must therefore continually change to keep up with the changing times but such change cannot be unplanned. Unplanned and haphazard changes are likely to have an adverse effect on the organization. Consequently, this creates the premise on which an organizational development plan is based. An organizational development plan exists for the principal purpose of ensuring that the process of development of the organization is firmly on course and acts as a reference point at each stage of the development process.
Organizational development is a complex exercise as it involves dealing with people and taking their concerns into account while making changes in the organization. It therefore becomes crucial to secure the acceptance and support of the organization’s members if the changes that are envisaged in the organization’s development plan are to be successful. This calls for sound and proper leadership to guide the organizational development process. Thus, organizational development is an intricate affair as it involves multiple stakeholders who must each effectively play their role if the organization is to achieve its development goals. In this article, I will be seeking to present an organizational development plan that I will use in the workplace of HKSTV, a media group to encourage change and innovation.
A background research of the media group revealed that previously any changes introduced in the organization were strongly opposed by the employees even when they were intended for their own benefit. Indeed, on the two occasions that the group restructured, it had to bulldoze its employees to proceed with the restructuring process with the end result being that a great number of employees were dissatisfied and ceased being enthusiastic about their jobs. This lack of enthusiasm for their work perhaps explains the low levels of innovation in the media group which have led to it losing out on its competitors. These are among the pitfalls that the organizational development plan that I will develop will seek to avoid. I will seek to do this through the use of the HRS change management model which is illustrated in figure 1 below
Fig. 1
The HRS Group change management model encompasses four key pillars namely: Examine, Develop, Implement, and Measure. Examining entails analyzing the current practices of HKSTV in terms of how change and innovation are handled by the various stakeholders. It also involves identifying the causative factors for low innovation in the workforce. This is a process which will involve the employees as well as the management. After analyzing the current practices, I will create innovative strategies that will be easily acceptable by all cadres of persons in the firm and which will also create a working environment that stimulates innovation by the employees. This may entail giving the employees a greater degree of autonomy to do their work as well as redesign their working stations and schedules. Once again, in developing these strategies, the input of the workforce will be of paramount importance. The next phase will involve implementation of the developed strategies with a view of delivering seamless solutions. This will involve introducing some changes in the organization thus there will be need to manage the change process. Management of the change process is always a delicate matter thus there will be need to identify leaders from the organization who can successfully guide the implementation of the changes. It is also important to highlight the fact that the implementation process will be a gradual step by step affair. After the implementation of all the strategies developed, the last stage will involve measuring or evaluating the performance outcomes. In this case, the evaluation process will be seeking to establish whether the organizational development plan adopted encourages change and innovation at the workplace.
Two previous surveys undertaken internally by the media group revealed the following about change and innovation in the group. The survey also made some recommendations on the way forward for the group.
Secondly, it is important that the leaders themselves fully understand what the change process entails if they are to implement it successfully. Thus, my plan has a component that will entail the training and equipping of the leaders who will manage the change process with the requisite skills to successfully implement the changes. Thirdly, the leaders to manage the change process will be persons who are capable of fostering good relations with the employees. This will be crucial as it will enable the employees to provide feedback on the plan and thus facilitate its continuous fine tuning. One of the challenges for innovation at HKSTV has been that the leaders at times lack the necessary knowledge or do not facilitate the acquisition of the necessary knowledge by the employees which would in turn stimulate innovation. Thus, the plan seeks to identify and make use of leaders who will commit themselves to continuously increase knowledge within and outside the group. It is only when the workforce is more knowledgeable that they it will seek new frontiers and in the process become innovative. This innovation will in turn generate new knowledge and this will then become a cycle. In one master stroke, the firm will have a dealt a fatal blow to the challenge of innovation.
Lastly, the organization development plan will be spearheaded by leaders who promote a coherent rather than a disjointed organization. Such leaders must not only be able to identify such coherent patterns but also maintain them. The main benefit that will arise from more coherence in the group is that there will be greater exchange of ideas within the workforce and this will serve to enhance the innovativeness of employees.
Fig. 2
In developing an organizational development model for the media group, I feel that it would be important to also adopt the cyclic model of organizational development proposed above in figure 2 above. This will be in addition to the HRS group change management model. This is because the media world is very dynamic and any media group that wishes to remain competitive must continually be identifying new ways to stay ahead of the pack. Thus, whenever a problem is identified, it must never be swept under the carpet but must be subjected to the entire process in the cyclic model above and the necessary changes made. Such a model will enable HKSTV to effectively tackle the twin problems of change and innovation which have bedeviled it.
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