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Action Research And Organizational Development Management Essay

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ACTION RESEARCH AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
For the Session Long Project in this class, you will be applying the principles of organizational development to an organization you currently work for or have worked for in the past. For this first SLP, think carefully about the background readings and how they might apply to a specific organizational situation or problem that you have experienced firsthand. Then write a 2- to 3-page paper answering the following questions:
What do you think the biggest problem your current organization or one of the previous organizations you worked for faces? Why do you think management has had difficulty with this problem?
Do you think this problem could be mitigated by hiring an organizational development consultant based on what you’ve read in the background materials? Why or why not? Make sure to cite some of the readings in your answer.
Of the action research and organizational development steps listed in the required readings, which ones do you think would be the more challenging steps that an organizational development consultant would face coming into your organization? Explain your reasoning and cite at least one of the required background readings.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Answer the assignment questions directly.
Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your references. Articles published in established newspapers or business journals/magazines are preferred. If you use articles from the Internet, make sure they are from credible sources.
Reference your sources of information with both a bibliography and in-text citations.
Background Reading material resource:
For a good overview of the foundational concepts of organizational development, read the following introductory book chapter. Pay special attention to the seven steps of action research, which will be a major emphasis for the Case Assignment:urey, J. & Griffin, M. (2013). Section 2: Chapter 4: Action research: The anchor of OD practice. In Vogelsang, J. (ed). Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in Organization Development from the OD Network. Saranac Lake, NY, USA: AMACOM Books, pp. 46-52. [EBSCO eBook Business Collection. Note: when looking up a book in the EBSCO book collections do not copy and paste the entire reference into the search engine. Only enter in the title of the book. If you do a search on “Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in Organization Development from the OD Network.” this book will come up.
Now read up in more detail on action research with the following chapter. This chapter has more detail about the main steps of action research such as entry, contracting, etc. Note the names of the steps are a little different than the previous book chapter such as “action planning” instead of “planning change” or “research” instead of “data gathering and diagnosis”. But it is the same basic step-by-step approach:Haneberg, L. (2005). Chapter 3: The action research approach to change. Organization Development Basics. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training & Development. [EBSCO eBook Business Collection]
Finally, review this more detailed chapter. Pay special attention to the section on action research as applied to organizational development which starts on page 20:McLean, G. N. (2006). Chapter 1: What is organization development? Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. [EBSCO eBook Business Collection.’

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Module 1 – SLP: Action Research and Organizational Development
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Biggest problem of the current organization or previous organizations
The biggest problem is miscommunication and other times difficulties effectively integrating changes in the organization because of lack of collaboration. This is partly because of the lack of clarity on autonomy and coordination as well as poor or unplanned management of internal communication. The internal communication ought to involve all the units of the organization, as well as all its departments, actions, and structures. The OD practitioner or consultant talks with the client to understand their understanding and perceptions of what needs to change and their desires in the future (Haneberg, 2005). The client and consultant work together, but at the moment, members of the organization are not actively involved in getting solutions.
Through internal communication, firms share their values, vision, and objectives among the internal stakeholders. The lack of knowledge, adequate tools, and a professional approach to addressing the internal communication problem worsens outcomes in an organization. When there are actions made there is a need to monitor these actions and make adjustments where necessary. Even when there is formal communication there is still a need to ensure the coherence and integration of objectives, plans, and actions, where the employees are expected to understand the organization’s goals and objectives. Ideally, the personnel ought to be aligned with the corporate strategy where the teams are effective and productive enough to successfully achieve the strategy.
Hiring an organizational development consultant to mitigate the problem
Yes, hiring an organizational development consultant will be beneficial to facilitate better internal communication and working processes. Planned interventions have the potential to achieve the desired outcomes in an organization and its processes (McLean, 2006). Communication helps organizations transmit the intangible values that reflect the firm’s identity and some of the most precious assets. However, effecting change may take longer than expected since the corporate culture influences how things have been done over time and the employees and managers may be reluctant to make a change. There is likely to be more long-term change when there are the forces to sustain the change even when the consultant or/ and agent of change is absent.
Implementing the change process requires that the client is actively involved in different phases of the process and works closely with the consultant in the project. The OD consultant requires data and feedback before making suggestions for improvement and taking action. Furthermore, the consultant is an expert when analyzing the data and facilitator of the working relationship with the client (Lurey& Griffin, 2013). Thus, it is more likely that there will be positive outcomes in the change process when there is a positive working relationship between the client and the consultant. The leaders, people, culture, and systems are closely linked in an organization and ...
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