Final Role and Competencies of Od Practitioner

Practitioner
 They may be internal or external consultants

who offer professional services to
organizations, including their top managers,
functional department heads, and staff
groups.
 They may be those specializing in fields
related to OD, such as reward systems,
organization design, total quality,
information technology, and business
strategy.
 The three primary tasks of the OD practitioner or
interventionist, Argyris (1970)
1. Generate and help clients to generate valid
information that they can understand about their
problems.
2. Create opportunities for clients to search
effectively for solutions to their problems, to
make free choices.
3. Create conditions for internal commitment to
their choices and opportunities for the continual
monitoring of the action taken.
Haphazard Change:
 It is forced on the organization by the
external environment.
 This type of change is not prepared at all.
 It simply occurs and is dealt with as it
happens, a practice sometimes called
firefighting.
Planned change:
 It results from deliberate attempts to
modify organizational operations in order to
promote improvement.
 For e.g. TQM [Total quality manangement]
which focuses on continuous improvement.
EXTERNAL PRACTITIONERS INTERNAL PRACTITIONERS
 Not previously associated  A member of the
with the client system organization, either a
 Have increased leverage top executive or a
and greater freedom of member of HR
operations department.
 Do not depend upon the  Familiar with the
organization for raises, organization’s culture and
approval or promotions norms and behave
 More independent attitude accordingly
about risk-taking and  Know the Power-
confrontation with the structure, are known to
client system. employees and personal
interest in org’s
success.
EXTERNAL PRACTITIONERS INTERNAL PRACTITIONERS
 Unfamiliar with  Lack of specialized skills
the organization needed for org.
culture development
 No sufficient knowledge  Being known to the
of the technology workforce is also a
 Unfamiliar with the disadvantage
culture, communication  Do not possess the
network, formal and necessary power and
informal power system authority, are sometimes
 Difficulty in gathering in a remote-staff position
Information because and report to a mid-level
they are outsiders manager.
OD Practitioner Styles can be viewed upon
two dimensions:
 Effectiveness - degree of emphasis upon
goal accomplishment.
 Morale - degree of emphasis upon
relationships and participant satisfaction.
The Stabilizer Style
 Maintains low profile

 Tries to survive by following directives
 The goal of the stabilizer is neither effectiveness nor
participant satisfaction.
 The practitioner is trying to keep from rocking the boat
and to maintain a low profile.
 This style is usually forced upon the practitioner by
organizational pressure.
 So the practitioner usually have to learn to conform and
suppress any other motivation.
The Cheerleader Style
 Places emphasis on member satisfaction and is

chiefly concerned with motivation and
morale
 Does not emphasize organization effectiveness
 The cheerleader style strongly minimizes
differences and maintains harmony

The Analyzer Style
 Places emphasis on efficiency.

 Little attention to satisfaction of members.
 The analyzer feel most comfortable with a
rational assessment of problems and assumes
that the facts will lead to a solution.
 The practitioner may be more confrontational,
relying on the authority to resolve conflicts and
on rational problem solving process.
The Persuader Style
 Seeks compromise between cheerleader and

analyzer styles.
 Achieves average performance.
 The persuader style focuses on both
dimensions, effectiveness and morale, yet
optimizes neither.
 Such a style provides a relatively lowrisk
strategy, avoids direct confrontation with
others.
The Pathfinder Style
 Seeks high organization efficiency and high

member satisfaction.
 Desired style for OD practitioner.
The Pathfinder Style focuses
on six processes:
Communication
Member roles in groups
Group problem-solving
Group norms and growth
Leadership and authority
Intergroup cooperation
High
Cheerleader Pathfinder
Morale
Persuader
Stabilizer Analyzer
Low
Low High
Effectiveness
 Therole of the OD practitioner is varied and
dynamic. Descriptions include; helper,
advisor, sounding board, navigator,
coach, facilitator, designer, developer,
leader, consultant, expert, partner,
problem solver, diagnostician, process
specialist and collaborator. These roles
can be practiced as an employee within
the organisation or as an external
consultant.
 The truth is the OD practitioner role is varied and
purposed with helping clients to improve the
effectiveness of their organisation developing
both business processes and people processes
within the context of the organisation.
 OD practitioners are by their very practice
humanistic and that makes their practice relational
based, and puts the OD practitioner at the centre
of change and development efforts; using ‘self’ as
an instrument to drive change and help the
organisation develop through each of the phases of
the OD cycle; Diagnostic, Intervention and
Evaluation
 The OD practitioner is responsible for
bringing their whole self to the task in
hand, and build their reputation as a
trusted advisor with their clients. Not only
must the practitioner be an advocate of
development, but must focus on
continuously improving and developing
their own learning and understanding of
their practice.
Underlying Organizational Development
are humanistic values. Margulies and Raia
(1972) articulated the humanistic values of OD as
follows:
 Providing opportunities for people to function as
human beings rather than as resources in the
productive process.
 Providing opportunities for each organization
member, as well as for the organization itself, to
develop to his full potential.
 Seeking to increase the effectiveness of the
organization in terms of all of its goals.
 Attempting to create an environment in
which it is possible to find exciting and
challenging work.
 Providing opportunities for people in
organizations to influence the way in
which they relate to work, the
organization, and the environment.
 Treating each human being as a person
with a complex set of needs, all of which
are important in his work and in his life.
 Theoretical and Technical expertise which can be applied
 Influencing Skills
 Spot and energise engagement in others
 Innovative, Creative and Critical thinking
 Ability to tackle difficulties and problems with positivity
 Self-Confident
 Credible communicators
 Interpersonal and Facilitation skills, with an ability to ‘stand
back’
 Emotionally Tuned in
 Ethical, value driven and acts with integrity -
 Traditionally, OD practitioners have promoted a
set of
values under a humanistic framework including a
concern for inquiry and science, democracy, and
being helpful. They have sought to build trust and
collaboration; to create an open, problem-solving
climate; and to increase the self-control of
organization members.
 More recently, they have extended those values
to include a concern for improving organizational
effectiveness and performance. They have shown
an increasing desire to optimize both human
benefits and production objectives.
 In addition to value issues within organizations, OD
practitioners are dealing more and more with value
conflicts with powerful outside groups. Organizations are
open systems and exist within increasingly turbulent
environments. Those external groups often have different
and competing values for judging the organization’s
effectiveness.
 Practitioners must have not only social skills but also
political skills, They must understand the distribution of
power, conflicts of interest, and value dilemmas inherent in
managing external relationships, and be able to manage
their own role and values with respect to those dynamics.
 Interventionspromoting collaboration and
system maintenance may be ineffective in
a larger arena, especially when there
are power and dominance relationships
among organizations and competition
for scarce resources. Under those
conditions, they may need more power-
oriented interventions, such as
bargaining, coalition forming, and
pressure tactics.
Ethical issues in OD are concerned with
how practitioners perform their helping
relationship with organization members.
Inherent in any helping relationship is
the potential for misconduct and client
abuse. OD practitioners can let
personal values stand in the way of
good practice or use the power inherent
in their professional role to abuse (often
unintentionally) organization members.
 ETHICAL
GUIDELINES &Ethical
Dilemmas
 Misrepresentation
 Misuse of Data
 Coercion
 Value and Goal Conflict
 Technical Ineptness

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Practitioner

 They may be internal or external consultants

 Maintains low profile

 Places emphasis on member satisfaction and is

differences and maintains harmony

 Places emphasis on efficiency.

 Seeks compromise between cheerleader and

 Seeks high organization efficiency and high

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