ODyssey
Issue 20
Understanding Organisation Development
ODyssey
Help! What is my role
as an OD practitioner?
By Christian Chao
Dear Practitioner,
Dear ODyssey,
Help! I’ve just been posted to the OD
unit and I’m having difficulty
defining my role as an internal OD
practitioner. My counterparts at
different organisations seem to do a
variety of things - from managing
organisational change and
promoting PS21, to preparing for
Business Excellence certifications
(such as SQC, and ISO) and
organising corporate events, such as
‘town hall’ events. It seems like it’s a
‘pau ka liao’ 1 job. What really is my
role as an internal OD practitioner?
It is normal for you to feel confused. An OD practitioner’s role is often not welldefined, largely because the practice is not well-understood. OD is also less well
understood than other disciplines because it transcends functional boundaries –
performing the role of facilitator in coordinating the efforts of the different
departmental functions.2
To put it simply, OD is made up of two words: ‘Organisation’ and ‘Development’.
“Organisation here refers to a group of people and resources to form a working
unit in pursuit of one or more shared goals. And ‘development’ simply means a
process of change that leads to improvement and transformation over time.
Combine the two and you will have organisations that become more effective over
time.”
Yours sincerely,
Practitioner
1
Hokkien for ‘do everything’: http://www.singlishdictionary.com/singlish_P.htm
2
Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge and Linda Holbeche. ‘Organisational development – what’s in a
name?’ http://www.quality-equality.com/fileadmin/user_upload/pdfs/
IMPACT_Whats_in_aname.pdf
ODyssey
Issue 20
© May 2012 Centre for Organisation Development, Civil Service College. All rights reserved.
The role of an OD practitioner should be anchored on this purpose: to help the
organisation become more effective over time. So whether our role involves
promoting innovation, coordinating SQC re-certifications, or organising the
annual ‘family day’ event, the two questions we need to ask are:
1. How are these initiatives helping the organisation become more effective over
time?
2. How are we executing these initiatives in a manner that helps the organisation
become more effective over time?
Recap—What is the practice of OD?
The practice of OD:
a. facilitates intentional change efforts based on informed diagnosis;
b. addresses issues with the whole system in mind; and
c. designs interventions with people in mind - recognising that human
behaviours are not just motivated purely by rational arguments, , but
also by emotive elements, such as sense of pride and belonging
Internal & External OD Practitioners
OD practitioners can be generally divided into two main categories –
external and internal practitioners.
External practitioners are those who do not belong to the organisation,
but are brought in to help, say, with one-off projects. However, internal
practitioners are employees of the organisation who work in its OD
function.
In general, both types of OD practitioners work to enhance organisational
performance and improve how effectively integrated the whole
organisation is. But one unique selling point of internal OD practitioners is
that they have the benefit of an intimate, detailed, hands-on knowledge of
the organisation.3
Another advantage that internal practitioners have is that they often have
formed close interpersonal relationships within the organisation, simply
because of the time they’ve spent there.
Many different initiatives can contribute towards making an organisation become
more effective, hence the huge variety of work that can be undertaken by an OD
practitioner. It also explains why OD can end up becoming a convenient ‘pau kar
liao’ role in the organisation – taking on work that does not neatly fit into any of
the other well-defined corporate functions.
3
William J. Rothwell and Roland Sullivan, eds.
Practising Organization Development: A
Guide for Consultants (San Francisco:
Pfeiffer, 2005), 621
ODyssey
Issue 20
Though there can be many ways to
help an organisation, not all are
equally impactful. In defining our role
as OD practitioners, the question then
is: ‘what kind of work will yield the
greatest impact in helping the
organisation become more effective
over time?’
Here are three suggestions:
© May 2012 Centre for Organisation Development, Civil Service College. All rights reserved.
To illustrate this point, let’s say your
organisation plans to be more
responsive to its customers. This
requires its different functions, like
frontline officers and administrative
staff, to work closely together. To
achieve this, a plan to improve
communications to prevent a lapse in
workflow across these two functions
would be needed.
Role #1: Help foster
organisational alignment
Role #2: Help identify and
diagnose performance gaps
As OD practitioners we can help the
organisation be responsive to the
environment it operates in and that
its internal capacity matches its
strategic ambition.4 This requires
aligning organisational capabilities
and culture to strategic interests.
Another role an OD practitioner can
play is to help identify and diagnose
performance gaps.
To facilitate this alignment, we can
work closely with our counterparts in
strategic planning, in formulating an
OD plan as a companion to the
strategic plan. The OD plan maps out
the necessary changes to the
organisation’s capabilities and culture
so that they are aligned to the
strategy being pursued. In other
words, the OD plan contains the
‘intentional change efforts’ needed
for success in executing the
organisation’s strategy.
Formulating a sound OD plan requires
us to keep the whole organisational
system in mind, by paying attention to
the linkage between all the parts of
the organisation, and at how change
in one part will affect the other parts.
This is important since OD is about
getting the organisation’s total system
to work coherently.5 Our familiarity
with organisation design models such
as the Burke-Litwin model6 and/or
the Singapore Quality Class (SQC)
framework can prove useful.
A benefit of being an internal OD
practitioner is our insider’s knowledge
of how things are done in the
organisation. By seeking out the
history, stories and informal
operating rules, we can gain a good
understanding of the organisation.
And we have the advantage of
gathering these bits of information
piece by piece, often over extended
periods.7 It is with this knowledge
that we can be effective in helping
identify and diagnose performance
gaps, such as when it is observed that
certain groups of employees exhibit
low engagement levels.
One way we play this role is by
facilitating feedback sessions. This is
why it is not uncommon to find OD
practitioners being the facilitator at
focus group discussions, informal
dialogue sessions or even ‘town-hall’
events. The administration of
employee surveys, and organisational
assessments (such as SQC, and ‘4-in1’ certifications) are other means to
identify performance gaps.
“
In defining
our role as
OD practitioners,
the question then is:
‘what
kind of
work will yield
the greatest
impact
in helping the
organisation become
more effective
over time?’
”
4
Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge and Linda
Holbeche. ‘Organisational development –
what’s in a name?’ http://www.qualityequality.com/fileadmin/user_upload/
pdfs/IMPACT_Whats_in_aname.pdf
5
Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge and Linda
Holbeche. ‘Organisational development –
what’s in a name?’ http://www.qualityequality.com/fileadmin/user_upload/
pdfs/IMPACT_Whats_in_aname.pdf
6
http://dmec-identity.wikispaces.com/file/
view/Burke-Litwinmodel.gif/110630651/
Burke-Litwinmodel.gif
7
William J. Rothwell and Roland Sullivan,
eds. Practising Organization
Development: A Guide for Consultants
(San Francisco: Pfeiffer, 2005), 633.
ODyssey
Issue 20
© May 2012 Centre for Organisation Development, Civil Service College. All rights reserved.
Role #3: Help facilitate behavioural change
Since OD practitioner Linda Ackerman Anderson coined the term ‘change
management’ in 1968, the field has matured in its thinking about the
nature of change, change processes and change implementation. For
instance, one key principle that has evolved is that of ‘participation’. OD
veteran Marv Weisbord states, ‘People will support what they help to
create.’ The role of an OD practitioner is therefore to create the
conditions for change, such as fostering a sense of ownership by
engaging and involving employees in the change process rather than
dictating its content in a rigid fashion.8
Perhaps the most common change effort OD practitioners in the Public
Service are involved in is in facilitating behavioural change in support of
PS21 outcomes, namely the 3 Cs of creativity, collaboration, and
customer-centricity. Facilitating behavioural change is therefore another
important role OD practitioners can perform in organisations.
Dear Practitioner,
“At the core of it, the primary goal of OD is
to improve organisation effectiveness;
therefore the primary role of an OD
practitioner is to establish helping
relationships within the organisation, with
and between individuals and groups, to
achieve that objective ” 9, says Mee-Yan
Cheung-Judge and Linda Holbeche.
As you can see, the role of an internal OD
practitioner can be varied. However, it is
not a ‘pau ka liao’ job. The role of an OD
practitioner is to help the organisation
become more effective over time – in the
“
most impactful way possible.
The primary role of an
OD practitioner is
to establish helping
relationships within
the organisation,
with and between
individuals and groups,
to improve organisation
effectiveness.
”
Yours sincerely,
ODyssey
Contact us!
We welcome your thoughts and feedback
about this article or any OD-related topics
that you are interested in. Please email us
at [email protected].
Related ODyssey feature articles
Issue 3
Uncovering What OD Can DO
For Planning
Issue 5
Crucial Conversations that
Lead Change
Issue 19
7
Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge and Linda Holbeche. ‘Organisational development in a
downturn’ http://www.quality-equality.com/fileadmin/user_upload/pdfs/
IMPACT_ODinadownturn.pdf
8
Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge and Linda Holbeche. ‘Organisational development in
focus’ http://www.quality-equality.com/publications/qe-articles/od-in-focus/
The pitch for OD