How to Evaluate an Organizational Development (OD) Intervention

Organizational Development or OD is a very important component of the organization. Although it can cost quite a bit of money and may require quite a bit of resources, time, and energy, yet still, the organizations that develop an intervention for their organization will gain a competitive advantage within their industry.

During these difficult times, it is most opportune to take advantage of this benefit and try to create interventions that will either help solve issues that the organization may be having or leverage their strengths within their industry and either become or maintain their industry leadership positions.

The four (4) main models in the evaluation are (Alzahmi et. al., 2013):

• Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation – the four levels focus heavily on making sure that any intervention that is used is effective. a) How are the employees reacting to the intervention? b) are they learning anything from the intervention? c) are they behaving differently within the organization and changing due to the intervention? d) what are the results and the ROI? This is one of the simplest models and is the most popular one due to its straightforwardness and simplicity.
• Balanced Scorecard (BSC) – This model focuses on a set of measures that determine the score of how the organization is doing when it comes to their goals for time, quality, and performance. This approach can get complicated since not every goal is measured in the same way.
• Holton Evaluation Model (HRD) – Building off the Kirkpatrick Model – HRD took into account where the Kirkpatrick Model was weak and focused on only three (3) main elements that they deem are more important, which are: a) learning, b) individual performance, and c) organizational results; putting more focus on motivating the employees to perform and show results from their learning. They keep in mind that if we make sure that the employee gets the right resources and the right training, they will end up performing better.
• Appreciative Inquiry Approach (AI) – This approach is not for all companies, but definitely those with high aspirations should consider this model. It is built on the principle of these five (5) phases; a) definition, b) discovery, c) dream, d) design, and e) destiny. Where the organization defines and discovers what their dream goals are. Once they have discussed their dreams, they envision what it would look like, and then they design and determine key tasks by splitting into teams and going after their dream. Once again, this is not for every organization, but this model can prove to be quite effective for those who want to achieve greater ambitions.

A good intervention is made up of these eight (8) steps. In this article we will only discuss which of these 8 are the most important:

Step 1: Planning the OD evaluation

Step 2: Identifying key stakeholders and decision-makers.

Step 3: Determining evaluators and evaluation criteria.

Step 4: Scanning for internal and external relevant information.

Step 5: Selecting data collection methods.

Step 6: Collecting data.

Step 7: Analyzing data.

Step 8: Reporting the evaluation findings

As we read down this list, we can see how each of these steps would be important, however, the key elements to a good evaluation would be to understand what we are evaluating for? What is the problem we are trying to solve, who are the key people who would need to help us achieve the change? and then finally collecting the right data needed to evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of the intervention. These key three steps are the most critical proponents of any OD evaluation.

Here is a real-life example of how a good OD Evaluation is conducted (Tearle, 2011):

Key Problem:

Three (3) main issues were present:

• Nurses' morale was at an all-time low, they didn’t feel that they were being valued.
• There was a negative working relationship between nurses, their unit managers, and the doctors, each blaming each other for the poor morale in the hospital.
• Doctors were unhappy with the hospital’s services and were taking their practices to competing hospitals, plus there was the issue that the managers were not taking leadership responsibilities within the organization.

Key Stakeholders (people directly involved with the intervention):

• CEO
• HR Manager
• Unit Managers

The program focused on building trust among the groups, stop blaming and pointing fingers, and developing a healthier culture of working together, and focused on the unified goal that everyone would be working towards, and that is to focus on the patients and profit of the organization as a whole. By identifying the core focus and values among all the stakeholders, it will encourage the managers to take ownership and also take the leadership responsibilities that are required for a productive organization.

Program and Results:

A one-day workshop was designed with a tool called “The Change Puzzle Kit” and a second tool called “The Power Facilitation Cards”. The tools were used in 4 groups of 8 managers per group. The idea behind the exercises was to identify the old way of thinking and develop new perspectives by designing a value system, a vision board, and an execution plan of what needs to get changed. The end result was a motivated group of leaders ready to tackle their problems and try to achieve new goals and ambitions for their organization.

Yermi Kurkus

References:

Alzahmi, Rashed A., Kim Woocheol, Cho, Hyun Park, Rothwell, William J., and Kim, Woocheol, (2013). A Practical Evaluation Approach for OD Interventions. Retrieved from https://www.indusedu.org/IJRMEC/March2013%28Pdf%29/4.pdf

Tearle, R. (2011). OD Interventions. Case Study: Dealing with an employee morale problem. Change Designs. Retrieved: https://changedesignsportal.worldsecuresystems.com/public/case-studies/OD-case-study-morale.html