Organisational Development: An Opportunity for Change in XYZ

Abstract

? This essay summarises an opportunity for change in response to an exclusive employee survey conducted at XYZ in October 2022, an audit report developed in 2023, and an Oracle discovery report conducted in 2022. The purpose of this report is to highlight areas for improvement and change where findings were investigated by the internal audit department, HR department, and Oracle consultants. Furthermore, I will offer recommendations in line with best CIPD practices, taking into consideration different change management schools and ways to tackle any possible resistance to change that could possibly emerge during the implementation process.?

Table of contents

Introduction

Literature review

?????????Choosing the right change model

?????????Creating an urgency for change.

?????????Form a change coalition.

?????????Create a vision for change.

?????????Communicate vision.

?????????Manage Resistance for Change

?????????Generate quick wins.

?????????Consolidate wins and builds on future approaches.

????????Anchor and incorporate new approaches into work culture.

Research methodology used.

Conclusions and recommendations

References???

Introduction

? The purpose of this report is to identify and justify three specific organisational development goals, and to discuss the process of change through which these goals will be achieved. It will also include a well-reasoned approach to overcoming any resistance to this process of change while implementing three specific organisational development goals aiming at sustainable employee engagement, developing a digital learning system, and activating an agile performance management system. Overall, different schools of change management theories provide different perspectives on how to best manage change in organisations.

Literature review

Choosing the right change model.

?XYZ requires a change management model mix that can act as an effective compass to guide its change initiatives characterised by simplicity of implementation, focus on leadership development, emphasis on coalition building, clarity of change roadmap, flexibility to change initiatives, ability to integrate with other change models, in addition to emphasis on communication and sustainability. Therefore, I would recommend the Kurt Lewin (Lewin 1951) and JP Kotter (Kotter 1995) combined approach simplified as per this table:

Lewin Kotter

Unfreezing

Step 1: Create an urgency for change

Step 2: Form a change coalition

Step 3: Create a vision for change

Step 4: Communicate the change vision

Develop and change

Step 5: Manage resistance to change

Step 6: Generate quick wins

Step 7: consolidate wins and build on future approach

Refreezing

Step 8: Anchor and incorporate new approaches into work culture

Creating an urgency for change.

? Organisational metrics and people analytics are an effective tool to determine the 'fit' between XYZ's objectives and the practices attempting to meet them as an approach to organisational development (ODV). The data collected from different sources indicates high levels of disengaged workforce, lack of learning management tools to align employees with organisational strategy, and the absence of an equitable performance management system that will help reward and retain XYZ's current workforce.?

Such findings have a direct impact on absenteeism, poor performance levels, lost productivity, poor leadership, and misalignment between employee’s expectations and those of management. Hence, it is necessary to launch an ODV initiative to review and redesign all related practices to enhance XYZ's organisational performance in these related areas (Green 2022). XYZ Employee survey summary conducted in 2022, reflects poor employee engagement, lack of an effective learning management system and the absence of an equitable performance management system within the organisation (Hatoum 2022).?

XYZ internal audit report prepared during 2023, sheds the light on high priority observations showing lack of employees’ goal setting practice, absence of a smart learning management system, and lack of capable performance management system to capture employee’s performance against measurable metrics and KPIs (Audit 2023).

Further to the above, an Oracle discovery report conducted in 2022, identified critical findings to the overall XYZ strategy in terms of ineffective engagement process, lack of communication between employees and management, lack of career development goals, absence of learning management system, and ineffective performance management system to integrate employee performance with learning approaches (Oracle-ME 2022)

Form a change coalition.

? XYZ is invited to form an organisational development committee consisting of HR delegates, ODV consultant and department managers to implement a type of planned, ongoing, systematic change intended to institutionalise continuous improvement within the organisation in terms of improved employee engagement, acquiring a new learning management system, and customising an equitable performance management system. The committee will challenge assumptions, help surface non-obvious issues, diagnose execution barriers and enablers, and effectively manage change having the support of top management as a sponsor and as a partner in this transformational project. (Green 2022)

Create a vision for change.

? Strategic foresight helps us imagine multiple futures in imaginative ways to perceive, influence, and adapt to future business needs that heighten our ability to sense, shape, and adapt to what happens in the years ahead. It is a process of constant investigation to build bridges between present and future thinking (Scoblic 2020). Therefore, the XYZ ODV committee will create a vision aiming at “building a highly engaged workforce rewarded by an equitable performance management system and supported by a highly effective learning management system to create a highly competitive learning based new XYZ.

Communicate vision.

? The execution of XYZ's vision will determine its level of success, the message will likely face stiff competition from some day-to-day company communications, therefore, the ODV committee shall communicate it frequently and effectively through online platforms, daily meetings, employees' forums, and integrate it into our everyday implementation. Leadership and top management teams will support conveying this vision and utilise it daily for decision making and problem solving until every employee remembers and responds to making it happen. Walk the talk, exhibit the type of behaviour we desire from others, and openly and honestly discuss the concerns and anxieties of the people involved will top up the communication process with favourable results and create a role model by leaders to their teams (Kotter 1995).

Manage Resistance for Change

? Resistance to change is expected in any organisational development process including people and existing structures that may get in the way of change. Therefore, the ODV committee will chart the structure for change by allocating the right resources and defining all relevant authority matrices with continuous checks to remove barriers. Removing barriers can empower the change team to execute the vision and help the change move forward. XYZ shall first hire internal change leaders to help deliver the change supported by an external ODV consultant to help structure and lead the change process. The change management team shall align organisational structures, job descriptions, and reward systems with the change vision. A reward program is required to recognize and reward people who will help make the change happen, and those who are resisting change require attention and support else the change management team shall take drastic action to remove human barriers and system barriers if any.?

Generate quick wins.

? Nothing is more inspiring than success and the ODV Committee will establish short-term objectives with sub-goals perfectly attainable, leaving little room for error. Each "win" will serve to motivate every employee, and the change team will work relentlessly to develop these objectives. Sustainable employee engagement is recommended by CIPD to employers by following the below approach (CIPD 2023):

• Employers must acknowledge that employee engagement is essential for performance and is unlikely to be sustainable if not coupled with employee well-being.
• Leadership behaviour serves both engagement and well-being by fostering a healthy and engaged workforce framework with supported internal opportunities (succession, promotions, financial rewards, non-financial rewards, recognition, and appreciation)
• Leaders must incorporate the behaviours outlined above into their management style and act as role models for other managers. (CIPD 2023)

Further to the above, learning and development is an essential part of employee wellbeing, and it helped employees stay connected with their teams and management during COVID pandemic times; learning is being reshaped in significant ways as a direct result of the prevalence of new working habits, new technology, flexible work schedules, remote work, and multi-generational teams working together in one place. XYZ can choose to implement a digital learning system that makes learning feasible and accessible to all employees and in all locations as aligned with learning goals and objectives. Learning design is required by employees, managers, and learning specialists to create social platforms and communities of practice to discuss performance-related factors to identify current and future learning (Overton and Dixon 2016) .

Having an engaged workforce and an effective learning management system in place, XYZ will require an effective measurement system that assesses and traces the performance of each employee on assigned goals and accountabilities. Thus, competency-based performance management will help accommodate the new job design process following the desired change with all management expectations and corporate change values incorporated. People will be motivated to learn new ways of doing things and if motivation happens then performance will surely grow (Parker and Knight 2019).

Consolidate wins and build on future approaches.

? After each victory, the XYZ ODV Change team will assess what went well and what needs improvement, set goals to continue building on the momentum achieved, learn about lean approaches and new ideas for continuous improvement, and keep ideas fresh by recruiting new change agents and leaders for keeping change coalition alive (Kotter 1995).

Anchor and incorporate new approaches into work culture.

? To make any change permanent, it must become an integral part of our XYZ culture and specifically part of every departmental and individual KPIs. The values underlying our change vision must be reflected in our day-to-day work defining what gets accomplished and when. The continuous support of existing and newly recruited leaders is required to ensure that all aspects of our change goals are embedded in XYZ's ethos. Moreover, XYZ can celebrate annual reward events aiming at sharing success stories and recognizing members of the change coalition in public for existing staff to remember such legacy and contributions (Kotter 1995).

2. Research methods and Data

The data collected to support this report is detailed as follows:

2.1 XYZ employee survey 2022 (Primary Data) : Survey questionnaire conducted by XYZ HR manager on 25% of the whole employee population.

2.2 Oracle Discovery Report 2022 (Secondary Data) : Personal interviews by Oracle team with all XYZ management team to understand the current workflow system.

2.3 XYZ Internal Audit Report 2023 (Primary Data) : Several audit sessions conducted by the Internal Audit Team withXYZ HR Department.

3. Conclusions and recommendations

????In line with what I have discussed above, I would recommend the following for XYZ top management to rethink as a future opportunity to position itself among the highest agile, competitive, adaptable, and sustainable manufacturing organisations in the middle east markets:

?Sustainable employee engagement

Jobs at XYZ require a deep-rooted review and redesign taking into thorough consideration the motivators and demotivators of people's performance based on theory and research conducted by top notch scholars such as Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchical Needs, Hertzberg’s two-factor Theory, McClelland’s Theory of Needs, Vroom’s Theory of Expectancy, Alderfer’s ERG Theory, and others. A combination of some or all could work given internal research to understand what motivates employees in XYZ within different departments and divisions.?

Digital learning system (smart tool of learning things)?

XYZ can implement a smart Learning management system (LMS) without unpleasant surprises by extracting from the current performance management system the low scores on relevant competencies. The preparation time of LMS will depend on XYZ’s specific training and business requirements received from function heads relevant to their annual corporate strategies and related performance competency-based prerequisites expected from their teams. Furthermore, skill gap analysis reports extracted from the current performance management system can help define the urgent and necessary skills to improve through the new LMS platform. Such a system must have the features of agile accessibility to content by XYZ users, with high-quality information and data, and a constant flow of content available with the option of learning progress traceability for each use.

Agile Performance management system?

XYZ can benefit from agile performance appraisals, as a robust and integrated system that increases employee engagement and consequently enhances business processes and outcomes. It is simply a matter of rethinking performance management not as a once-every-six-months-only muscle, but as one that can be exercised constantly and, ultimately, makes the entire organisation stronger. This begins not with a rethinking about performance evaluations, but with the concept of performance goals. Department heads can input their employees’ smart goals into the system for the performance appraisal tool to capture, assess, and evaluate before informing the learning management system with individual learning needs for reskilling and upskilling relevant employees’ skill sets.?

References

(CIPD, C.I. for P.D, 2023): CIPD | Managing for sustainable employee engagement. Available at: https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/reports/engagement-management-guide/ ? [Accessed: 8 May 2023].

(Green, M, 2022): CIPD | Organisation Development | Factsheets. Available at: https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/factsheets/organisational-development-factsheet/ ? [Accessed: 7 May 2023].

(Hatoum, A., 2022): Employee Survey 2022.

(Kotter, J., 1995) Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail (Vol. 73). New York, New York: Harvard Business School Publication Corp.

(Lewin, K. ,1951): Field theory in social science. New York, New York: Harper & Row.

(Oracle ME,2022): Oracle Discovery Report.pdf.

(Overton, L. and Dixon, D.G, 2016): CIPD | Future of Learning a Changing Perspective Survey. Available at: https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/reports/future-learning-leadership-perspectives/ ? [Accessed: 8 May 2023].

(Parker, S. and Knight, C, 2019):? CIPD | The impact of job redesign on performance. Available at: https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/bitesize-research/impact-job-redesign/ [Accessed: 8 May 2023].

(Audit 2023): XYZ - HR Department - IA Final Report 2023

(Scoblic, J. Peter, 2020): Learning from the Future. Available at: https://hbr.org/2020/07/learning-from-the-future ? [Accessed: 8 May 2023].