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Unit 7: OD Intervention

study of group dynamics and of larger organisational concepts such as status, influence, division Notes
of labor, and styles of managing conflict. Some believe that sensitivity is talent, while others
believed that sensitivity is something which is not so much developed, as allowed to exist. It is
a trait called “empathy”. Sensitivity is found wanting in people as they are often preoccupied
with their own problems that they don’t ‘’have time” for others. Their tension disallows them to
pay attention to someone or to relate what the person is saying. Most believe that sensitivity to
others could be developed. Some people have this ability, but most just fake it. Sensitivity
training involves small group of individuals focusing on the here and now behavior and attitudes
in the group. In short, the individuals discuss whatever comes naturally in the group.

Example: One participant might criticize an opinion expressed by another, and both the
opinion and the criticism could become the focus of the entire group.
The intent of this process, which might take several days at 12 hours or more per day, is for
participants to learn how they affect others and how others affect them. In turn, “sensitivity”
learning can help participants become more skilled in diagnosing interpersonal behavior and
attitudes on the job.
Sensitivity could be enhanced by adopting the following viewpoints:
 Everybody is entitled to their feelings no matter how illogical they are;

 There is no such thing as ‘blame’... Everybody involved is equally at fault;
 A person should not attack, but express their feelings about others’ actions;
 Leaving a problem unresolved will make it worse with time;
 Nobody is perfect which includes one self.
Encounter Groups were nontraditional attempts at psychotherapy that offered short-term
treatment for members without serious psychiatric problems. These groups were also known as
sensitivity (or sensory) awareness groups and training groups (or T-groups). Encounter groups
were an outgrowth of studies conducted at the National Training Laboratories in by Kurt Lewin.
The use of continual feedback, participation, and observation by the group encouraged the
analysis and interpretation of their problems. Other methods for the group dynamics included
Gestalt therapy (working with one person at a time with a primary goal of increasing awareness
of oneself in the moment, also known as holistic therapy) and meditation. Encounter groups
were popularized by people such as Dr. Fritz Perls and Dr. Will Schutz (of the Esalen institute)
and, had their greatest impact on the general population in the 1960s and 1970s. These groups
fell out of favor with the psychiatric community because of criticism that many of the group
leaders at the time were not trained in traditional group therapy and that the groups could
sometimes cause great harm to people with serious emotional problems.

Survey Feedback

Survey feedback technology is probably the most powerful way that OD professionals involve
very large numbers of people in diagnosing situations that need attention within the organisation
and to plan and implement improvements. The general method requires developing reliable,
valid questionnaires, collecting data from all personnel, analyzing it for trends and feeding the
results back to everyone for action planning. “Walk-the-talk” assessment: Most organisations
have at least some leaders who say one thing and, do another. This intervention, which can be
highly threatening, concentrates on measuring the extent to which the people within the
organisation are behaving with integrity.

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