Page 142 - DMGT520_ORGANIZATION_CHANGE_AND_DEVELOPMENT

Unit 9: Comprehensive Intervention

Notes
The MIS Survey
President Mohan has been pleased with the system; however, he noticed little improvement
in management operations. In fact, most of the older vice-presidents tended to make
decisions and function pretty much as they had before the MIS was installed. Mohan then
decided to have Lata conduct a survey of the users to try to evaluate the impact and
benefits of the new system. Lata was glad to undertake the survey, since she had long felt
the system was over elaborate for the bank’s needs. She sent out a questionnaire to all
department heads, branch managers, and so on, inquiring into the uses of the system.

As she began to assemble the survey data, a pattern began to emerge. In general, the
majority of managers were strongly in favour of the system, but felt that there were a few
minor modifications, which could be made. As Lata analysed the responses several trends
and important points came out: (1) 93 per cent reported they did not regularly use the
reports because the printouts were hard to interpret: (2) 46 per cent stated they received
more data than they wanted; (3) 57 per cent reported finding some errors and inaccuracies;
and (4) 87 per cent stated they still kept manual records because they did not fully trust
the MIS.
The Meeting

Lata Sikand finished her report excitedly and rushed into A. Anand’s office and handed
him the report. Anand slowly scanned the report, then said, “You’ve done a good job here,
Lata. But now that we have the system operating, I don’t think we should upset the apple
cart, do you? Let’s just keep this to ourselves for the time being and perhaps we can correct
most of these problems. I’m sure Mr. Mohan wouldn’t want to hear this kind of stuff. This
system is his baby, so maybe we shouldn’t rock the boat with this report”.
Lata returned to her office feeling uncomfortable. She wondered what to do.

Question:
Discuss the above case in detail and explain it.

9.6 Summary

 Comprehensive OD interventions are very much visible in the contemporary OD practice.

 Some like Beckhard’s confrontation meeting and strategic management activities involve
all of top management or in case of smaller organisations, the entire management group.
 Future search conferences tend to involve a wide spectrum of organisational members.

 Appreciative inquiry focuses on the strengths of the organisation and what is most valued
by its members.
 Transorganisational development is aimed at assisting organisations in forming and
developing alliances.
 Like all OD interventions these comprehensive interventions must involve a collaborative
effort between client organisations and the consultants in both diagnosis and interventions.

9.7 Keywords

Confrontation Meeting: A structured intervention that help two groups resolve interdepartmental
misunderstandings or conflict.

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