Page 65 - DMGT520_ORGANIZATION_CHANGE_AND_DEVELOPMENT

Organization Change and Development

Notes In organisations that show predominantly positive faces of power and politics, OD
practitioners can put these ideas to good use. Knowledge about power and skill in the use
of this power enable the practitioners to be more successful and the OD programs to be
more successful.
4. OD practitioner needs to help organisations members reduce the negative face of power.
Creation of slack resources, replacing tight coupling of interdependent relationship with
more loose couplings, gaining agreement on goals and means for goal accomplishment,
centralizing some decision making, and addressing mixed-motive situations in two phases
as indicated by integrative and distributive bargaining - all these processes have been
demonstrated to reduce the negative consequences of intense power and politics. The OD
practitioner can help implement these conditions in the organisation thereby modifying
the political climate.
5. The concept of the positive and negative faces of power and politics suggests where the
practitioner is likely to be effective and less effective. OD program are likely to be
unsuccessful in organisations with high negative faces of power and politics: the OD
program will likely be used as a power in the power struggles of the organisations, and
the OD practitioners can become a logical scapegoat when conditions require a “sacrifice”.
On the other hand, OD programs are likely to be highly effective in organisations with
positive faces of power and politics: the practitioners help organisation to build multiple
power bases in the organisations; he or she promotes collaborative problem solving,
which leads to better decisions being made; and the practitioner teaches organisation
members how to manage mixed-motive situations to ensure the best outcomes.
6. The OD practitioner is encouraged to learn as much as possible about bargaining,
negotiations, the nature of power and politics, the strategies and tactics of influence, and
the characteristics and behaviors of power holders. This knowledge will make the OD
practitioners a more competent actor in the organisation and a more effective consultant
in helping organisation members to solve their problems and take advantage of
opportunities.

The OD practitioner realizes that power stems from possessing a commodity valued by
others. If the OD program indeed improves individual and organisational functioning; if
the OD practitioners has indeed learned his or her craft well, then a valuable commodity
has been produced that will be welcomed by the organisational power holders.

4.3 Ethics in OD

Increasingly, organisational change efforts are being utilised to solve many human, structural,
and technological problems in contemporary organisation. This increased attention to the uses
of OD has been accompanied by growth in the number of OD consultants as well as those who
have long term needs for OD efforts. Practitioners in the field have increased in number and
many organisations have sought OD programs & practitioners, but the professionalization of
OD has not kept pace structurally and scientifically. Review of OD literature (Alderfer, 1977,
French & Bell 1978; White & Mitehell, 1976) provides ample evidence of the tremendous growth
in sophisticated techniques to conduct effective OD. At the same time, rapid increases in the use
of OD to solve a myriad of organisational problems have caused some to ponder whether it is a
religious movement (Harvey, 1974) or a new social technology (Havelock, 1972)
Within the last two decades many efforts are made to codify the evidence that OD efforts are
effective, an indication that OD is developing as a science. Simultaneously, a growing concern
about professional ethics in the field has begun to emerge. The problem of ethical dilemmas in
OD practice has been written about, but never really examined in terms of where in the OD

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