Page 69 - DMGT520_ORGANIZATION_CHANGE_AND_DEVELOPMENT

Organization Change and Development

Notes
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Case Study Revati Sharma and the Ethics of OD

evati Sharma had just finished her master’s degree in Organisation Development
and had landed at her first position with a small consulting company in
RAhmedabad. The President, Raman Bhatia, convinced Revati that his growing
organisation offered her a great opportunity to learn the business. He had a large number
of contacts, an impressive executive career, and several years of consulting business behind
him.

In fact the firm was growing, adding new clients and projects as fast as Raman could hire
consultants. A week after Revati was hired, Raman assigned her to a new client, a small
manufacturing company. “I have met the client for several hours,” he told her. “They are
an important and potentially large opportunity for our firm. They are looking to us to
help them address some long-range planning issues. From the way they talk, they could
also use some continuous quality improvement work as well”.
As Revati prepared for her initial meeting with the client, she reviewed financial data
from the firm’s annual report, examined trends in the client’s industry, and thought about
the issues that young firms face. Raman indicated that Revati would first meet with the
President of the firm to discuss initial issues and next steps.
When Revati walked into the President’s office, she was greeted by the firm’s senior
management team. Team members expressed eagerness to get to work on the important
issues of how to improve the organisation’s key business processes. They believed that an
expert in Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), such as Revati, was exactly the kind of
help they needed to increase efficiency and cut costs in the core business. Members began
to ask direct questions of Revati about technical details of CQI, the likely time frame
within which they might expect results, how to map key processes, and how to form
quality improvement teams to identify and implement process improvements.
Revati was stunned and overwhelmed. Nothing that Raman had said about the issues
facing the company was being discussed and, worse, it was clear that he had sold Revati as
an ‘expert’ in CQI. Her immediate response was to suggest that all of their questions were
good ones, but they needed to be answered in the context of the long-range goals and
strategies of the firm. Revati proposed that the best way to begin was for team members
to provide her with some history about the organisation. In doing so, she was able to avert
disaster and embarrassment for herself and her company, and to appear to be doing all the
things necessary to begin a CQI project. The meeting ended with Revati and the
management team agreeing to meet again the following week.
Immediately the next day Revati sought out Raman. She reported on the results of the
meeting and her surprise as being sold to the client as an expert on CQI. Revati suggested
that her own competencies did not fit the needs of the client and requested that another
consultant – one with expertise in CQI – be assigned to the project.
Raman responded to her concerns: “I have known these people for over ten years. They
don’t know exactly what they need. CQI is an important buzzword. It’s the flavour of the
month and if that’s what they want, that’s what we will give them.” He also told Revati
that there was no other consultant available for this project. “Besides,” he said, “the President
of the client firm had just called to say how much he had enjoyed meeting with you and
was looking forward to getting started on the project right away.”

Contd...

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