Creating an Organizational Development Proposal.
Review the following case study and examine and apply the theoretical concepts and methods used during an organizational developmental intervention.
Introduction
Blaze mining is a family-owned, mid-size mining company in Louisiana. The company has had a fractured and antagonistic leadership over the past ten years. Blaze mining has multiple departments and divisions, including offshore, mining and oil, safety, human resource, education, and finance. A family member leads each division, and over the last ten years, the company has had non-collaborative internal terms that have highly affected its performance. A new CEO who joined the company recently has discovered these issues and believes an organizational developmental intervention is required to connect with the leadership focused on unity and the company’s success. Blaze mining has dysfunctional leadership and management, affecting employees because of a lack of functional and structural support from leadership. This prevents the critical implementation of company goals and visions. This paper aims to discuss organizational developmental interventions that will improve human behaviors that affect teamwork and leadership in the company.
Many companies face challenges in their developmental lifecycle because of regular changes in their operational systems and organizational structures. Companies face substantial conflicting opinions regarding the change process; in such events, companies should draft quick resolutions to address the issues to enhance feasibility. This can be achieved by hiring an Organizational Development (OD) consultant, a professional hired to formulate instrumental strategies in enhancing organizational productivity and proficiency without affecting the workforce. Organizational development interventions should be aimed at leadership and management issues in Blaze mining. The intervention will involve interaction with the company leadership to develop a cohesive team. Below is an organizational developmental intervention that should be used.
Entry
The entry phase is the first phase of organizational development. In this stage, the management agrees and appreciates some problems that need urgent solutions. Research explains that at this stage, the management notices the company has trouble and is not going as per the set goals (Carnevale, 2018). For example, in this case, the new CEO noticed the discord in the leadership team and its effect on the bottom line. As a result, he requested Organizational Development intervention to interact with the leadership groups to develop cohesion aimed at the company’s success. After the CEO contracts, a team of experts to help identify and solve the problem.
Diagnosis
The second step is action research planning. This phase entails collaboration between the consultant, company, and client. In this stage, questions regarding the leadership get answered. The consultant asks employees questions regarding issues within the company; this helps in making a proper diagnosis. The qualitative method is the best research method suitable for the change required in the company (Imroz, 2021). Through this method, the consultant will understand the nature of leadership in the company. This can be done through interviews or questionnaires. All of these are aimed at identifying the problem. The information gathered will help access the type of developmental change, whether transformational or transitional. According to Blaze mining, the change needed is more developmental. This type of change needs team building, conflict resolution, training, problem-solving, and group dynamics. Problem diagnosis should be part of the preliminary investigation.
Diagnosis will help the consultant understand the root cause of the problem. Weisbord’s Six box model, a popular theory mostly used to diagnose organizational problems, can be used. This theory starts by identifying the purpose of the organization in the market (Rothwell, 2021). Secondly, the theory determines the organization structure and how it is divided. The company fully functions in offshore mining and oil, safety, human resource, education, and finance departments. This model emphasizes the relationship, especially how the organization should manage internal conflicts. After diagnosis data collection and analysis takes place, the consultant analysis data collected in all sessions and comes up with a conclusion.
Feedback
After diagnosing and analyzing collected data, the consultants return with the diagnosis’s feedback. The main problem in the leadership team is the lack of harmony. There is no teamwork spirit, which demotivates the employees, since they find it hard to work in unity. Lack of collaboration in the internal teams has completely damaged the management and operation of critical functions in the company. The internal teams are antagonistic; they have failed to understand that every team may have a different perception in life but still work together as a team, and the teams are not making any efforts to address the issues. Blaze mining lacks a proper platform for internal teams to interact and share ideas on how issues will be addressed. The teams should work towards addressing the issues, which can be achieved through team-building conflict resolution, training, problem-solving, and group dynamics.
Planning Change.
In this stage, the team focuses on addressing the identified issues. The management will explore ways to address identified issues in the internal department. The management should engage all employees in the leadership team to understand the cause of antagonism and lack of harmony and teamwork among them. They should look for ways to address the issues in the company. The team need to agree on specific strategies that should be used to achieve the desired results.
Interventions
This phase involves implementing plans to achieve specific objectives. The first plan is to develop an effective way through which the leadership team can engage one another harmoniously and work as a team. Lack of teamwork and collaboration has damaged the company management and operation function, thus affecting the bottom line. This is the greatest challenge in the company. Some employees feel like their views don’t matter; research indicates that when divisional and departmental teams in a company cannot get a platform to address their conflict, then every team propagates for what it believes is the best (Singh & Ramdeo, 2020). The problem with this is that it will create disharmony and antagonism within the teams, and sometimes the top management will have to intervene. The leadership team should undergo training, team building, conflict resolution, and problem-solving to solve this problem. Applying such strategies will help bring the teams together and create peace and understanding among them.
Evaluation
It is always critical to evaluate the results of the implemented solutions. If the evaluation shows that some problems still exist, then further improvement is needed, and the consultant should look for other ways to address the situation. New organizational development models should be developed to solve the organizational problem now and in the future. The new model should emphasize effective communication, teamwork, and research.
Conclusion
Blaze mining has dysfunctional leadership and management, affecting employees because of a lack of functional and structural support from leadership. This prevents the critical implementation of company goals and visions. The CEO has decided to hire an Organizational Development (OD) consultant. Organizational development interventions should be aimed at leadership and management issues in Blaze mining. The organizational development interventions entail entry, diagnosis, feedback, planning change, interventions, and evaluation. Additionally, the leadership team should undergo training, team building, conflict resolution, and problem-solving to solve this problem. Applying such strategies will help bring the teams together and create peace and understanding among them.