Organizational change in a human service agency.

Abstract

An organizational change consultation was conducted with a large nonprofit human service organization. The consultation began with negotiations to gain entry to the agency followed by start-up activities at all levels of the organization. Seventy-two individual interviews were conducted. Interviews surfaced issues and concerns related to the climate, management, and operations of the agency and its eight programs. The mirroring (feedback) activity brought attention to the most critical issues in the organization for which action plans were developed and implemented. Employee follow-up survey results indicate favorable ratings for most action items. Lessons learned in the SHARE (pseudonym) consultation are presented for consideration by consultants working in human service and other organization settings.

The case of OD in an NGO in India

“…Bargal and Schmid (1992) refer to the paucity of literature on consultation done in developmental organizations. OD in nonprofit organizations provides some unique challenges for the consultant that may not exist in business organizations (Ramos, 2007;Waysman and Savaya, 1997). Developmental organizations are thought to differ from for-profit organizations in a number of ways (Brown and Covey, 1987).…”

“…Another often cited concern is the existence of high role ambiguity and lack of clarity about roles and procedures in such organizations (Goldman and Kahnweiler, 2000;McDonald, 1999). In his study of organizational change in a human service organization, Ramos (2007) discusses the poor communication across the various units/programs of the nonprofit.…”

“…The relevance of OD in developmental organizations have been cited variously as increasing the capacity of the social change agencies to cope with organizational problems (Brown et al, 2004), and enhancing the climate or operations of the non-profit agency (Ramos, 2007). Discussing the role of participatory action research in facilitating social change in an Asian developmental organization context, Brown (1993) argues for greater collective reflections of diverse constituencies and participants in order to address social change issues that are complex and loosely organized around various factors and institutions.…”

“…Using action research and democratic theory to guide forced dialogue, Gustavsen and Engelstad (1986) discuss the role of conferences or workshops as a means to engage organizational participants in an encounter that permits them to experiment with new types of interpersonal processes and promote dialogue in organizational change projects. Speaking of the consultant's role, Ramos (2007) points that the organizational consultation process employed could include assessment, feedback, and action planning components. Korten (1980) discusses the three stages of the learning process for a development organization as learning to be effective, learning to be efficient, and learning to expand.…”

The Change Approach to Capacity-Building Assistance

“…The assessment data was complied and reviewed by the CBA team and a report produced. The reports were in the format of "mirroring" (feedback) reports (Ramos, 2007). Our first series of reports were typically extensive, starting with the positive and ending with negative feedback (the staff's perceptions of weaknesses and threats).…”