Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL
Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL
Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Everything is like an everlasting problem-solving spiral in a continuously changing organizational<br />
environment. And it is like that because any real problems are strategic ones. They are about<br />
causes, which <strong>for</strong>m l<strong>and</strong>scape, <strong>and</strong> not about consequences that manifest themselves as various<br />
symptoms <strong>and</strong> discom<strong>for</strong>ts. The strategic management of organizational development involves<br />
setting objectives <strong>for</strong> development, solving corresponding problems or utilizing opportunities, <strong>and</strong><br />
holding the reins well in h<strong>and</strong>, especially at points of bifurcation.<br />
As our favourite Wikipedia states, “strategy <strong>for</strong>mation <strong>and</strong> implementation is an on-going, neverending,<br />
integrated process requiring continuous reassessment <strong>and</strong> re<strong>for</strong>mation. Strategic<br />
management is dynamic. It involves a complex pattern of actions <strong>and</strong> reactions. It is partially<br />
planned <strong>and</strong> partially unplanned. Strategy is planned <strong>and</strong> emergent, dynamic, <strong>and</strong> interactive.<br />
Some people (such as Andy Grove at Intel) feel that there are critical points at which a strategy<br />
must take a new direction in order to be in step with a changing business environment. These<br />
critical points of change are called strategic inflection points.” It is just great. Not so old-fashioned<br />
at all, is it?<br />
Who shall do it?<br />
Any manager at any level of an organization, if he or she as a manager is responsible <strong>for</strong><br />
something, shall be a strategist. This responsibility is shaped (or should be shaped – see Chapter<br />
1.3) by a set of parameters that should be kept within certain limits or should reach a certain level.<br />
These define objectives <strong>and</strong> criteria. Any manager operates in a certain organizational<br />
environment <strong>and</strong> depends also on certain external circumstances. That constitutes the <strong>for</strong>ce field.<br />
Projection of this <strong>for</strong>ce field into the future through the manager’s or his team’s mental map gives<br />
an image of the l<strong>and</strong>scape.<br />
Any manager, if he has at least something to do, should be able to influence some of factors<br />
creating l<strong>and</strong>scape parameters, <strong>and</strong> he is always able to influence the choices at bifurcation<br />
points. If the parameters that are supposed to be under his control deviate from the state that<br />
ensures a necessary l<strong>and</strong>scape <strong>for</strong> desirable changes – then he has strategic problems to solve,<br />
<strong>and</strong> may look <strong>for</strong> strategic opportunities.<br />
Any manager must solve his problems by elaborating <strong>and</strong> evaluating alternative courses of<br />
actions, making rational choices, planning <strong>and</strong> organizing his own <strong>and</strong> others’ activities to<br />
implement them, monitoring the situation along the way, evaluating results, <strong>and</strong> so on. There is no<br />
dilemma of a ‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’ approach. Anyone can do it, if he is a manager. Everyone<br />
should be involved if he is a member of an empowered learning organization. An organization as a<br />
146