Assignment 5

Analyzing Departmental and Individual Goals

In the following scenarios, you have scheduled a meeting with William Harwich, the President and CEO of Harwich Designs, to review your work as an OD consultant. In preparation for this meeting, you have reviewed the initial goals that you and Mr. Harwich established at the beginning of your consulting relationship.

Goals for Bellmead & Holland Consulting

1. Improve employee satisfaction

2. Reduce absenteeism, turnover, and errors

3. Decrease "distance" between CEO and employees

4. Match organizational structure to goals

5. Improve company-wide communication

In the following projects, you want to match the planned or completed projects with these initial goals to track your progress. For each project, identify each goal addressed by this project. Each of the following projects may address more than one goal. You will explain how these projects address this goal or goals. When you are finished with each project, compare your answer to the response of a more senior consultant.

For the first project, consider a company-wide meeting focusing on sharing knowledge between departments. Identify which of the following goals are met by this project. When you are finished, a more senior consultant will give an opinion. The possible goals include the following:

1. Improve employee satisfaction

2. Reduce absenteeism, turnover, and errors

3. Decrease "distance" between CEO and employees

4. Match organizational structure to goals

5. Improve company-wide communication

A more senior consultant said: This project addresses goals 3 and 5. Assuming there are cross-level activities in the meeting, this gives the CEO a chance to interact with employees with whom he would not normally have contact. This meeting will also improve company-wide communication.

Project #2: Consider how you would the mission and rules for meetings with the R&D group for new PDA features. Identify each goal met by this project. When you are finished, compare your answer to the response of a more senior consultant.

1. Improve employee satisfaction

2. Reduce absenteeism, turnover, and errors

3. Decrease "distance" between CEO and employees

4. Match organizational structure to goals

5. Improve company-wide communication

A more senior consultant said: This project will help improve employee satisfaction. The R&D group was fairly dysfunctional and the employees were unhappy. You may wish to review the Activity for Unit 2 to find out more about this situation.

Project #3: Change the structure so the internal OD consultants report to the headquarters as well as their local offices. When you are finished, compare your answer to the response of a more senior consultant.

1. Improve employee satisfaction

2. Reduce absenteeism, turnover, and errors

3. Decrease "distance" between CEO and employees

4. Match organizational structure to goals

5. Improve company-wide communication

A more senior consultant said: This is a structural change to match the goal of improving communication. As such, it meets both goals 4 and 5. You may wish to review the Activity for Unit 4 for more information on this situation.

Project #4: Redesign jobs in the production plants using job enrichment techniques. Identify each goal met by this project. When you are finished, compare your answer to the response of a more senior consultant.

1. Improve employee satisfaction

2. Reduce absenteeism, turnover, and errors

3. Decrease "distance" between CEO and employees

4. Match organizational structure to goals

5. Improve company-wide communication

A more senior consultant said: Job enrichment techniques are designed to help improve employee satisfaction and motivation. Since this was one of the initial problems brought up by Mr. Harwich at the beginning of the relationship, this is a logical choice for that goal. If the absenteeism, turnover, and errors are related to low satisfaction, those problems should also be decreased.

Question: If the absenteeism, turnover, and errors are not improved by the job enrichment, what other actions might be appropriate? Identify any other actions. When you are finished, compare your answer to the response of a more senior consultant.

A more senior consultant said: The action taken would depend on what was found during diagnosis. For example, if a diagnosis revealed that errors were due to insufficient feedback, then managers could be trained to improve how they provide feedback. Another solution would be to redesign jobs to provide more immediate feedback. If the errors are due to faulty equipment, then the equipment should be replaced. The techniques used for motivation should also be examined and perhaps changed.