By

Ali Mujahid

&

Students of IOBM

The Concept of

Organizational

Development in Pakistan

By:

ALI MUJAHID AND

STUDENTS OF IOBM

Preface

The subject matter of “Organization Development in Pakistan”

refers to neither a textbook nor a research paper; rather it is a

concise manual, which is trying to give an overview of the subject.

The main goal of this manual was to develop the concept of

Organizational Development, so that new ideas can be developed

in this subject.

Vmuslims Publication

(ISBN 978- 969-9288-01-02)

Understanding Organizations

The concept of an organization is to help a group of people to

reach their desire goals and objectives. Organizational

development is there to improve the organization performance

so that the destination can be reached easily. For this to

occur the task of the organizational developer is to

continuously monitor the external environment and the

internal culture to propose the necessary changes. In order to

understand this phenomenon we will be using a simple analogy.

A Simple Analogy

This is a simple Organization: -

Now Imagine this simple organization has wheels

If the organization has wheels, then it is suppose to reach

a destination. We could call this destination anything like

goals, objectives or vision.

Like any other mode of transportation, this organization

would also require fuel. The fuel is revenue generator

In order to achieve a goal the organizational developers

proposes various changes that are needed to take place.

Sometimes they propose to add a new department:-

Alternatively, sometimes eliminate a department

History:

Opal Laboratories a mid – sized family owned

business back till 2005, had no concept of a Human

Resource Department.

CEO felt the need to implement a formal appraisal

system as upper level management from outside the

organization was being hired.

Between the years 2005 and 2006, the company

developed / formulated a Human Resource

Department.

CASE STUDY

Company: Opal Laboratories (Pvt) limited.

Location: Karachi, Pakistan

Case Topic: Performance Appraisal Implementation

Emergence of the HR dept:

HR manager was promoted from within the

organization’s existing employees. ‘’She was a highly

capable individual’’ says the CEO.

Her job description entitled her to design and

implement a performance appraisal system that was

both objective and covered all aspects of the jobs;

gradually allowing employees to adapt to the new

system.

The internal assessment of the organization made

the manager realize that the older employees felt

resentment towards the new method of evaluation,

Appraisals was a mere waste of time and that there

was a trust issue between the employees and the

management.

The employees felt their jobs to be in jeopardy and

wanted to find a way out of it. The employers on

the other hand wanted employees to realize the

benefits of an appraisal system i.e. depict what they

were doing wrong and how to fill those gaps.

Resistance from the employees end:

Employees felt resentment towards the HR Manager.

Some people filled out the forms and encouraged others

to give it a chance, only they were to benefit from this

feedback and in turn the company would benefit, giving

them a better chance to acquire personal satisfaction,

recognition and monetary rewards as well.

Resistance intervention by management for a positive

change model:

One employee in particular who resented the appraisal

forms was moved as a senior manager in a sister

company where he was required to carry out appraisals

of subordinates. Shortly after he conducted the

appraisals and provided the relevant feedback, he

realized the importance of conducting an appraisal and

saw the benefits it provided. He called upon the HR

Manager and requested her to conduct his appraisal in

order to weed out his short comings. He realized he too

had problems that needed to be addressed and was

highly grateful to the CEO for bearing with his attitude.

Conclusion:

Today, every employee except for the production labor is

required to have his/her appraisal conducted. This

guarantees their place in the organization and helps

them set better benchmarks pushing them further to

better realize the capabilities and areas of improvement.

Sometimes a proposal to change the culture of the

organization is necessary:

History:

National Bank of Pakistan realized that they are

falling behind other banks and in competition with

other giants.

Their main challenge was their bureaucratic culture,

which was hindering their communication hence the

established a Training &Organizational Department.

This department offers training courses to its

employees. It is due to these programs one can easily

see a change happening in the bank.

CASE STUDY

Company: National Bank of Pakistan

Case topic: Establishment of Training and development

department in a bureaucratic cultured organization.

One of their successful project was "Imply

Communication" In this program all regional head attend

a meeting with everyone even the clerical staff. Here

they solve and discuss issues which would put NBP on the

pathway to success.

Sometimes organization merges or buys another

organization

The Big Picture

Please study the following picture.

You would notice that there is an organization on the

lower left side which is about to start its journey to its

goal. Now in order to reach their goal they have to

choose three pathways. The swaps, the forest and the

mountains. These pathways are called strategies. The

strategy, which is chosen by the organization, is

dependent on the core competency of the people who is

driving the organization. If they are expert in mountains

then should choose the mountain route, however if they

are expert in jungle then they should use jungle route.

Now imagine that they have chosen the strategy and

they have decided to go through the jungle. In addition,

right in the middle the organization faced a calamity

and started to fall apart. Firstly, the organization will

try to repair itself. This repairing is called Intervention.

There are several types of interventions (which would be

discussed at a later stage). Therefore, the organization

decides that they need to change the strategy and chose

the swaps to reach the Goal. For this organization have

to initiate the change they would have to do several

things like a training program. People who were used to

going through the jungle; would now go through the

swaps. The culture of the organization would also change.

Diagnosing the Organization

It is very crucial for organization to continuously

diagnose itself. Just to see if they are going in the right

direction. The objective of this diagnosis is not limited to

look for problematic area but also to develop efficient

processes, which would help the organization

performance. Diagnostic occurs at three stages, at the

organizational level, group level and at the individual

level. A good diagnostic is dependent on the questions

that are asked at all three levels.

Habib Bank has their own way to diagnose the organization. The

Organizational Department in HBL co-ordinate itself with other departments.

Each department proposes new changes to the OD department. Then the OD

department takes their proposal and then recommends necessary changes and

the training, which has to be required.

Meezan Bank continuously takes feedback from their employees just to see how

they are going. The feedback is in the form of Questionnaires. With the help of this

survey, the process of Organizational Development becomes easier. Like recently,

the employees were not satisfied with the new location of the head office. This

was mainly due to security reason. As soon as the top management found about

this they immediately started Meezan Shuttle Service. A small air conditioned bus

with armed guards pick and drop employees from office to work.

The Change Model

To develop an organization the organizational developers

have to continuously bring changes. There are several

models of change. Lewin gave the earliest model of

change. His model was based on three basic steps;

Unfreezing, Movement and Refreezing.

This manual would also like to propose a change model.

The main objective of this model is to further simplify

the Lewin change model. This model has also got three

steps. It is called the “WHO” model.

The Functionality of the WHO Model

Step1: Discuss

Why are we bringing the change?

What are we trying to change

Where would this change occurs

This step is justifying the necessary changes that have to

take place.

Step 2: Discuss how this change would occur.

In this stage the organization, have to discuss the type of

intervention. There are four types of interventions:-

1. Strategic Change Intervention

Under this Intervention, the change agent resolves

the following Issue:

What product or services should be launched

Which values would guide the organization

Strategic Management process

2. Technostructural Intervention

Similarly, technostructure would resolve these issues:

How to improve the process of production and

services

How to design work

How each department would co-ordinate with

each other

3. Human Resources Intervention

This intervention deals with these issues:

How to attract competent people

How to retain them

How to recognize and reward them

4. Human Process Intervention

Finally, Human Process Intervention would deal with

these issues:

Leadership

Communication

Decision making

Solving Problems

Step3: Discuss Orchestrate (Implementation)

Application of WHO Model

Step 1: Why

Sales were declining due to severe competition given by the international

brand

Human resource was also the challenge. Nobody wanted to work for

them because the office was located on MA Jinnah (Security reasons)

Step 2: How

The company hired Mr. Mujahid Hamid who retired from Unilever china.

Step 3: Orchestrate (Implementation)

They moved their office to Dolmen Mall Clifton

They office space was designed to have a contemporary look

Open door policy was initiated

For Consultation and Training

About.me/alimujahid