Action Research and Organizational Development Essay

Organizational development is a term that can be defined in various ways. In a company set-up, it can be set to as a way of promoting and enhancing the effectiveness as well helping personal change. All these changes can be done and boosted by social science. In the modern world, there are changing trading mechanisms, competition among firms, and management differences and all these demands for new, justifiable, and improved organizational strategies (Weiher, 2014). With all these practiced, the efficiency and effectiveness of a firm are guaranteed. The current paper discusses some crucial aspects that revolve around organizational perspectives.

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Above all, most organizations cannot fully operate without facing challenges that affect their operations. Some of the problems that are common in multinational firms are attributed to the effect of the changing technology. The change has prompted many firms to adopt diverse business methods to meet the changing consumer preferences. With these changes in buying trends, businesses and other organizations have to develop mechanisms that ensure they survive and cope with consumer and customer needs. A definite shift in the example is the widespread use of the internet and mobile banking. In fact, this is a trend that has changed and replaced the traditional methods of banking where one had to make physical transfer of money or use the former means of money transfer such as MoneyGram. As a consequence, most of these multinational firms have found it hard to compete with these technologies based services. However, this growing challenge has prompted many organizational managers have noticed drastic declines in the turnovers and hence face a likelihood of their collapse (McLean, 2006). In addition, these challenging situations hamper these organizations with employment difficulties, and this may prompt the government to make regulations that affect the operations of these firms.

However, such organizations ought to adopt means and mechanisms aimed at rejuvenating the businesses. Firm managers and the affected shareholders are required to take measures that boost the operation of their activities. To succeed in this, the firm needs to seek the help from development consultants who are endowed with professional skills and knowledge to revive their operations. However, great care should be taken to ensure that a firm does not fall into the trap of using its consultants who may be biased towards their firms. The most preferred are outside consultants who portray the leakages and problems without bias. According to the Weiher clip, a consultant must embark on a data gathering mission that is crucial in making a solid decision used to offer guidance to an organization on the sectors that need changes and improvements (McLean, 2006). Data collection can be done through questionnaires directed to the existing management staff, group interviews, and others. However, all this requires a deep knowledge of an organization's structure and its leadership hierarchy. The ability to assemble statistical data within a set time frame can be a problem (Haneberg, 2005). Such a challenge is seen where individuals who are required to provide valuable information fear for the safety of their jobs and thus may interfere with the accuracy of the needed data. Therefore, over-reliance on such data by a consultant to make crucial decisions is challenging. The provided information from the questionnaires may give the wrong impression of an organizational structure and management that may translate to making erroneous conclusions. Therefore, the effectiveness of organizational development is highly determined by the quality, accuracy, and amount of data used to make corporate decisions.

References

Action Research: The Anchor of OD Practice - plusdelta.net. www.plusdelta.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Action_Research_OD_Practice.pdf

Artifact (2014): Organizational Development. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9iLMsogoR0

Weiher, H. (2014). www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhDzy_nmzkk

McLean., G., N. (2006). Organization development San Francisco CA - CRST - 501. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2016, from www.coursehero.com/file/p7ero84/McLean-G-N-2006-Organization-development-San-Francisco-CA-Berrett-Kohler/