Transforming Organizational Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Transforming Organizational Culture - Essay Example The CEO contacted Merriam and during their meeting, he clarified the function of the department and indicated that the department was underperforming and presented her with issues he believes is contributing to their poor performance. The issues are: He also stressed that this was influencing the ability of the other departments in the organization to deliver on their outputs, and this directly effects the bottom-line of the organization. The OD practitioner suggested the collection of preliminary data so that subsequent diagnostic and intervention activities can be focused on addressing the correct contributing issues. She explained that the issues mentioned by the CEO are most likely only symptoms of the underlying problems. To analyse the problematic department the OD practitioner used the Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) survey, compiled through answers from questionnaires filled in by staff, to measure the characteristics of culture in the department. In figure 1, the results of the department wide survey has been plotted, giving a strong indication of an un-adaptive culture. The OD practitioner deducted from the OCI survey that their was almost a total absence of constructiveness in the department, with a strong extensions on the Passive/Defensive and Aggressive/Defensive styles. This showing compelling reasons why the department is experiencing absenteeism, low productivity and staff having very little or no job satisfaction. When the OD practitioner discussed the results with the departmental manager, he stated that the reason for absence of constructiveness in the department was due to the staff's attitudes towards management and their lack of discipline. It was clear that there was a total breakdown of trust within the department. The OD practitioner used the comprehensive open-system model to do an in-depth analyzes, to better understand the functioning of the problematic department in the organization. "The organization serves to coordinate behaviours of its departments so that they function together in service of a goal or strategy. The general diagnostic model based on systems theory that underlies most of OD is called the open-system mode," (Cummings & Worley, 2001, p84). Diagram 1: Comprehensive Model for Diagnosing Organizational Systems Through the above method, the OD practitioner found some of the contributing factors to the overall poor performance of the specific department. Firstly, the individual based performance appraisal and reward system tend to interfere with team functioning as each member is more interested in his own performance. Then organizational goals seem unclear within the department creating confusion and frustration among staff. Thirdly, coordination of staff efforts and regulation of their task behaviours by management are almost mechanistic, allowing very little innovation or group interaction. Lastly, the performance norms within