Do and Don’t for Organizational Development Plan
The following are examples of why many students either are unsuccessful in the course (because of the high value of points for the Organization Development Plan) or make a low number of points for the OD Plan.
We will label this as the DON’TS for an Organizational Plan
- Do not write on the history of the organization. The” LIMITED EXTENT” of history for the organization should be restricted to information within the Abstract page which should be less than ½ of a page.
- Do not prepare and/or present an Organizational Chart of the current organization.
- Do not enter pictures of the current Executive’s nor the Board of Directors
- Do not present their Strategic Plan.
- Do not present their Vision Statement and their Mission Statement.
- Do not present their Code of Ethics
Inclusion of the above information will be “crossed out” when the instructor is reading and evaluating your submittal of your OD Plan for the minimum requirement of 10 full pages of text from top to bottom of margins of the pages. So if you include this information it will not be “included” in the minimum 10 page requirement of the OD Plan. Instead the above information will be eliminated. For consideration of value for points for the OD Plan.
THE FOLLOWINGARE THE DO’S FOR INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED IN YOUR OD PLAN!!!
- Listen to the last three or four “Quarterly Analysts Calls.” They will be on the organization’s Web site and/or under the section of Investors Relations. These calls are quarterly and they include the CEO and CFO of the organization presenting to Wall Street analysts the operational results for the past quarter. The introductory comments by the CEO have very little value as he or she will begin their comments with “I am pleased…….” Which in corporation “speak” for all he/she is going to talk about are positive metric performances as they do not want to address any of their shortcomings. But pay very close attention to what the CFO DOES NOT ADDRESS as you review their financial statements. The CFO will mostly back up the CEO comments with support metrics. But analyze the financial statements, did the CFO address aging of receivable, inventory turns, additions to capital assets and whether debt instruments were used to increase these capital assists. Pay very close attention to the liabilities, especially the long term debt instruments. And extremely close attention to whether they have a “Revolver” and what is its status. But most importantly pay specific attention to what questions the stock analyst make inquiries about. THIS MAY BE THE CORE OF THE AREA(S) THAT THE ORGANZIAITON IS IN NEED OF TRANSFORMATION. They will be addressing “what they are hearing “on the street.” In many cases this may be coming internally from employees as these stock analysts contact employees all the time especially at certain levels in the organizations.;
- Obtain a copy of the organization’s 10K. Look for problems areas especially tax related.
- Obtain a copy of the organization’s 8Q. Pay close attention to “activators” to executive bonuses or pay out, especially the “parachutes.” If someone is forced to leave.
- Review business databases (for instance, EMERALD) for articles that have been written on the organization. Especially areas regarding the company’s possible future interests.
- And with exception, if one has been written, obtain and read the book that might have been written by an ex-executive about his/her association with the organization.
The above are all excellent sources for finding the areas and issues that need to be transformed within the organization.
**AND REMEMBER, YOU HAVE TO CLASSIFY WHAT MODEL THE TRANSFORMATION ISSUE FALLS INTO. These models were listed in the course text. See below:
Course Text: Cummings, Thomas G. and Worley, Christopher G. (2005) Organization Development and Change. Ninth Edition. United States: Thomson Learning (South-Western),
ISBN 0-324-42138-9.
