CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.3 Understanding of Organisational Development
The views that emerged from the interviews was that organisational development is a process of upgrading organisational processes, products or functions to become more competitive and resilient in an ever-changing global market. The complex globalised world has forced
organisations to realign their focus through organisational learning, knowledge management and the transformation of the values and norms of an organisation.
The general understanding of the term Organisational Development has taken different forms from the classical organisation theories to modern theories but what remains as its underpinning is continuous improvement of organisations and their processes which are born from self- discovery of the organisation and shared learnings from peer organisations.
It is therefore necessary that any individual involved in organisational development should have an understanding of the continuous evolving of its practices and the need to learn from own experiences as well as those of others. When asked about their understanding of organisational development participants offered varying responses. One participant responded that:
My understanding is linked to OD’s traditional and basic view which is the intentional process of assisting an organisation to improve its effectiveness and efficiency. (Participant 6)
The general understanding of organisational development by participants in the study was unanimous. One participant responded that:
Organisational development is like a secrete tool that can transform an organisation to be better especially when the intended change is clear. (Participant 8)
50 One of the participants admitted that his organization had adopted the P-Kanban OD approach as they were having a problem with finding a process system to assist them with inventory. This is shown in the excerpt below:
We had a major problem with inventory and storage of complete products. The P-Kanban approach has improved our processes. However our second major challenge is finding an OD approach to assist with the chronic absenteeism of our employees with the absentee ratio on Mondays being 2:1 so for every 2 people there is 1 person who is absent, therefore we have to put employees on standby. (Participant 3)
Organisation development approaches vary and it is within that variety that organisations can adopt an approach that can address their challenges. One participant informed the researcher that they recently adopted the Japanese 5S workplace organisation method approach. This is shown in the excerpt below:
The factory floor was much cluttered and was posing a hazardous threat to employees. The company through the Just in Time production approach adopted the 5S technique to assist us with being efficient and to comply with our Health and Safety Department. (Participant 2)
Adoption of Organisational Development practices is the key in implementing a catalyst for effective change. The excerpt above is in line with the definition of organizational development provided by Cummings and Worley (2008), which states that it is “a process that applies a broad range of behavioural science knowledge and practices to help organisations build their capacity to change and to achieve greater effectiveness, including increased financial performance, customer satisfaction, and organisation member engagement.” (Cummings & Worley 2009: 1). The assertion by Participant 3 demonstrates that adoption organisational development approaches (P- Kanban in this case) can effectively reduce wastage from inventory damage within the organisation and also the finances of the business. The ability to have an inventory and storage system will positively affect the operations of employees in the organisation.
Organisational Development is an instrument that organisations utilise in order to improve their processes. The understanding of that is rooted in the work of early pioneers, understanding what
51 the organisation requires and how to achieve it is what endogenous OD approaches are developed for. One Manager remarked:
Our company services international OEMs we make a really expensive component that is strictly for export. Therefore we have been having serious challenges with the skills of our employees, we have looked at local Artisan training schools in Durban and they do not offer the specialised skills that we require. As an organization we have started to train our own staff in-house, this is what we have been doing for years. We send a few Artisans to our international counterpart for training and they come back and train the other employees. This has enabled us to deal with the skills deficit of our employees and the available labour force. This has had positive results and this has equipped our employees with skills that the jobs requires. (Participant 1)
Belis-Bergouignan et al. (2000) advised that there is no “one-size fit all” solution for organisations, therefore, there will be some experimenting by organisations to find what works for them either through consultation or organically. The response from the manager in the excerpt below is in line with the assertion by Belis-Bergouignan et al. (2000). The Manager stated that after employing multiple measures, they have not had successful results which has led managers to believe that there is an innovative intervention that needs to be developed. The Manager remarked:
There is a need to look into an Ubuntu based OD approach because with the approaches adopted and onsite facilities that we have set up like the onsite clinic with a full time nurse, absenteeism is still prevalent. Therefore, there is a need to understand the employees on a deeper level, so that Management can adopt approaches that will make employees committed to the organisation. (Participant 10)
Participant 10 further highlighted that when the firm implemented its OD strategy there were high hopes that employees would find new motivation to fully commit to the organisation’s vision.
However, due to the limited results they were getting, it had become necessary to find an external consultant who may be able to find a way that obtains buy-in from employees. He commented that:
52 Things are still not good. We did not see any material changes despite the intervention. We are thinking of hiring a consultant. This is happening unfortunately at one plant. The other plants seem to be operating well. We believe it could be that the employees had adequate induction, they bought into the concept, and they work together with their management.
We have to learn some best practice from within before we go out perhaps, and understand how the other plant managed to sort out their problem with absenteeism. (Participant 10) One Manager informed the researcher that their company has developed a truly endogenous approach to deal with absenteeism. This is also in line with the theoretical foundations of Organisational Development which nested in Organisational learning which informs change and organisational development as outlined by Brends and Lammers (2006) who argue that “at the heart of learning lies change, and change is the core feature of processes” (Brends & Lammers 2006:3). After doing some internal research through a workshop with a group of employees they understood that an African aspect to how they ran their business was needed. This is explained in the excerpt below:
As African companies we need to understand that our employees are Africans and have African problems. After a workshop with our employees with our HR practitioner is that some of their issues are African and sensitive things like internal witchcraft being used on them by fellow colleagues. It’s these sensitive issues that make them take time off work to deal with their problems. HR also noted that sometimes because of the nature of their illness they cannot use Western Doctors. There are traditional illnesses which stem from cultural/ancestral origins which require them to consult with a Sangoma and they cannot come to work while they are under treatment. They have requested HR to please allow flexibility for these cases because ‘izinto zesintu’ (these are traditional things). HR and Senior Management have now managed to create a wellness division that understands the African culture and can counsel employees and the company then contact the Sangoma to verify if the employee consulted with them.
We have developed a system to financially incentivize employees who have not been absent from work. This has seen a drastic drop in absenteeism of employees because the company was losing hundreds of thousands because of not hitting production targets that was because of just having skeleton staff on Mondays and Fridays. We then collectively decided
53 to start this program to instil positive reinforcement a system that is like a performance bonus but is attendance based. (Participant 5)
This brings to the fore the need for creativity and innovation for the desired change to materialise through organisational development. William Pollard argued that ‘without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement” (Pollard 2010: 116). In this case the recognition of traditional practices by the organisation signified a change in the attitude of management towards employees. This change in attitude then led to the organisation employing innovative ways to guard against absenteeism, and the results have been coming. Reduction in absenteeism benefits the firm in that productivity is increased which has a knock-on effect on the finances of the organisation as well as its ability to satisfy its clients. Maslow was a pioneer that developed the “Theory of Human Motivation”. The theory by Maslow has led to the understanding of what motivates employees, which has identified that incentives and implementing new ideas would increase employee fulfilment and thus yield a positive outcome.
There has been an acknowledgement that there is need to include the concept of Ubuntu when developing organisational development programmes in Africa. “Ubuntu and African management as the epistemology underpinning organisational development programmes in South Africa has risen dramatically over the past decade” (Moerdyk & Aardt 2003: 11). The organisation represented by Participant 5 can be said to have drawn from the concept of Ubuntu to transform employees’ experience at the workplace. It can be argued that it is motivational enough for one to know that their cultural or traditional way of life is acknowledged and valorised by their employer.
It can change the employee’s attitude from negative to positive and the results will be for the benefit of the organisation as indicated by Participant 5