Church, Where There Is a Charitable Organization

¶ … church, where there is a charitable organization that I occasionally do volunteer work for. The second is a small business, a local family-run restaurant. These two organizations will provide a sufficient amount of contrast so that I can compare them in my research. The volunteer group has only three or four key members and the rest are just volunteers. The restaurant is basically run by the husband and wife, with their kids and a couple of employees. As I understand these organizations, they both have just a couple of people who make most of the decisions. From what I have seen at the volunteer group, it is more organization by committee among the leaders and things are very collaborative. If there is a final decision-maker I would not now at this point. The restaurant tends to be either the husband or wife making the decisions, depending on what the decision is.

Part III. The first meeting is going to be introductory in nature. Basically I would want to introduce myself and what the project is. I do not have a clear sense right now for myself what the project is, so this is going to be a bit tricky. I will explain some of the mechanics of course, like the three cycles. Also, this first meeting will need to help me to gather more information about these organizations and learn a few things about how decisions are made in these organizations. I feel that this is quite important, because it will help to frame the project. If I am doing action research, then I will need a research subject matter and that will come from consulting with the client to get a better understanding of the client's needs.

Phase 1 Discussion Board

Part I. My definition of organizational development is the process of guiding how an organization evolves over time. OD includes, but is not limited to, subjects such as organizational culture, strategy, human resources development and any other aspect that governs or influences how an organization evolves over time to continually meet the needs of the different stakeholders. Organizational change is the process of shifting the course of this development. The organizational change process is not necessarily a one-off process, but can be an ongoing process as well. Often, organizational change and development occur as the result of changes in the external environment, because organizations often must adapt to shifts in the competitive, political or technological environments.

Part II. Action research seeks to put the researcher directly in the situation, and from there deriving critical conclusions. The researcher is directly involved in the research in this process, is an actor in this process, and therefore this distinguishes action research from other research types where the researcher is an observer or controller of the experiment. This form of research therefore is quite different, and relies on the ability of the researcher to understand what has been happening -- knowledge and experience are required to effectively interpret the situation and derive sound research conclusions.

Part III.

Management consulting is the process of becoming involved in the company, and seeking to find ways to improve existing management practices, organizational culture, organizational design and strategy. Consultants find ways to improve processes, for example, and this is a critical part of the consulting process. In essence, the management consultant helps the company to manage itself better, by providing information, insight and analysis that will help the company improve its processes and outlooks.

Phase 1, Discussion Board 3

Part III.

I was able to sit down with the two clients and begin to get a sense of their business. In both cases, I conducted a face-to-face meeting, because this is the best way to introduce yourself, gain trust and the flow of communication is much better when conducted in person. Both meetings went fairly well, and I think there was mutual understanding reached.

I learned a lot. Both the church volunteer group and the restaurant are more complex operations than I might have previously realized. I also was able to get a sense of how the key decision makers of both of these organizations function. I think this was important, because in both cases the people seemed to have fairly defined ideas of how their business should be conducted. This, to me, creates inertia and is a barrier to overcome in the organizational change process. I came away from these meetings with a set of notes and a sense of what might need to be done. Further meetings will elaborate on this, as I seek to perform an organizational diagnosis, with the problems that these organizations face in achieving their goals, and what I might be able to do in order to help them improve.