Organizational development strategies for managing micromanagement in workplace culture

Micromanagement

Anticipating the Need to Change

Organization Culture

OD Consultant Consideration

Diagnostic Process

Overcoming Resistance to Change

Institutionalization Timelines

OD Intervention Strategies

Adjusting organizations to accommodate Micromanagement

Organizations are never static. They are in continuous interaction with internal and external forces. Organizational Development (OD) is the long-range effects and programs aimed at improving an organization's ability to survive by changing its problem-solving and renewal processes. OD invariably moves towar an adoptive organization and achieving corporate excellence by integrating the desires of individuals with organizational goals. Organizational development is an effort which is 1) planned; 2) organization-wide; 3) managed from the top to increase organizational process using behaviorial science knowledge. I have identified a problem that lends itself to resolution using organization development and change techniques. This problem is getting a new boss who is a micromanager and the need to adjust office dynamics to cope with him. Micromanagement diminishes people and slows organizational development. It erodes customer relations because individuals cannot make decisions on their own. Ultimately, it robs employees of their self-respect and organizations of their future.

Organization Culture

Park University is traditionally an "institution of higher learning committed to the pursuit of knowledge, to intellectual and social development and to work and serve within a non-sectarian Christian setting" (Park 1, 2000, p. 11). In recent years Park has become an innovated leader in delivering distance education. "Park University has provided benchmark educational programs to military and other extended learning students for more than 25 years. These extended learning programs, offered at sites nationwide, became the foundation for the enhanced and multifaceted distance learning system. Since 1996 distance learning formats have been used to meet the unique needs of students nationwide." (Park 2, 2000, p. 2). Distance education is still a rapidly changing and innovative environment, and micromanagement stifles the creativity which is necessary for the organization's success in such a competitive environment

OD Consultant Consideration

Once a micromanager is in power, there is little his or her staff can do to change the behavior. Instead, an outside consultant is necessary at this point. Change leaders (either consultant or manager) is a person in the organization responsible for change existing patterns to obtain an effective organizational performance. OD practitioners have come to realize that conventional training techniques are no longer sufficient for the effective types of behavioral changes needed to create an adaptive organization. New techniques have been developed to provide participants with the company with the motivation to alter ineffective patterns of behavior. Bennis (1969) notes that "external consultants can manage to affect ... The power structure in a way that most internal change agents cannot." Since experts from outside are less subject to the politics and motivations found within the organization, they can be more effective in facilitating significant and meaningful changes

Diagnostic Process

I would pick the Management Consulting Model. The management consulting model would involve an external change agent looking at the situation from the stance of a disinterested observer and making observations. To collect data, the consultant would use a survey of the employees in the company. This technology is probably the most powerful way that OD professionals involve very large numbers of people in diagnosing situations that need attention within the organization and to plan and implement improvements. The general method requires developing reliable, valid questionnaires, collecting data from all personnel, analyzing it for trends, and feeding the results back to everyone for action planning

Overcoming Resistance to Change

There is a formula, which we can use to decide if an organization is ready for change:

Dissatisfaction x Vision x First Steps > Resistance to Change

This means that three components must all be present to overcome the resistance to change in an organization: Dissatisfaction with the present situation, a vision of what is possible in the future, and achievable first steps towards reaching this vision. If any of the three is zero or near zero, the product will also be zero or near zero and the resistance to change will dominate.

Institutionalization Timelines

Leadership Plan Matrix ror Development of a Hybrid Course

Initial Stage

study current state* ask questions* market the idea* develop "buy-in" ask for hybrid adjunct faculty member volunteers*train hybrid volunteers*design and implement hybrid internet-based learning community Transition Stage* begin teaching pilot hybrid courses*assess the success of hybrid courses*provide leadership to internet-based learning community *new procedures introduced Institutionalization Stage*revise reward and compensation systems *promote/advance those who support and teach hybrid course*develop hybrid teaching manual *goal achieved

Continuous re-evaluation, two-way communication, feedback, recognyition and reward

Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug

OD Intervention Strategies

What OD intervention(s) could potentially solve the organization problem, disequilibrium, or need for improvement? Why would the selected intervention be the most effective? How would it be implemented? . Here are some possible OD interventions that can help solve the problem of micromanagement:

Applying criteria to goals. Here the leadership establishes objective criteria for the outputs of the organization's goal-setting processes. Then they hold people accountable not only for stating goals against those criteria but also for producing the desired results.

In-visioning.This is actually a set of interventions that leaders plan with OD's help in order to "acculturate" everyone in the organization into an agreed-upon vision, mission, purpose, and values. The interventions might include training, goal setting, organizational survey-feedback, communications planning, etc.

Team Building.This intervention can take many forms. The most common is interviews and other prework, followed by a one- to three-day offsite session. During the meeting the group diagnoses its function as a unit and plans improvements in its operating procedures

Management/leadership training.Many OD professionals come from a training background. They understand that organizations cannot succeed long-term without well-trained leaders. The OD contribution there can be to ensure that the development curriculum emphasizes practical, current situations that need attention within the organization and to monitor the degree to which training delivery is sufficiently participative as to promise adequate transfer of learnings to the job.

"Walk-the-talk" assessment. Most organizations have at least some leaders who "say one thing and do another." This intervention, which can be highly threatening, concentrates on measuring the extent to which the people within the organization are behaving with integrity.

I picked Management training as the intervention because micromanagement is usually the result of past experience and background of the manager. The manager may have come from an environment, such as fast food and manufacturing, whereas micromanagement is an accepted management form or his micromanagement may be the result of a personal desire to maintain control and power. The first step would be to educate him that micromanagement is not an acceptable management style at Parks and to present some alternatives to micromanagement., such as delegation of functions and team-building.

Conclusion

Micromanagement is a serious problem in the distance learning because micromanagement, in the long run, saps the creativity and motivation needed for success in a competitive environment. A suitable OD interventions would include an outside consultant evaluation and management retraining and education.