Q.1 Organizational Development: Impact on Personal and Professional Improvement
For additional background and context on the following questions, read and review Reading 9.1 in the text Strategic Organizational Development Interventions: A Case of Microsoft Corp. Limited. (200 Words) needs to answer followings 4 questions.
(Book: Mello, J. (2021). Strategic Human Resource Management (5th ed). Cengage Publishing.1
- What is organizational development?
- How does it compare to personal and professional development?
- What is the significance of strategic planning and development on organizational development, training, and education?
- Almost everyone has participated to one degree or another in some form of training and development. Include some of your own experiences in your responses.
Q.2 Reply foe these discussions (ward) (100 words)
From the chapter reading, it appears that organizational development is the process of increasing an organization’s capacity to fulfil its mission through the enhancement of its human resources (Mello, 2021). Organizational development appears to differ from personal or professional development because organizational development seeks to improve the organization in a structured, homogeneous way to meet specific strategic goals (Mello, 2021). Personal, or professional development appears to imply more choice for the individual than organizational development. However, it appears that organizational development often influences personal development. It appears that in organizational development, employees engage in personal improvement experiences that meet overall organizational goals (Mello, 2021). This is in contrast to purely personal development in which employees pursue experiences that meet their career or personal goals without necessarily bearing directly on the firm’s broad, strategic direction.
I will be frank, I wasn’t very impressed with the 9.1 reading for a number of reasons. First, it was riddled with grammatical errors and run-on sentences. I am surprised the publisher allowed so many grammatical errors to make it into the final publication. Second, it reads more like a case of strategy through mergers and acquisitions rather than a human resources-focused approach to organizational development. The core of the article is speculation about Microsoft’s strategic motives for acquiring LinkedIn. I would have expected a focused case of pure organizational development from a human resources perspective. Only at the end of the reading do the authors finally get to how a merger or acquisition can develop an organization. They indicate that it’s through the acquisition of talent. However, it’s not even clear what talent Microsoft was trying to acquire and how it supported any of the authors’ speculated goals the merger/acquisition of LinkedIn supported.
I also believe the article didn’t really address the general categories of organizational development found in the body of the chapter reading either. In that respect, it wasn’t as good as the vignettes highlighting organizational development in the text. For example, the chapter addressed organizational development initiatives that go far beyond mergers and acquisitions. These included initiatives involving knowledge transfer and retention, training programs supported by individual performance review and compensation systems, corporate universities, and means by which employees can pursue degrees at the workplace.
Reference
Mello, J. (2021). Strategic Human Resource Management (5th ed). Cengage Publishing.1
Q.3 Write reply for this discussion (100 words)
I have gathered that organizational development is a systematic, organization-wide, and top-down endeavor to help an organization’s objective functions and health. It involves a thorough assessment of the company, the creation of a strategic improvement plan, and the mobilization of resources to carry out the initiative. A comprehensive organization transformation, such as a change in culture, reward systems, or overall managerial strategy, is linked to an organization-development endeavor. There may be strategic attempts that work with specific areas of the organization, but the “system” that needs to be altered is the entire organization (Mello, 2019).
Professional development refers to the resources that the employer would supply to employees in order for them to gain or improve their abilities. The employer would sponsor the training program in order to boost employee efficiency and develop company ideas by expanding their skills and expertise. This is different than personal development, which is knowledge-based qualifications that are not tied to the job specifically (Fuller et al., 2004). Outside-of-work courses are particularly beneficial to personal growth, but the experiences may not be relevant to or connected to, their occupations or organizational development in general.
The significance of strategic planning and development on organizational development, training, and education is fairly apparent in that these categories can be aligned strategically to bolster the organization’s goals with the employees’ increased knowledge in certain trainable areas. Strategic planning is critical to an organization’s success because it gives it a sense of direction and establishes measurable objectives. Strategic planning is a technique that may be used to guide day-to-day decisions as well as to evaluate progress and change strategies as you move forward (Sophia et al. 2015).
I am participating in this class specifically for personal reasons, however, my commitment to my employer is such that I made sure to align my activity outside of work with what I know will be beneficial to any strategic path my employer may decide to take. Therefore the professional development I am obtaining compliments the company’s goals as well.
References
Fuller, A., & Unwin, L. (2004). Expansive learning environments: integrating organizational and personal development. Workplace learning in context, 126-144.
Mello, J. (2019). Strategic Human Resource Management (5th ed). Cengage Publishing.
Sophia, O. M., & Owuor, D. (2015). Effects of strategic planning on organizational growth. (A case study of Kenya medical research institute, Kemri). International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 5(9), 1-15
Q.4 Q.3 Write reply for this discussion (Ares) (100 words)
According to Mello (2019), “Organizational Development (OD) is the process of improving organizations.” (Section, 9-1). This is a simplified explanation of what OD is. However, if you dig a little deeper, you may discover that both employees’ and customers’ expectations have changed. For example, employees expect more than just a paycheck (i.e., challenges, recognition, meaningful professional relationships, etc.). When it comes to customer expectations, they no longer just expect competitive pricing, but also constant improvements in the quality of the products and/or services they purchase. (Mello, 2019). It could be argued that whether an organization is able to deliver on all of these demands, will greatly depend on how effective the organization is able to use OD to continually plan and implement new processes to meet an ever-changing business environment.
According to Mello (2019), “While training and development focuses on the micro-aspects of organizational needs and responsiveness, OD focuses on the macro or organization-wide perspective of performance and responsiveness.” (Section 9-6). In other words, an organization’s professional development efforts aim to improve the work skills and knowledge of individuals and groups (focus is internal), while OD focuses on the whole organization and how to improve the organization’s processes to deal with external challenges in their business environment, so the organization is able to remain profitable. On the other hand, an individual’s personal development may or may not align with the OD and/or professional development goals within an organization. However, it could be argued that some employees’ base their personal development goals around what they perceive could be beneficial for them in their professional career.
Mello (2019) wrote the following: “Training and development of employees is a key strategic issue for organizations: It is the means by which organizations determine the extent to which their human assets are viable investments.” (Section, 9-8). Organizations that invest in the training and education of their employees do not do it simply out of the kindness of their heart, but because strategically they see a benefit to the organization’s ability to improve organizational outcomes, by also strategically planning OD interventions at the right time and on the targeted organizational processes they want to improve within the organization to ensure they are able to remain competitive.
While serving in the U.S. military, I was constantly involved in some type of training and development activities. For example, I was re-assigned to be a U. S. Army Instructor to teach a leadership course for junior noncommissioned officers. Within a week of reporting to my new duty station, I was sent to school for 4-weeks to attend the two (2) instructor training course that I was required to complete to get certified as an instructor before I was authorized to teach the leadership course at my new duty station. I also participated in other types of military training and development focused on improving job skills and knowledge which were directly related to my military occupation.
REFERENCES
Mello, J. (2019). Strategic human resource management. (5th ed.). Cengage Publishing.
