Case Study - Org Development

Organizational Development -
Case Study
K O PA L S H A RM A
Presentation on
A CASE STUDY IN – “ORGANISATIONAL ANALYSIS

AND ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT”
P r o f e s s o r L e s Wo r r a l l
Professor of Strategic Analysis
Coventry Business School
Coventry University
Contents
Backdrop of case study
Problems
Objective
Problem solving Strategy
Findings
Recommendations
Backdrop of case study
 The organisation which is the subject of this case study is a UK local authority that became a unitary
authority in late 1998.
 Prior to the upgradation to a unitary council, the organisation was a second tier authority (a shire
district).
 Several functions & services from a county council were then grafted onto the shire district to make it a
Unitary Authority. These included social services, education and a range of community based services
and facilities.
 At a stroke, the size of the organisation increased three times (as measured by headcount).
 The new council faced a wide range of organisational issues.

Problem
The key problem facing the new council was how to build a new organisation out of three distinct
sets of employees; each of which were working with different sets of terms and conditions :
i. the former employees of the shire district;

ii. the former employees of the county council and
iii. the newly recruited employees of the new unitary council
Objective
Chief Executive and the newly created Board of Directors needed information on the newly created
Unitary Council and they needed a baseline view of employees perceptions of the organisation as a
place to work.
This was to be used to identify the issues that a sustained program of organization building and
organisational development would address.
1. Management Vision - The senior management decided to take a longer term view to effectively monitor
the organisation’s development path to transform it into a more unified and cohesive organisation over
time.
2. Use of Independent Consulting - They decided that the research aspect of this long term organisational
development program needed to be conducted by independently of the council and, in early 1999, they
contracted the Management Research Centre to work with them as a long term partner.
3. Hiring of Head of Organizational Development: The council appointed a Head of Organisational
Development, whose roles was –
i. to work closely with the university first to design an employee attitude survey;
ii. to implement the research process;
iii. design and implement a communications process through which the results of the research process
would be fed back to the entire organisation.
-- Continued
-
4. Transparency and openness : The Management had a transparent communications strategy and an open
and honest approach throughout the process with all key stakeholders (e.g. councillors, trade unions and
specific groups of employees e.g. Groups representing Black and Asian employees; disable employees).
5. Design of the questionnaire and the wider research process :
i. The questionnaire developed such that it covered the areas that the Council as well as the employees
wanted covering.
ii. The number of units on which data was collected increased over time.
iii. The structuring of the data allowed analysis to take place at four distinct levels in the organizational
hierarchy: the whole organisation level; the directorate level; the service group level; and, the business
unit level. In addition to location within the council’s structure,
-- Continued -
iv. Data were also collected on an employee’s level in the organisation (chief executive or director; head of service
group; business unit manager; professional and technical; administrative and clerical etc); on gender, ethnicity,
disability, whether the respondent was had been employed by the previous shire district council, the county
council or had been recruited directly to the unitary council.
v. The structuring of the data ultimately allowed analysis to take place at four levels in the organizational hierarchy:
the whole organisation level; the directorate level; the service group level; and, the business unit level.
vi. Questionnaire was developed which focused on a number of key issues, themes and topics.
6. Communication strategy –
i. Transparent communication had been agreed at the inception of the research process. After each survey, the
university team produced a full feedback report that was made available to every council employee.
ii. Feedback sessions were held for each department.
-- Continued -
Findings
 The survey proved very effective in identifying poor management behaviours and indifferent leadership styles
not only at departmental and service group level but also at the business unit level.
 Analysis of the survey data revealed that the most potent driver of job satisfaction in the organisation was the
quality of the working relationship that employees had with their immediate line manager.
 This finding encouraged Council to develop 125 people that had significant managerial and leadership
responsibilities in the council.
 The heat map enabled the senior Management to get an immediate visual impression of where things were at
their best and where at its worst.
 The survey proved to be very valuable in bringing issues to the surface within the organisation.
 The heat map proved to have considerable value in helping the council develop actions targeted either on
specific business units, service areas or departments or on specific issues within specific business units, service
areas or departments.
-- Continued -
Recommendations
 After the next survey, a more corporate approach was taken where specific cross-departmental working groups
were set up to address wider organisational issues and problems such as bullying by management and poor
management behaviours.
 In the surveys following the establishment of this group, the level of bullying across the council declined
consistently and became much less variable across the council.
 A more detailed analysis of the data revealed that many of the issues raised in the surveys could be traced
back to managerial and leadership issues.
 As a specific exercise, the chief executive asked the academic research team to suggest measures and actions
that could be specifically included within the annual performance objectives of directors and service heads
based on the analysis of the data that informed the heat map.
 In some instances, managers were given leadership skills, development training and in other, more extreme
cases, replaced.
Recommendations
 The surveys allowed to the council to identify hot spots in the council where employees were overloaded, where
jobs were badly designed, where teams were not functioning well, where managers were displaying poor
leadership styles and management behaviours.
 It allowed the council to see which factors were reducing individual or collective job satisfaction.
 As the council got used to running these surveys, it got far more adept in learning how to use the information the
surveys provided.
 The more effective managers used the information analytically and diagnostically to develop insights about how
particular issues could be addressed.
 As a result of the surveys, the council developed a clearer view of the management and leadership behaviours that
they wanted all their managers to display.
 Over a period of time, all council managers were put through extensive leadership development training to embed
these values into management practices across the council.
Thank you!

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Organizational Development -

A CASE STUDY IN – “ORGANISATIONAL ANALYSIS

Professor of Strategic Analysis

Coventry Business School

Problem solving Strategy

 The new council faced a wide range of organisational issues.

i. the former employees of the shire district;

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