Organizational Diagnosis
An Organizational Diagnosis is a process employed by I/O practitioners to evaluate organizational performance at varying levels. Diagnostic tools are used to assess the organizational processes to which initiatives for change are made for the organization. Once data analysis is performed, potential areas of improvement are identified. Appropriate interventions and recommendations are selected to address those areas for improvement and help the organization better meet its goals.
Organizational change is a fundamental process of organizational development. These efforts are directed toward increasing organizational effectiveness. By enacting planned change, organizations can be more proactive in managing their longevity and growth. This process is also effective at identifying potential issues and utilizing evidence-based approaches for planning solutions.
Background
Island Bodega
Island Bodega is a superfood specialty shop located in Cerritos, California. They pride themselves on their locally-sourced, high-quality ingredients. Their team is comprised of 10 team members including 3 shift leads and 1 manager who is also the co-owner.
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At the time of this consultation, the organization was in a transitional period of adopting shift leads as a new leadership role. The goal was to better allocate and distribute leadership responsibilities from the manager to senior staff members.
Process Overview
Entering & Contracting
Diagnostic Model
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Intervention & Recommendations
Data Collection
Research
Social Media Precense
Online research allowed our team of external consultants to gain an impression and gain an understanding of the company from their customer's point of view. This allowed for us to gain a more objective, third-party outlook on the organization. This is crucial because the organization has a decent social media presence and heavily relies on this format to advertise both their products and job openings.
Observations
Observations
In-person observations were conducted by the consultants over a three-day time frame. It is vital the observations occurred at different time points where the employee shifts varied and on at least one weekend day. This was in an effort to best encapsulate the varying work demands, tasks, and conditions of the employees. Informal interviews occurred during these visits. The data collected was used to inform the direction of the interview questions.
Interviews
Interviews
Both formal and informal interviews were conducted to gauge the conditions within the organization. The informal interviews were conducted with the manager and employees that were present during our observations. The questions regarded their tasks, attitudes toward the company and their peers, as well as any qualms they wanted to share. The formal interview questions were standardized and inquired about the environment and climate of Island Bodega, employee experience, management/leadership, and concerns expressed by employees during the observation stage. A total of 6 interviews were conducted ( including the manager and 2 shift leads).
Findings
The data was analyzed using Voyant Tools -- a web-based qualitative data analysis application. Text analysis was utilized to render word frequency. This was then used to identify relevant themes and patterns from the stakeholders' responses. An analysis was conducted for each of the interviews.
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Human Resources
Systems
We found that though the organization has certain HR systems in place, they are missing certain components of a fully functioning, structured, HR system. Some aspects include formal feedback and performance reviews as well as a lack of disciplinary action. This is a critical area that could use further development.
02
Leader Development
The position of shift lead is new and employees in this role have not received any form of leadership training. It would be beneficial to develop a training program to further develop leadership and management skills for the leadership team.
03
New Hire Training
Tenured employees revealed that the new hire training was a lot more structured and thorough in the past. This leads to performance issues in the new hires -- disrupting productivity for members of the team. Additionally, insufficient staffing during onboarding and training has lead to role-overload. This leads to a decline of quality in the onboarding and training process as well as decline in productivity for employees on that shift.
Recommendations & Interventions
HR Systems
Address the issues:
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Inconsistent and lack of feedback
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Lack of disciplinary action
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Lack of performance evaluation
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Lack of employee commitment
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A lack of or inconsistent feedback can funnel into employee morale and motivation.
Additionally, a lack of disciplinary action has reared some issues such as employees calling out of their shift at the last minute or employees staying past their assigned shift time to cover for late or missing employees. This disrupts the workflow and can be a detriment to teamwork and employee trust.
A fully functioning Human Resources System is meant to uphold a sense of order and clarity for employees and management. Without this in place, it can prevent the organization from optimal performance.
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To combat these issues, the organization should utilize employee involvement to formalize the needed HR processes. Planning meetings will be conducted among the employees to curate ideas for this process.
This will lead to a shared mental model which provides a higher sense of clarity for all members of the organization. Employee involvement will also increase the likelihood that employees are committed to and accepting of the new work processes because they contributed to its creation. This contributes to having empowered employees with a sense of job enrichment, autonomy, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.
Leadership Development
Address the issues:
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Missing formal leadership training
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High turnover, lack of communication, low morale
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It has been reported that there is a communication issue within the leadership team. This could lead to poor relationships which can further lead to workplace dysfunction and even resentment.
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Withouth the necessary KSA's, the leaders within the organization will struggle with giving the necessary guidance to their employees. Long-term, this is detrimental in that it can lead to the derailment of organizational goals.
A management and leadership intervention would help ensure that members of the leadership team would be properly trained on the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform well on the job. Some of the issues presented in the data analysis are common symptoms of poor leadership. This can be done with an external consultant to administer a management and leadership training program.
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Some topics that the training should cover that are relevant to this organization include goal setting, performance appraisals, leadership styles, and communication.
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Prepared leaders can result in stronger teams and work ethics. They will have more role clarity and be in a better position to support their team. This type of intervention has been shown to increase retention and decrease turnover.
New Hire Training
Address the issues:
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A decline in the quality of new hire training
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Disparity in employee performance and readiness
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Role-overload
This change in the quality of new hire training can hinder the performance of new employees. Their skills might be developed at a slower pace -- some employees might never learn certain skills.
We learned that some employees might be comfortable not knowing how to perform certain tasks and rely on the tenured employees for them. This is an impediment to the acquisition of KSAs which can potentially harm motivation, teamwork, and performance in the long term.
It has been reported that there is a communication issue within the leadership team. This could lead to poor relationships which can further lead to workplace dysfunction and even resentment.
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Withouth the necessary KSA's, the leaders within the organization will struggle with giving the necessary guidance to their employees. Long-term, this is detrimental in that it can lead to the derailment of organizational goals.
03
At the beginning phases of the consultation, we had proposed that a new hire training handbook would be a useful tool to implement in the training process. This would give the clarity and structure that employees expressed needing. During the later stages, it was revealed that this had been implemented in the organization. With this, we recommend that the handbook remain part of the onboarding process. ​
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Another component we recommend is a stress-management intervention. Role-overload seemed to be a prominent issue due to new hire training. The training has to balance their time and resources between properly training the new hire as well as taking on their usual workload. The addition of at least one more employee on closing/busy shifts or shifts with new hires would be beneficial.
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Team building is also recommended in the intervention. Biannual bonding events should provide employees with an opportunity for all employees to interact and meet one another. This will help build morale, trust, and team performance. This not only helps the interactions between members within the organization but can influence more positive customer interactions.
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Reflection
Accomplishments
Future Considerations
We were able to build rapport and establish a strong trusting relationship with our clients. This is incredible because it can be a vulnerable process for the organization. Our team invested very earnest work and had great synergy as we worked our way through the project. Through that, we learned how to be client-centered and were able to maintain our focus throughout the project.
Through this process, I was able to revitalize and solidify my interest in organizational development. This was an incredibly exciting project to be a part of with such an amazing team.
I was able to make our suggestions purely based on well-informed theoretical and scientific methodologies while also tailoring them to clients. It was important to give them the best recommendations possible that were within reach, that was feasible.
To progress the project with the organization. It would have been advantageous to continue our work with them and conduct evaluations. This way, we would be able to measure and determine the effectiveness of the interventions and recommendations.
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The timeframe in which the project was required to be completed served as a limitation. If granted additional time, another data collection technique could have been utilized to add to enrich the data. Preferably, a focus group or a survey would have also been implemented. At the time of this project, the organization had acquired 2 new hires. Following the progression of the new hires and inquiring about their experience would be very advantageous to the formulation of the new hire recommendation.
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Create evaluations for the interventions
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Additional data collection techniques
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Longer timeframe
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Continue partnership with the organizatio to implement interventions
We were able to build rapport and establish a strong trusting relationship with our clients. This is incredible because it can be a vulnerable process for the organization. Our team invested very earnest work and had great synergy as we worked our way through the project. Through that, we learned how to be client-centered and were able to maintain our focus throughout the project.
Through this process, I was able to revitalize and solidify my interest in organizational development. This was an incredibly exciting project to be a part of with such an amazing team.
I was able to make our suggestions purely based on well-informed theoretical and scientific methodologies while also tailoring them to clients. It was important to give them the best recommendations possible that were within reach, that was feasible.
We were able to build rapport and establish a strong trusting relationship with our clients in a short time frame. This is incredible because it can be a vulnerable process for both the consultants and the organization. Our team invested very earnest work and had great synergy as we worked our way through the project. Through that, we learned how to be client-centered and were able to maintain our focus throughout the project. Additionally, I was able to revitalize and solidify my interest in organizational development through this project. This was an incredibly exciting project to be a part of with such an amazing team. We kept to our mission of helping the organization by basing our suggestions purely on well-informed, theoretical, and scientific methodologies while also tailoring them to the client. It was important to give them the best recommendations possible that were within reach, and that were feasible for them.
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Application of organizational development
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Establish trust and rapport with the organization and its stakeholders
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Served as the key coordinator for my team
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Utilized multiple data collection techniques
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Address concerns expressed by key stakeholders
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Provide the organization with effective interventions
Client Testimonial
"A few months back Cristy and her group volunteered to perform a research project on Island Bodega. The objective simple, to identify issues in the workplace from an outside, unbiased perspective. The group served as private consultants whom conducted their research through observation and interviews. Island Bodega was given a thorough report with feedback in correlation to the group's findings. Results? Our training has improved and our employees have an amazing dynamic! We've doubled our staff and are continuously working on strengthening our team culture and bond. Cristy and her group did an amazing job! Phenomenal feedback by a phenomenal group!"
Competencies Utilized
Stakeholder Management
Building rapport with both the leadership team and staff members to establish trust. This enabled us to understand the working environment and obtain enriching and meaningful data.
Project Management
Planning and organization were essential skills that carried this project to its successful completion. There are many components and stages to consider while working with team members and our stakeholders.
Teamwork
Teamwork was an integral component to the success of this project. A lot of coordination and collaboration between team members were required to collect data, analyze data, and formulate ideas.
Communication
I had the honor of leading and coordinating our team's communication with the organization. Communication was crucial to every aspect of the project. This was essential to relay ideas, messages, and intentions to both team members and stakeholders.
Problem Solving
Organizational development requires planned change and a systematic program for change. This requires that gaps between the organization's current state and ideal state are identified. Gaps and issues were identified and followed up with a proposed action plan to address said issues.