Work Design, Organizational Change and Development

Select an organisation you work for or one that you are familiar with.

Critically evaluate what the function of this organisation is: what is it there to do and how does it deliver its outputs or purpose from a WDOCD perspective?

In light of this, what recommendations would you make to improve it?

Describe and critically evaluate how relevant elements of organisation and work design, structure, change or development come together to enable this organisation to actually ‘do its thing’. How successful are these elements in working together? How do you determine this? What gaps does this reveal and what would you recommend to remedy them?

You might select a particular strategic intervention or other relatively large project you know about. The intervention should be at the level of strategic intent, workplace design or organisational change or development to enable you to evaluate the process as well as how well it delivers on its intended outcomes.

Suitable examples might include: evaluating delivery of the operating model or business model in a function or wider; an organisational re-structure, strategic or workplace re-design, implementation of a new reward and recognition system, the design or re-fit of a workshop, new premises, lab or technical environment in order to service business need, uptake of lean or project management methodologies, a strategic intervention to promote wellbeing across the business, an integrated competency framework for management & leadership across the business or, the organisational framework and aligned activities for an organisational initiative such as quality or behavioural safety etc.

*please note – It is not suitable or permissible to discuss an individual or team level intervention for this assignment e.g. a training event or performance appraisal experience. These maybe a part of a change process but it is the overall ‘business-wide alignment’ you must evaluate and make recommendations for optimising.

Remember to share your ideas for feedback on your selected topic from your tutors via discussions on BB.

Answer the following about this development intervention:

Describe the context and purpose (fairly briefly).
What is the background to this e.g. internal or external driving forces?
How are the business or organisational needs identified and clarified?
How consistent are its structural, process, design, change and/or implementation elements with relevant theory and literature on this subject (i.e. was it designed and implemented in a manner consistent with theory)?
What are the impacts of these elements on various stakeholders? Why?
How (if at all) are the impacts of these elements working together evaluated? What are the business metrics used to determine this?
What recommendations would you make to improve the overall business or organisational alignment, (e.g. all the way from strategic implementation through to potentially internal consultation, marketing or communications planning) and how does what you have learned in this module inform this?

Note also that the organisation or business alignment does not have to be successful, and you may not solve all of the problems. This task is intended to reflect your ability to de-construct, analyse and evaluate the real and ‘messy’ world of joining up an organisation in order to deliver its purpose and/or business output, blending experience with theory, and using constructively critical argument to make evidence-based and pragmatic recommendations, as would be expected from an OP Consultant.