Organization development Essay

This paper presents an overview of an bind by Padraig Healy on gentility in Zimbabwean public bea presidential terms. It outlines the methods of organization phylogeny as detailed by Healy and offers a critique of the clause produced as a report on the implementation of his own study program as an alternative to previously implemented ones. The paper then goes on to assess the club Petroleum training Oman, offering insights into the social clubs leadershiphip structure, organizational culture, communication practices, and organizational structure.It also offers some analysis of these practices in light of organization development theory. Article Idea Summarized In the article by Padraig Healy, Training and Public Sector Reform An Integrated Approach, the author defines organization development as a strategic method of defining and aligning companies underlying goals in an effort to increase its potentness within the sphere of its operation. Healy reminds his readers tha t one of the main goals of such development is to facilitate the organizations superpower to compete with rival companies, and such competition takes place at the levels of performance and output.He emphasizes that it is through carefully planned developmental strategies as well as through their proper execution that these goals pile be met. He shows, also, that the ability to set and achieve these goals is of immense importance to managers in todays die hard environments. Healy demonstrates his understanding of the penury for training in building company capacity. Yet the article then gets more specific in addressing the limitations of training as a stand-alone method of organizational development.As a method of strengthening the capacity of an organization to handle each the aspects of its responsibilities, Healy offers an alternative that mixes capacity building with a top- galvanic pile cultivation of trust between/among managers and employees (Lesmeister, 1992). It therefo re goes without saying that the role of the manager is indispensable to the proper development of any organization, whose efforts are to be twin with an thorough understanding of the organizations culture in assign to attain the general and specific developmental goals set forth for the company.Discussion of themes and arguments Healy begins his article with a discussion of organizational development. He stresses the accompaniment that managers cannot afford to consider organization development as something that takes place spontaneously. Rather, he shows how it is generated through the orchestrated efforts of the stakeholders concern in a particular company. Planning is particularly necessary as such development involves a long range approach and a long-term commitment to the general course of action decided upon (CODL, 2004 Leadership and Organization Development, 2004).Such plans also involve detailed analysis of the organizations heathen climate as well as its performance as it regards trends as well as alongside its competitors. This particular point make by Healy hits on an important aspect of management, as without a detailed understanding of the positive and negative aspects of the current organizations performance, it becomes impossible for management to formulate and consummate an effective plan for improvement of the company. Healy also correctly notes that such improvement can occur on more than one level, not the least of which is employee performance.This multivariate affects new(prenominal) important ones, such as organizational output and general performance (Packard, 2005). The article then demonstrates how organization development is considered to be organization-wide since it focuses on the total system. It explains OD as the method through which a system whose climate is managed from the top, so that the heads of the organization set examples concerning the methods of action to be taken at all lower levels of the company (Gallaghe r, 2000 Mindek, 2005).The self-possession of the strategy by practiceers within the organization is thought to stem directly from this, as they are expected to take their cues from the executives. The article by Padraig Healy goes further by offering a practical action of the theory in a particular situation. It demonstrates how organization development was applied in the public sector and analyzes the success of the various approaches. The first step according to the organization development method is to implement a thorough analysis of and noise into the performance of workers within that sector.Healy finds that that though most of the employed people are the natives within their working environment, the quality of much of the work done is substandard. In order to solve this problem, rigorous training has been undertaken in order to improve the quality of work, thus increasing the outputs and the level of performance from the workers (King & Colonies, 2006). According to this practical section of the article, training is implemented as a series of events, which includes various workshops, seminars and study visits (Healy, 2001 Lesmeister, 1992).It is significantly diametrical from just adjusting the knowledge and skills of the employees in order to meet the demands of the organization rather, it can be classified as action research that focuses on the implementation of proposed improvement plan and the charting of the results at each stage of the implementation. Training people in that context demonstrated how much of an investment employee development is, and shows the major requirement of time and money involved.Furthermore, the Healy article suggests reasons why such large-scale development office be a luxury that most developed countries would have impediment achieving, though they would profit from it greatly (Healy 2001 McNamara, 1997). Strengths and Weaknesses In the article, Padraig Healy performs a good analysis in his consideration of the lo cal situation as he shows himself able to highlight the fact that the organization development performed in the public sector is demonstrates benefits of (as well as the necessity for) rigorous planning.Showing how this is achieved through an in-depth visualization of the situation helps the reader understand not just the concept of organization development but its application to real life situations. Healy also demonstrates a commendable ability to highlight (within this specific Zimbabwean context) the need for astute, active, and honest CEOs that can identify and take ownership of problems and their causes.Since the organization that already existed within the nation had already been associated with weak organizational systems, the results of the application of the training to these leaders as well as to employees demonstrated the need for reforming the training models (Lesmeister, 1992). Healys article was also very adept at explaining the need to have key policy makers and lead ers that are able to identify, reexamine and then redistribute the important roles involved in the organization.This proved more effective compared with its previous existence which was apparently at the district level (McCourt & Sola, 1999). In the Healy article, the concept of change is given great importance, emphasizing it all throughout the organization. This is in accordance with the theory of organization development, which is one that embraces change. Within the article, organization development is shown to be very important at the public sector level because it deals with various concerns, including human resources, changing the nature of the workplace, global markets and the overall acceleration of change.The fact that Healy gives a practical demonstration of the interplay of all these departments makes his argument for organization-wide development stronger (Kappeler, 2007). Furthermore, in the aspect of human resources, the article takes in consideration the most import ant worker in the organization the people who do the work. In demonstrating the importance of employee development and training, Healy represents this demographic as contributing the largest degree to the costs incurred by organizations.This approach is effective in demonstrating the dire need for training employees, which represent such a large portion of an organizations investment and have the ability to run across the success or failure for the organization. The assessment of the areas in which the training program was successful and where it failed also served as a good method of demonstrating the effectiveness of the unalike types of training programs. Information from this article can therefore be synthesized with others in order to further refine the methods of training in the hope of finding or creating one that is most effective.The organization development weakness (as shown through the Healy article and his application of the concept in Zimbabwe) is its low level of e fficacy in the sententious term. It can often prove self defeating that the real effect or outcome of organization development is most evident over a continuing period of timeespecially when organizational change is considered an expedient necessity. The paper demonstrates through its attempt to find an improved method of organization development, that even though more than one way exists, it is always best to have the luxury of time in which to implement any of the methods.However, one drawback of this paper is that it deals solely with methods of training, and does not mention other methods of organization development, such as employee promotion, merit-based pay, benefits attractive to already skilled personnel, and decrease of political control on public sector budgets (Besley & McLaren, 1993 Evans and Rauch, 1999 McCourt & Sola, 1999). finishing This article is essential in the field of organization development because it shows the various factors that are at play within publ ic sector organizations and how they affect the different aspects of these companies.Healys Zimbabwe example presents a concrete look at the complexity of organization development, and how it requires the training of leaders, the careful planning of things, the setting of goals, and other concepts that interplay in the performance of these goals. The article shows that organization development demands the totality of all the efforts beginning with the leaders (through management training) and then extending downward through the employees and into production.The Case of Petroleum Development Oman insertion Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is considered to be the biggest vegetable oil explorer and producer in Oman. It is a national company that has the biggest share in the countrys oil production, accounting for about 90% of Omans crude oil and almost all of the countrys natural gas supply. PDO can be considered as a large organization, wherein other companies share in its interest s, not only the country of Oman.Despite these strong points, the organization lacks unity in its management and leadership, and this disunity is funneled down to the level of employees. These problems are thought to contribute to a below-optimal production rate. Developmental Background In the Case of Petroleum Development Oman, it is managed and owned by secernate entities which include the Government of Oman, having a 60% share of interest, Royal Dutch Shell which has a 34% interest, Total, who poses a 4% share of interest and Partex who has a 2% interest (PDO, 2007).Because of this, the leadership and management are not fully unified, and this disunity factor creates an important effect in the case of PDOs organization development. starting of all, the proper approach to (and implementation of) organization development could help usher in a renewal process, which PDO could encounter when and if it chooses to focus on the efficiency and coaction of the administration.When ones speaks of efficiency, it is undeniable that PDO (like so many other organizations that are lacking in this aspect) just try to supplement this deficiency by increasing the size of the work force. Yet this has not solved the problem, but complicated it, as with the greater number of employees has come a larger responsibility for each managerial personnel. The difficulty of trying to manage a larger workforce with the limited amount of skill and unity has made the job of the manager that more difficult.In this, the company also demonstrates itself as being production oriented rather than employee focused. Yet the Islamic culture also plays a role in this set-up, where work teams are socialized to sacrifice their own comforts for the sake of the team objective. This is where organizational development has the opportunity to improve conditions at PDO. Leadership The leadership structure of the company is defined by a posting of directors that control the different divisions of the com pany North, South, and natural gas divisions.This board consists of 12 members, and included in this number are the managing director and the deputy managing director. The managing director serves also as chairman of the board. The standard setters, as mentioned earlier, are directed or overseen by functional directors, who are also in charge of recruiting and allocating the staff under their jurisdiction. Presumably, they are also in charge of seeing to the capabilities of that staff, by means of training as well as other methods.These functional directors are also in charge of determining the production process, and are therefore termed process owners (PDO, 2007). The work of the Petroleum Development Omans board of directors is to devise and make available to the managing directors the objectives of the firm. This is therefore a direct allusion to the planning that takes place in the companys organization development. The twelve-member board, which includes the Minister of Oil a nd Gas as chairman, are representatives of the country Omans government.This therefore points toward the inextricability of politics from the running of the company, and demonstrates that Petroleum Development Oman can be considered a definitively public-sector company. Therefore, the methods of training identified by the Healy study would appear to be applicable within this organization. Analyzing the situation from a developmental standpoint, one can see clearly that in several areas the principles of organization development are being properly applied in the case of this multinational company, Petroleum Development Oman.The notion of an organization is said to be a conglomeration of efforts from two or more people which are working together towards a common goal, and that is usually the issue of productivity and effectiveness. However, with management and leaders divided among governmental and private sectors, one might find some cause for alarm in the case of PDO. When it comes to the concept of leadership, the case of Petroleum Development Oman mirrors that of many other multinational organizations.PDO is headed by a number of leaders, since many owners exist within the corporation. The majority of the companys shares is held by the government maculation the rest is divided up among several smaller companies. The divided nature of the ownership could give rise to the lack of unity regarding the decisions that must be made about the companys management. However, the organization seems to have countered this through its representative board and the way it has chosen to structure its functionality division as the authors and directors of the companys process.