Barriers to the effective implementation of organisational development interventions in South Africa
Date
2017
Authors
Chavda, Suchita
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Abstract
The concept of organisation development (OD) is a planned process of change management based on behavioural science knowledge and theory (Beckhard & Gallos, 2006). This assists top management in revitalising, renewing and improving organisations regarding human resources and technology (French & Bell, 1999).
The aim of this research was to identify the barriers that prevented effective implementation of interventions by OD practitioners in South Africa.
Fifteen Johannesburg-based OD practitioners from different organisations were interviewed through various OD networking groups. The thematic content analysis method has been applied to the data collected through these interviews.
The research found that the key barriers faced by OD practitioners are as follows:
lack of support from leaders and top management to OD interventions;
lack of commitment to resources provided;
employees’ resistance to change;
lack of alignment of strategy; strategic management of people and value systems; and
lack of transformational leadership skills to participate effectively in the intervention process.
The five barriers that were identified, therefore supported the research proposition. One of the biggest obstacles faced by OD Practitioners brought about due to the lack of support and skills of leaders and top management, this caused even the employees to show resistance to change.
They key message of this research is to escalate OD awareness, and to broaden the adoption of OD to prevent the barriers. The management, leaders, and practitioners must work with, and through the employees to achieve organisational objectives (Cummings & Worley, 2014).
Description
MBA(Thesis)
Keywords
Organizational change -- South Africa.Organizational behavior -- South Africa.