A reader mailed me the following:
Hi Gautam
I am a final year student of MBA, specializing in HR from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune. I have been keenly following your crisp & precise write-ups on a gamut of HR Topics and find them a refreshing departure(much needed!!) from the tedious, never ending management "gyaan" sessions we students at B-schools are subjected to.
With reference to your thoughts on "What is OD?", could you pls further elaborate specifically on the following issues I've been trying to seek answers to, but for which I could not locate any one single relevant and updated source:
· Where do you think "OD in India" stands today, i.e. what's the level or status of OD practice in Indian companies in general. Any noticeable patterns or trends wrt specific industries? Are certain interventions more widely used than the others? If so, why? Whats the level of maturity and expertise in India regarding OD?
· With regards to hiring an external OD facilitator(which you have suggested as the preferred option), are Indian companies increasingly looking at the option of having a full time in-house OD Specialist or is it still largely need based external help?
· Being one yourself, what according to you are the challenges OD practitioners in India face?
Its my first interaction with you, and I am hopeful of getting a thoughtful and enriching response, as I believe with your background and current positioning in the industry, you'll be able to give the right mix of "facts" and "perspective" for which no formally documented source may exist.
Have a lot many questions and unresolved issues storming my mind everyday, due to the very subjective nature of HR as a discipline. I sincerely hope I'll get timely guidance and answers to at least some of them through willing and accessible sources like you.
I replied:
Thanks for your mail. OD in India is interestingly poised – it differs according to the pedigree and the size and the industry of the organization one considers.
For example, large Indian MNCs that are emerging as global players are actually seeing the need for an internal OD person/group – handling things like Talent Management to Employee Surveys and research
MNC firms usually have a person too, however his/her role is merely to implement global tools in India.
Smaller firms and industries like media/PR/dotcoms are still struggling to grapple with basic HR processes – so OD is merely a name for Training.
My view is that OD practitioners in various organizations are learning on the job, and their own competence and exposure needs to improve to actually unleash the full power of OD for the business benefit of their organizations and people. There are fragmented groups doing their bit but they all use tools and technologies that have roots in 1970s and 1960s.
Hope that helps!
Just overgeneralizing a little bit for simplicity - i think OD in India is still very nascent in the overall picture considering all companies, all industries, local and MNC players. The MNC players have brought great OD concepts to India since the 90s but these companies are few in number. There is great intellectual horsepower in India and with some exposure to world class OD processes, this field has tremendous scope but will also involve a lot of change management and influencing skills for those who are interested. For mba students I would recommend joining an "academy" company like a GE or Xerox or IBM where you can pick up best practices. I also think to be an effective OD professional one must have the experience of handling HR operations. Its a great career option for the long term if this excites you.
ReplyDeletewhether this could be od type of work :
ReplyDelete1. initaiting Managerial/Staff Communication Meetings at Stovec, Gujarat Steel Tubes, Vadilal Industries bringing management and managers together sharing developments, opinions, information, etc informally every month leading to corporate togetherness and enabling manage change, respond to issues and iron out.
2. People involvement through Training at GST, ATUL, Vadilal - focusing on personal development, soft skills, sharing the emerging business vision/agenda, sensitising on TQM and Information Technology - a series of workshops covering large number of staff/supervisors/workmen.
MD spends the evening session with the participants listening to their suggestions for the organisation, clarifying perspectives, etc. The training conducted during hours of organisational crisis inducting some relief and soothing effects promoting optimism.
3. Inducting themes like bpr,world class manufacturing, juran for quality, hay job evaluation and thus enhancing managerial awareness for change, quality improvement, providing the tools @ atul ind, vadilal ind
4. Promoting workmen involvement through Quality Circles - top down approach, training managers on quality circles, forming experimental quality circle of shop floor managers for a few months before cascading to the shop-floor; educating workmen before setting up the quality circle @ stovec, prasad/prashant engg.
5. Initaing training culture at Atul/valsad through the Joint Management Council with representatives of Sr Management, supervisors, workmen - conducting a self development workshop for them to begin with, setting the tone for hrd in the organisation with the GM-Works present throughout the 3 day sessions who gets impressed with the quality of the workshop and gives a go ahead for cascading the programme to other Managers/Workmen, a combined programme to bring them together and enhance relationship effectiveness enhancing belongingness.
6. Introducing Self Appraisals and Performance Dialogues in place of confidential appraisal system bringing in openness, alongwith tools of performance planning, identifying training needs, feedback on encouraging and discouraging moments, suggestions for the organisation as a whole enabling sense the feel of the people with the organisation, done at Vadilal, Prasad/Prashant Engineering Group.
Where do HRD/OD merge!!! Does OD necessarily need have surveys, labeled interventions or a perceived od perspective is fair enough!
Just some humble sharings enabling
reflections and responses!Regards!
shantaramkhrd@yahoo.co.uk