Structural Intervention :
This refers to intervention or change efforts aimed at improving organization effectiveness through
changes in the task and structural and technological subsystems. This class of interventions includes
changes in the division of overall work of the organization into units, reporting relationships, work
flow and procedures, and role definitions, methods of control, and spatial arrangements of equipment
and people, etc.
Job design : job design refers to the way that a set of tasks, or an entire job, is organized. Job dsign
helps to determine : What are the tasks done, how they are done and what is the order in which they
are done, etc.
It takes into account all factors, which affect the work, and organizes the content and tasks so
that the whole job is less likely to be a risk to the employee. Job design involves
administrative areas such as : job rotation, job enlargement, task/ machine pacing, work
breaks and working hours.
A well designed job takes into account the basic principles of ergonomics that will encourage
a variety of ‘good’ body positions, have reasonable strength requirements and reasonable
amount of mental activity. A well designed job also contributes to feelings of achievement
and self-esteem.
Job design principles can address problems such as : work overload, work under load,
repetitiveness, limited control over work, isolation, shift work, delays in filling vacant
positions, excessive working hours and limited understanding of the whole job process. Job
design also assists in minimizing job stress.
Re-engineering
► Definition – the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve
dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality,
service, and speed.
► Reengineering focuses on visualizing and streamlining any or all business processes in the
organization.
► Reengineering seeks to make such processes more efficient by combining, eliminating, or
restructuring activities without regard to present hierarchical or control procedures.
► Reengineering is a top-down process; assumes neither an upward flow of involvement nor that
consensus decision making
Characteristics of re-engineered organisations:
• Work units change from functional departments to process teams
• Jobs change from simple tasks to multi dimensional work
• People’s roles change from controlled to empowered
• The focus of performance measures and compensation shifts from activities to results
• Organisation structures change from hierarchical to flat
• Managers change from supervisors to coaches; executives change from scorekeepers to leaders
Reengineering.
This recent intervention radically redesigns the organization’s core work processes to create tighter
linkage and coordination among the different tasks. This work-flow integration results in faster, more
responsive task performance. Reengineering is often accomplished with new information technology
that permits employees to control and coordinate work processes more effectively. Reengineering
often fails if it ignores basic principles and processes of OD. Employee involvement (El). This broad
category of interventions is aimed at improving employee wellbeing and organizational effectiveness.
It generally attempts to move knowledge, power, information, and rewards downward in the
organization. El includes parallel structures (such as cooperative union— management projects and
quality circles), high-involvement plants, and total quality management. Work design. These change
programs are concerned with designing work for work groups and individual jobs. The intervention
includes engineering, motivational, and socio-technical systems approaches that produce traditionally
designed jobs and work groups; enriched jobs that provide employees with greater task variety,
autonomy, and feedback about results; and self-managing teams that can govern their own task
behaviors with limited external control.
Re-engineering process
• Prepare the organisation
• Specify the organisation’s strategy and objectives
• Fundamentally rethink the way work gets done
– Identify and analyse core business processes
– Define performance objectives
– Design new processes
• Restructure the organisation around the new business processes
Quality of Work Life (QWL)
►Organizational improvement efforts.
Attempt to restructure multiple dimensions of the organization.
To institute a mechanism which introduces and sustains changes over time.
►An increase in participation by employees and increase in problem solving between the union and
management.
Quality of Work Life
In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of simultaneously improving
both the value of employees’ psychological experiences at work and workers’ productivity. This
philosophy is embodied in the quality-of-work-life (QWL) approach to change. Such programs are
typically broad-based and lack the precise definition and focus of survey feedback and team building.
Quality of work life can be defined as any activity undertaken by a work group or whole organization
for the express purpose of improving one or more of the following conditions that affect a group
member's experience with a work group or organization: adequate and fair compensation; safe and
healthy working conditions; opportunity to use and develop personal capabilities; opportunity to grow
and progress in a career; opportunity to participate in decisions; protection from arbitrary and unfair
treatment; and opportunity to satisfy social needs (Pasmore, 1985, 2011).
Successful QWL programs are being used in such organizations as GM, Ford, Chrysler, AT&T,
Motorola, IBM, Texas Instruments, Xerox, GE, and many other companies. Quality-of-work-life
programs often encompass a wide variety of specific techniques such as team building, job
restructuring, shared decision making, redesign of pay systems, Theory Z, and quality circles.
Implementation of these techniques is expected to translate into improved worker performance.
