Organizational Development Division

Organizational development refers to the process of utilizing behavioral science in a manner that guides organizational practices towards an enhanced viability and productivity. The idea behind the organizational development was prompted by the need to introduce planned changes at certain levels of organizational structures without countervailing the entire arrangement. This would, therefore, enable the management to facilitate improvement in the performance of a company, while aiding the individual staff members to develop their careers (Marrow et al., 1967). Behavioral science presumes an organization to be a coherent system, which is composed of distinct portions. This view, according to Coch and French (1948), enables the management to include methodologies, which keep the top management focused on strategic goals during the planning phase, organizational design as well as leadership development. Since organization facilitates a planned and organization-wide strategy, it enables the management to respond to change by enhancing the effectiveness of an organization. Achievement of this strategy, nevertheless, necessitates managerial intervention in the operations of an enterprise through the application of the knowledge behind behavioral science, participative management, and staff surveys (Coch & French, 1948).

Responsibilities of the Organizational Development Division

Organizational development division is the administrative section, which is tasked with the duty of identifying the phases, through which the organization ought to undergo in the course of its development. As it identifies these phases, it is expected to pinpoint the unique problems, crises as well as the associated resolutions in a manner, which is aimed at empowering the organization to enhance its performance. This division utilizes the ideas behind behavioral science, as it endeavors to facilitate the systematic diagnosis of crises. Consequently, its assessments guide the management during the mobilization of the necessary resources towards the section of an organization, where improvement is required (Newstrom & Davis, 1993). Such a strategy enables the section to improve its output to the satisfaction of the stakeholders. Basically, organization development division is hoped to focus on two main objectives: solving problems and enabling the staff members to acquire the skills and knowledge that are necessary to perform in a competitive environment. Such a focus demands an assessment, whose diversity facilitates the balance between life and work, a situation, which would, then, end-up motivating the members of staff into enhancing their performance.

The contemporary business practices require members of staff to have such personalized qualities as emotional intelligence, creativity, and capacity to self-improvement. It is the duty of the organizational development division to ensure that an organization achieves a sustained stability and profitability. This necessitates an organization to maintain a complete and strong personnel base. As such, the division is expected to sensitize the entire administration on the need to enhance those techniques, which are necessary during the execution of the desired changes in structures of the human resource of an organization. Other responsibilities of the organizational development division include the analyzing of culture, structure, and strategy of an organization. During the analysis, the division is required to evaluate the formal as well as the informal sections of the organization so as to come up with a conclusive assessment (Rothwell & Stavros, 2010).

Some of the most important formal sections include the structure of the organization, its policy, objectives, human resources as well as the mode of compensation. On the contrary, the informal items include social relationships amongst the staff members as well as their attitudes and values. Since the focus of the organizational development is on empowering the staff to work as a team, the division, which is tasked with this role, acts as a catalyst, which enables the enterprise to resolve its challenges through capacity building. Due to the sensitivity of its duties, this division ought to report directly to the top management, so as to help the top officials to perceive and comprehend the nature of the challenges being faced by the organization in an endeavor to resolve them amicably (Rothwell & Stavros, 2010).

Human Resource

The phrase, human resources, is used in reference to the people who form the workforce in an enterprise. These are the individuals who embody the knowledge, which drives the performance of an organization. The contribution of these individuals is managed by the human resource department. The department, as well as the administration, considers these individuals to be valuable assets, whose effectiveness can be enhanced through development. In any organization, human resource is defined by demographics, diversity as well as skills and qualifications (Anderson, 2011).

The demographic of a human resource refers to such characteristics as social class, gender, and age. It is imperative for an organization to consider such attributes as they may have an effect of issues, relating to, for instance, pension offering and insurance packages. The diversity of an organizations workforce enhances its adaptability to the changing business environment while retaining its core policies and principles. In this case, an organization ought to ensure that the diversity, existing in the community, is reflected within its workforce. The issue of skills and qualification gains prominence as an organization evolve from being manual-based into a composition of highly specialized professional units (Cummings & Huse, 1989).

Responsibilities of Human Resources Department

As explained earlier, human resource department is the section of the administration, which is delegated the role of managing the workforce. Unlike the organizational development division, human resource department deals with both internal and external stakeholders. Over the years, the functions of human resource departments have evolved from ensuring that personal records and employee benefits are in order into assuming the responsibility of staffing corporations. In addition to screening the potential staff members, the department is expected to have the capacity to resolve crises smoothly and in a discreet manner (Balzac, 2010).

During its routine operations, the human resource department is required to work within certain ethical guidelines so as to, for instance, ensure the confidentiality of individual records. Such ethical guidelines are emphasized in an endeavor to ensure that the privacy and safety of the employees is safeguarded. Before any disclosure of personal information, the department is required to seek the owner’s consent. In essence, some of the most important responsibilities of a human resource department include recruitment of employees and betterment of the compensational packages (Cummings & Huse, 1989).

Recruitment of the workforce is the most important roles of a human resource department. Recruitment ensures an organization to select competent and skilful staff members from multiple applicants at any time. During hiring, the department evaluates the competency as well as the ability of the potential employees in line with the organizational needs. Effective evaluation enables an enterprise to remain on course to achieve departmental as well as the organizational strategic goals. There are various methods of recruiting employees. Firstly, the department may evaluate individuals’ abilities and skills through educational measurements. With regard to the assessment of employees’ attitude, human resource departments opt to utilize psychometric evaluations as such attributes as attitude are difficult to appraise through educational measurements. Other evaluation methods include filling questionnaires and interviewing (Varney, 1967).

The role of motivating employees is delegated to the human resource department. Studies have shown that rewarding of employees is among the greatest incentives to good performance. The most common compensation packages include salary increments, year-end bonuses, awards, equities, and holiday offers. Such incentives enhance the level of the employees’ satisfaction with the organization, a situation, which serves to reduce the rate of employee turnover. With the reduced turn-over rate, an organization is able to achieve stability as long service enables the employees to identify with the organization. Having identified with the structures and operations of an organization, employees assist the administration in ensuring that organizational plans are fulfilled to the letter (Cummings & Huse, 1989).

Conflict of Interest scenarios/areas

In order to avoid direct interference from the company managers, organizational development division must report directly to top management. Moreover, it must have some degree of freedom in the decision making process, so as to ensure that its officials are empowered to work autonomously. By reporting to the top management, organizational development division avoids creating conflict of interest, a situation, which would, thereby, corrupt the officials’ motivation to deliver unbiased findings. For instance, the organizational development division may find it discouraging to forward a report to the human resource department, proposing the effecting of major changes to the same department. Such a situation would create tension between the two administrative divisions, thereby, reducing cooperation and coordination of responsibilities. Furthermore, it would be illogical to have the findings of the organizational development division known to any other party before they have been evaluated and approved by the top management.

Organizational development division ought to report directly to the top management as the human resource department may be biased, and this may prompt it to alter some portions of the findings. Such alterations may derail organizational improvement as top management would be formulating strategic plans on the basis of erroneous information. Moreover, reporting to the human resource department would make the later to become excessively influential during the formulation of strategic decisions, a situation, which can put the company at risk. The human resources department would also influence the change of structures and creation of positions/jobs in a manner that would not be aimed at achieving organizational goals and objectives. This would be detrimental as, in most cases; the human resource department is not adequately equipped for organizing structures and processes. Additionally, unregulated creation of positions would instigate corruption in the human resource department as the rest of the staff members attempt to solicit for promotions (Nadler, 1984).

Recommendations

Organizational development division must report directly to top management as the organization of structures and processes ought to be free of any influence by other departments. Additionally, reporting directly to the top management would enable an enterprise to engage in those activities that are focused on achieving the major company objectives. Such a flow of information would minimize conflicts of interest, especially when staff members find themselves in a perplexing situation. The human resource department would, therefore, be allowed to concentrate on such duties as the recruitment of employees and betterment of the compensational packages. Having the organization development division report to the top management would enhance the navigation capability and stewardship of the directors, and this would ensure consistency during behavioral assessment. Moreover, an enhanced stewardship would enable all departments and divisions to cooperate during the enculturation of plans, and as such, the entire workforce would be focused on optimal performance of the organization (Bar-Gal & Schmid, 1993).