Introduction
Generally, the performance of any organization is dependent on the behavior of the overall entity. Mustang Special Utility District (MSUD) company is one of the renowned companies tasked with supplying water to a large number of people in the region. It is a private company that specializes in the provision of utilities. The organization is based in Aubrey, Texas, in the United States. The firm’s employees range from 50 to 100 workers (“Mustang Special Utility District | Official Website”, 2022). The business organization offers its services in different locations, including Sutton Fields, Providence, Arrow Brooke, Paloma Creek, Union Park, Savannah, Green Meadows, Sandbrock Rand, Prairie Oaks, Hillstone Pointe, Wildridge, Silverado, and Shahan Lakeview. The company has nine directors responsible for overseeing its operations, including checking for possible leaks, preventing the installed pipes from freezing, and other related services that meet the needs of consumers. To properly understand and establish an effective organizational development, the project will focus on the diagnosis of MSUD to identify challenges faced by the water company and provide solutions for improvement.
Based on its performance MSUD is considered a superior water provider. The Texas Commission on Environment Quality (TCEQ), which is in charge of administering the public drinking water program, rated the firm following its consistency in the provision of water to the people in the areas it operates. The organization’s management has met the required standards by the United States Environment Protection Agency (EPA). MSUD serves over 20,000 customers who benefit from the utility services. Furthermore, the company has about 22,800 connections across the region (“Mustang Special Utility District | Official Website”, 2022). The administration of MSUD consists of the president, vice president and other directors that oversee the operations of the firm.
Individuals to be Involved in the Project
In order to undertake a successful organization diagnostic process, the company president and staff members will be engaged in the assessment process. The officers will play a significant role in ensuring the necessary insight of the company is captured and assessed effectively for improvement. Furthermore, they will provide the necessary support, including funding for training services, in order to implement the necessary change in the company.
Michael Walker, the President
The officer is essential for the company since he is the owner of the firm. The individual will provide proper insight into how the private entity is performing based on the returns from services rendered. The president will give information about the management team, including the managers in charge of other departments within the business organization. In addition, Mr. Walker will provide details of the reports of MSUD operations over the past years to identify possible challenges recorded by the entity.
Alyssa Bennett, Customer Services Manager
Alyssa Bennett is the customer service manager at MSUD Company. The individual performs sensitive activities in the organization, such as managing and controlling the billing of the entity. Her position allows her to ensure consumers receive the best services from the company. Based on her activities, she is fully exposed to the system of MSUD, which make her suitable to engage in the diagnosis process of the firm. Bennett will provide in-depth information on how the employees conduct their responsibilities to meet the needs of clients. She will further provide details on the organization’s behavior experienced in the entity.
The Organizational Development Process
Problem Identification
The report from the MSUD employees indicates that the company has several internal issues affecting its operations. For instance, some of the workers are undertaking overlapping duties following confusion due to the lack of clear communication about the responsibilities of each member in the firm. The issue makes most of the staff officers perform a range of activities, thus making them uncomfortable and less productive. Based on the reports retrieved from the company’s meeting minutes, employees complained of involving in responsibilities outside their specialization. Therefore, the situation is a major concern for the organization that requires proper intervention to ensure the operations of the entity remain effective (Rothwell et al., 2015). According to the findings from the managers, MSUD does not have proper job descriptions, which makes it difficult for the management and the recruited individuals to comprehend their respective roles in the organization. The situation at MSUD Company requires proper planning to overcome the challenge to improve the performance of the company.
Data Collection Instruments
Interviews
Since the company size is small, the most appropriate data collection instruments to be used are interviews. The approach is effective for obtaining qualitative information from the company’s employees and managers. Each director will be contacted to gain insight into the performance of the organization focusing on their views about the impact of overlapping responsibilities being experienced in the firm. Similarly, junior staff members will be engaged in private conversations to seek insight into the conditions leading to the problem MSSUD is facing. The use of discussions will be used to obtain data from the directors since they are few in number.
Questionnaires
The other appropriate tool for collecting information from the staff members will be the use of questionnaires. A proper question-based template with details concerning the job description will be provided, especially to the individuals who cannot be accessed it easily due to their commitments. The respective forms will contain direct questions with choices to tick to make it easier for the workers to participate in the process. Furthermore, enough room will be allowed for the participants to issue their personal opinions concerning the situation. The choice of the questionnaire is to enable employees to be involved at an individual level without interference that might lead to distortion of information. In addition, it will allow a large number of staff to contribute within the shortest time possible because they can easily undertake the activity simultaneously, hence reducing the time coverage.
Evaluation Methods
In order to assess the extent to which the desired interventions are achieved, various models will be applied to help understand the change process. The methods will focus directly on the employees and other stakeholders affected by the MSUD Company issue (Rothwell et al., 2015). Based on the nature of the problem, the evaluation methods to determine the progress to be used include the Appreciative Inquiry Approach (AI), Holton Evaluation Model, and the Four Levels of Kirkpatrick.
Appreciative Inquiry Approach (AI)
Since MSUD is facing issues of administration where roles are overlapping, after the intervention, the AI approach will be an effective method to evaluate the extent to which the change progress has been achieved. AI applies to the organization to enable the employees to work towards the company’s future vision. It will allow administrators to focus on specific and strategic areas of management to enhance the performance of the entity (Clements et al., 2022). AI will allow the MSUD to develop the appropriate culture where each employee understands the job discrimination from the point of recruitment. Developing such criteria will ensure the firm creates proper momentum because workers will focus on their respective roles and responsibilities, thus eliminating possible confusion that can hinder the performance of staff members. Following the size of MSUD, the technique will guarantee improvement in customer services and develop a more sustainable working system. Being a strength-based leadership development, the technique can be effectively used in small groups such as that of MSUD.
Holton Evaluation Model
This model focuses on human resource development (HRD) and majors on three key areas: learning, the performance of each individual, and organizational outcomes. Since the internal issue of MSUD is administrators’ failure to establish proper job descriptions, the method will be effective in evaluating the intervention to determine the impact on the named aspects (Mongkolsirikiet & Akaraborworn, 2019). Through subjecting employees to various training and developments, they develop an array of skills necessary to perform the given roles. This will allow the staff members to feel motivated and improve their performance despite the overlapping duties. The MSUD management should ensure that there are adequate resources and proper education provided by the company to employees to increase the efficiency of the staff members. When the system applies the procedures, the overall outcome of MSUD will rise accordingly to make it the best-preferred water company in the country. The approach will enrich the company with better ways to plan and communicate effectively to minimize confusion.
The Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels Evaluation Model
The essence of communication must be improved to develop an effective system that eliminates issues such as overlapping responsibilities. MUSD management body should initiate different training approaches to enhance communication to ensure the operational information is relayed without confusion. The Kirkpatrick model is a significant tool that will be used to evaluate the learning programs implemented towards managing the problem facing MSUD. Based on this method, four key levels will be analyzed to have the proper insight into the progress of change in the organization. They include the intervention process’s reaction, learning, behavior, and outcomes (Alsalamah & Callinan, 2021). Each stage provides useful feedback on the progress of the intervention being used.
- The Reaction Level. It allows for a deep understanding of how employees perceived the aspect of the training program. It is aimed at making the staff members value the whole process and thus become part of it. During this evaluation stage, several questions will be asked randomly to help identify the rate workers and other stakeholders engage in the learning activities (Alsalamah & Callinan, 2021). For instance, interrogations such as whether the training was successful, strengths and possible weaknesses of the program, important lessons captured, and impacts on personal demands will be applied to have insight into the development process. To extract and measure the reactions of participants, employee satisfaction surveys will be used.
- The Learning Level. In this stage of the organizational development process, the focus is to determine the skills and knowledge employees have learned and the ones they still have not yet covered. Furthermore, it enables the company to comprehend the issues workers may think they can manage to perform following the training program. Communication requires high confidence to make good and clear remarks regarding responsibilities (Jones et al., 2018). The evaluation model will facilitate easy determination of staff’s self-confidence after the program. Through the process, it becomes possible to understand the rate at which the MSUD stakeholders are motivated to bring change to the company. By preparing learning objectives, it will be possible to measure what employees have mastered during the project. Before commencing the training process, it will be necessary to evaluate the skills of each staff member and the same procedure to have insight into the improvement.
- The Behavior Level. This stage is useful for understanding how the employees use the skills gained during the training. In order to have a adequate change in the employee’s behavior, MSUD has to induce a favorable environment. This will enable the easy depiction of key areas where staffs still require further learning and development (Alsalamah & Callinan, 2021). t. To evaluate the effectiveness of the process, the company must ensure the culture supports changes to implement and create room for behavioral adjustments. Some key questions can be applied to identify whether employees have developed new conduct that matches the need for organizational development.
- The Results Level. It evaluates the program’s outcomes geared towards the organization’s development. During this phase, the focus is directed to key skills and competencies deemed significant for the company. To achieve proper results, the Kirkpatrick model will be used in a backward approach, identifying the expected outcome and then formulating the relevant training programs to support them (Alsalamah & Callinan, 2021). Based on the scenario facing MSUD, the key results to be considered should include reduced waste, improved customer satisfaction and minimal staff complaints.
Application of Organizational Diagnosis
The Situational Assessment
Based on the MSUD’s current situation, the company is having complications in the administration because the management cannot plan properly and assign the tasks to the respective employees, leading to overlapping roles and responsibilities. Following the reports gathered from interviewing directors of the company and questionnaires given to the employees, the major contribution to the issue includes ineffective communication that makes it difficult for the managers to delegate duties. Another aspect is the lack of proper job description, which leaves staff members without a proper understanding of what is expected from them.
Action Planning
In this phase, managers and other impacted stakeholders such as workers are engaged to assist in formulating the best approach on how to overcome the problem of overlapping roles in the company. Based on the issue, management should conduct proper training programs to improve the communication skills of the supervisors and employees (Rothwell et al., 2015). Involving impacted parties in developing the solution is essential because it makes them participate in the change process being initiated by the firm.
Implementing the Plan
After identification of the issue facing the organization, the core concern is how to manage and solve the problem completely. MSUD company will apply in-the-job training criteria to allow it to educate the employees on key skills necessary to improve communication (Rothwell et al., 2015). A number of experts will be hired to assist in imparting the relevant knowledge to enhance the competency in the organization. Furthermore, workers will be motivated by allowing them to have flexible work schedules to enable them to have adequate time to participate effectively in the process.
Gathering Data
Once the organization has initiated the change program, insight into the progress is necessary, thus prompting immediate data collection. The goal of the process is to ensure the given project is working as expected to facilitate the change. Information is to be gathered during the initial stages as well as the mid-phase to determine whether the development has a positive impact on the situation facing the company (Rothwell et al., 2015). For instance, employees will be questioned about the cases of overlapping responsibilities.
Analyzing the Results
Upon receiving the results, the next focus is to evaluate whether the training program initiated reduced the issue of overlapping roles in the company and increased or no change in the problem despite the efforts made. This is achieved by going through the gathered data to determine the impact of the implemented change. Furthermore, additional analysis to examine if the development caused negative impacts on the issue is conducted during the stage.
Obtaining Feedback
Generally, feedback is essential to any project intended to generate a positive outcome. After completing the training process, the stakeholders initially impacted by the issue of administrators have to be interviewed to understand whether the challenge is fully managed or still exists even after the program. Employees’ and managers’ comments will determine if the implemented plan worked effectively to eliminate the problem.
Communicating Feedback to Sponsor
After the process is complete, the MSUD president should know the program’s outcome. During the process, the data collected after the training is complete indicating changes in employees’ complaints will be issued to the individual to show the impact of the change in the company (Rothwell et al., 2015). A meeting is necessary to explain in detail to the company directors how the organizational development change process has impacted the firm effectively.
Step-by-Step Procedure
In order to assess the MSUD Company to determine the issue it is facing, I conducted a face-to-face interview with the organization’s president and other directors in charge of District retail. Apart from focusing on the management, I used questionnaires to obtain more insight into MSUD operations. Each employee was given a form with a multi-choice question to fill. After gathering the information from the impacted parties, I used Kirkpatrick’s four-level model to analyze the outcome (Brown & Harvey, 2021). Upon receiving the results, a proper plan that entails offering training to improve the communication of stakeholders was agreed by the staff as the change strategy to eliminate the issue of overlapping roles due to ineffective messages. The findings from the evaluation made it easier to decide on the best invention to curb the problem.
Conclusion
Companies face numerous internal issues that require thorough analysis to identify. An organization needs proper diagnosis to depict some of the issues affecting employees and the performance of the firm as a whole. Assessing and solving the problems of a firm is an essential effort in improving the future of the entity. Employees are mostly impacted by the challenges that, when not fully managed, can lower their morale. To overcome such encounters, a change process is necessary whereby the situation is identified and effective plans are developed to manage it. Both the managers and staff members must be engaged in the change process to enable them to be part of the development. To effect development in a company, the management must undertake training programs to equip employees with the required skills to adapt to the improvement.
References
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