Practicing Organization Development (A guide for Consultants) - Part 33. Organization development (OD) is about planned change. As change has turned into the only constant, many managers and other people are pursuing change strategies with vigor. OD is a major strategy for leading and managing change at the individual, group, intergroup, organizational, interorganizational, and large systems levels. This book is about what it takes to be an effective change manager, change leader, and OD consultant | LAUNCH 291 Interviews. Interviewing is a most interesting and important part of OD. A skilled interviewer could go into most organizations spend a day talking to key people and probably have a reasonably good idea of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and have some preliminary ideas about what it would take to move the organization to a higher level. According to Cummings and Worley 2001 p. 116 interviews are the most widely used method for collecting data in OD. Interviewing offers many advantages for collecting information because of the ability to see people face-to-face probe for clarification and possible alternatives and build personal credibility and trust. However it can also be time-consuming and expensive. Interviews can be classified as structured or non-structured individual or group and face-to-face or non-face-to-face. Structured interviews contain prepared questions asked in a particular order that are designed to elicit responses in specific areas. Unstructured interviews consist of open-ended questions followed by probing based on what the respondent says. Most OD practitioners use a blend of the two with prepared questions designed to cover a number of specific areas and the flexibility to go with the flow as the interview unfolds. Interviews can also be done with individuals or groups or a combination of both. Respondents are likely to be more open in individual interviews but group interviews of course make it possible to reach and involve far more people. While most interviews are done face-to-face when this is not possible there are still other options such as telephone teleconference videoconference or synchronous or even asynchronous chats on the Internet. Exhibit offers some guidelines on conducting interviews and Exhibit provides a list of possible interview questions. Questionnaires. Questionnaires can be used to understand whole organizations and groups as well as provide valuable information in forming .
