Entering and Contracting
The planned change process described in
Chapter 2 generally starts when one or more
managers or administrators sense an opportunity
for their organization, department, or group,
believe that new capabilities need to be devel-
oped, or decide that performance could be
improved through organization development. The
organization might be successful yet have room
for improvement. It might be facing impend-
ing environmental conditions that necessitate a
change in how it operates. The organization could
be experiencing particular problems, such as
poor product quality, high rates of absenteeism,
or dysfunctional conflicts among departments.
Conversely, the problems might appear more
diffuse and consist simply of feelings that the
organization should be “more innovative,” “more
competitive,” or “more effective.”
Entering and contracting are the initial steps
in the OD process. They involve defining in a
preliminary manner the organization’s problems
or opportunities for development and estab-
lishing a collaborative relationship between
the OD practitioner and members of the client
system about how to work on those issues.
Entering and contracting set the initial param-
eters for carrying out the subsequent phases
of OD: diagnosing the organization, planning
and implementing changes, and evaluating
and institutionalizing them. They help to define
what issues will be addressed by those activi-
ties, who will carry them out, and how they will
be accomplished.
Entering and contracting can vary in complex-
ity and formality depending on the situation.
In those cases where the manager of a work
group or department serves as his or her own
OD practitioner, entering and contracting typi-
cally involve the manager and group members
meeting to discuss what issues to work on and
how they will jointly meet the goals they set.
Here, entering and contracting are relatively
simple and informal. They involve all relevant
members directly in the process—with a mini-
mum of formal procedures. In situations where
managers and administrators are considering
the use of professional OD practitioners, either
from inside or from outside the organization,
entering and contracting tend to be more
complex and formal.1 OD practitioners may
need to collect preliminary information to
help define the problematic or development
issues. They may need to meet with represen-
tatives of the client organization rather than
with the total membership; they may need to
formalize their respective roles and how the
change process will unfold. In cases where the
anticipated changes are strategic and large in
scale, formal proposals from multiple consult-
ing firms are requested and legal contracts are
drawn up.
This chapter first discusses the activities and
content-oriented issues involved in entering
into and contracting for an OD initiative. Major
attention here will be directed at complex
processes involving OD professionals and client
organizations. Similar entering and contracting
issues, however, need to be addressed in even
the simplest OD efforts, where managers serve
as OD practitioners for their own work units.
Unless there is clarity and agreement about
what issues to work on, who will address them
and how that will be accomplished, and what
timetable will be followed, subsequent stages
of the OD process are likely to be confusing and
ineffective. The chapter concludes with a discus-
sion of the interpersonal process issues involved
in entering and contracting for OD work.
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