WEEK 7: YOU DECIDE SCENARIO AND ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT (OD)

 Here is the scenario from You Decide.  It is important that you get into the You Decide space and review the other information.   This basic story will get you started…. It is now six months after the acquisition of Consolidated Products, Inc. by ABC Plastics, Inc. The size of the workforce has been reduced by approximately 30% and two of six manufacturing facilities have been closed. Due to aggressive cost-cutting, ABC was able to lower prices and is regaining market share by winning back customers who had been doing business with Asian competitors. Productivity levels throughout the company have dropped precipitously since the merger, and due to lower productivity of the workforce, the merged company is not yet profitable. However, the future looks bright assuming that productivity levels can be restored to the level existing at the time of the original merger, or increased above those levels. Our mission is to approach this scenario as if we are OD (Organization Development) practitioners.  OD is concerned with planned “interventions” to improve productivity, relationships, culture, etc. related to organization as a whole, teams, and individual workers.  Consider the key terms that define the OD related issues:  merger, lower productivity, merged company not profitable, need to win back customers….well those are enough problems to explore in this case.  Consider these questions:1.  Define the issue that you consider critical to the success of the new company.2. What do you imagine are some of the details that define that issue?3. Explain your OD intervention to help the new teams of workers to function effectively and get at the heart of their major concern as found in the scenario4. How would you work with some of the characters in this case to help them accept the changes and be productive?