The Concept of

Organizational
Development in Pakistan

By:
ALI MUJAHID AND
STUDENTS OF IOBM

Preface
The subject matter of Organization Development in Pakistan
refers to neither a textbook nor a research paper; rather it is a
concise manual, which is trying to give an overview of the subject.
The main goal of this manual was to develop the concept of
Organizational Development, so that new ideas can be developed
in this subject.

Vmuslims Publication
(ISBN 978- 969-9288-01-02)

Understanding Organizations
The concept of an organization is to help a group of people to
reach their desire goals and objectives. Organizational
development is there to improve the organization performance
so that the destination can be reached easily. For this to
occur the task of the organizational developer is to
continuously monitor the external environment and the
internal culture to propose the necessary changes. In order to
understand this phenomenon we will be using a simple analogy.

A Simple Analogy
This is a simple Organization: -

Now Imagine this simple organization has wheels

If the organization has wheels, then it is suppose to reach

a destination. We could call this destination anything like
goals, objectives or vision.

Like any other mode of transportation, this organization

would also require fuel. The fuel is revenue generator

In order to achieve a goal the organizational developers

proposes various changes that are needed to take place.
Sometimes they propose to add a new department:-

Alternatively, sometimes eliminate a department

CASE STUDY

Company:

Opal Laboratories (Pvt) limited.

Location:

Karachi, Pakistan

Case Topic:

Performance Appraisal Implementation

History:
Opal Laboratories a mid sized family owned
business back till 2005, had no concept of a Human
Resource Department.

CEO felt the need to implement a formal appraisal

system as upper level management from outside the
organization was being hired.

Between the years 2005 and 2006, the company

developed

Department.

formulated

Human

Resource

Emergence of the HR dept:

HR

manager

was

promoted

from

within

the

organizations existing employees. She was a highly

capable individual says the CEO.
Her job description entitled her to design and
implement a performance appraisal system that was
both objective and covered all aspects of the jobs;
gradually allowing employees to adapt to the new
system.
The internal assessment of the organization made
the manager realize that the older employees felt
resentment towards the new method of evaluation,
Appraisals was a mere waste of time and that there
was a trust issue between the employees and the
management.
The employees felt their jobs to be in jeopardy and
wanted to find a way out of it. The employers on
the other hand wanted employees to realize the

benefits of an appraisal system i.e. depict what they

were doing wrong and how to fill those gaps.
Resistance from the employees end:
Employees felt resentment towards the HR Manager.
Some people filled out the forms and encouraged others
to give it a chance, only they were to benefit from this
feedback and in turn the company would benefit, giving
them a better chance to acquire personal satisfaction,
recognition and monetary rewards as well.
Resistance intervention by management for a positive
change model:
One employee in particular who resented the appraisal
forms was moved as a senior manager in a sister
company where he was required to carry out appraisals
of

subordinates.

appraisals

and

Shortly
provided

after
the

he

conducted

relevant

feedback,

the
he

realized the importance of conducting an appraisal and

saw the benefits it provided. He called upon the HR

Manager and requested her to conduct his appraisal in

order to weed out his short comings. He realized he too
had problems that needed to be addressed and was
highly grateful to the CEO for bearing with his attitude.
Conclusion:
Today, every employee except for the production labor is
required

to

have

his/her

appraisal

conducted.

This

guarantees their place in the organization and helps

them set better benchmarks pushing them further to
better realize the capabilities and areas of improvement.
Sometimes a proposal to change the culture of the
organization is necessary:

CASE STUDY

Company: National Bank of Pakistan

Case topic: Establishment of Training and development
department in a bureaucratic cultured organization.

History:
National Bank of Pakistan realized that they are
falling behind other banks and in competition with
other giants.
Their main challenge was their bureaucratic culture,
which was hindering their communication hence the
established a Training &Organizational Department.
This

department

offers

training

courses

to

its

employees. It is due to these programs one can easily

see a change happening in the bank.

One

of

their

successful

project

was

"Imply

Communication" In this program all regional head attend

a meeting with everyone even the clerical staff. Here
they solve and discuss issues which would put NBP on the
pathway to success.

Sometimes organization merges or buys another

organization

The Big Picture

Please study the following picture.

You would notice that there is an organization on the
lower left side which is about to start its journey to its
goal. Now in order to reach their goal they have to
choose three pathways. The swaps, the forest and the

mountains. These pathways are called strategies. The

strategy,

which

is

chosen

by

the

organization,

is

dependent on the core competency of the people who is

driving the organization. If they are expert in mountains
then should choose the mountain route, however if they
are expert in jungle then they should use jungle route.
Now imagine that they have chosen the strategy and
they have decided to go through the jungle. In addition,
right in the middle the organization faced a calamity
and started to fall apart. Firstly, the organization will
try to repair itself. This repairing is called Intervention.
There are several types of interventions (which would be
discussed at a later stage). Therefore, the organization
decides that they need to change the strategy and chose
the swaps to reach the Goal. For this organization have

to initiate the change they would have to do several

things like a training program. People who were used to
going through the jungle; would now go through the
swaps. The culture of the organization would also change.

Diagnosing the Organization

It

is

very

crucial

for

organization

to

continuously

diagnose itself. Just to see if they are going in the right

direction. The objective of this diagnosis is not limited to
look for problematic area but also to develop efficient
processes,

which

would

help

the

organization

performance. Diagnostic occurs at three stages, at the

organizational level, group level and at the individual
level. A good diagnostic is dependent on the questions
that are asked at all three levels.

Habib Bank has their own way to diagnose the organization. The
Organizational Department in HBL co-ordinate itself with other departments.
Each department proposes new changes to the OD department. Then the OD
department takes their proposal and then recommends necessary changes and
the training, which has to be required.

Meezan Bank continuously takes feedback from their employees just to see how
they are going. The feedback is in the form of Questionnaires. With the help of this
survey, the process of Organizational Development becomes easier. Like recently,
the employees were not satisfied with the new location of the head office. This
was mainly due to security reason. As soon as the top management found about
this they immediately started Meezan Shuttle Service. A small air conditioned bus
with armed guards pick and drop employees from office to work.

The Change Model

To develop an organization the organizational developers
have to continuously bring changes. There are several
models of change. Lewin gave the earliest model of
change. His model was based on three basic steps;
Unfreezing, Movement and Refreezing.
This manual would also like to propose a change model.
The main objective of this model is to further simplify
the Lewin change model. This model has also got three
steps. It is called the WHO model.

The Functionality of the WHO Model

Step1: Discuss
Why are we bringing the change?
What are we trying to change
Where would this change occurs
This step is justifying the necessary changes that have to
take place.

Step 2: Discuss how this change would occur.

In this stage the organization, have to discuss the type of
intervention. There are four types of interventions:1. Strategic Change Intervention
Under this Intervention, the change agent resolves
the following Issue:
What product or services should be launched
Which values would guide the organization
Strategic Management process
2. Technostructural Intervention
Similarly, technostructure would resolve these issues:
How to improve the process of production and
services
How to design work
How each department would co-ordinate with
each other

3. Human Resources Intervention

This intervention deals with these issues:
How to attract competent people
How to retain them
How to recognize and reward them
4. Human Process Intervention
Finally, Human Process Intervention would deal with
these issues:
Leadership
Communication
Decision making
Solving Problems

Step3: Discuss Orchestrate (Implementation)

Application of WHO Model

Step 1: Why

Sales were declining due to severe competition given by the international

brand

Human resource was also the challenge. Nobody wanted to work for
them because the office was located on MA Jinnah (Security reasons)

Step 2: How

The company hired Mr. Mujahid Hamid who retired from Unilever china.

Step 3: Orchestrate (Implementation)

They moved their office to Dolmen Mall Clifton

They office space was designed to have a contemporary look

Open door policy was initiated

For Consultation and Training

About.me/alimujahid