Organizational Development Strategy Proposal: Essay

Words: 2097
Pages: 9

Organizational Development Strategy Proposal:
Whole Systems Predictive Modeling
Team B
ORG502 Human Relations and Organizational Behavior
June 1, 2004

Proposal
For the past two years the public school system—save one—has failed to meet the minimum standards required for the No Child Left Behind program. This coming year will be the final year for the public school system to meet the standards or it will lose its charter and the program will be taken over by state officials or privatized. There are four basic strategies that could be implemented ¯ Action Research, Appreciative Inquiry, Future Search and Whole Systems Intervention. Because of the infrastructure difficulties and cultural changes that need to be addressed, as well

We choose this O.D. strategy because the Superintendent has stated that a "radical" culture change must take place. The Whole System Change model refers to an organization's entire system and subsystems that impact on its performance, and this is what we need to examine and offer recommendations to remedy. This model also integrates all the key stakeholders in the organization (e.g. support staff, teachers, students, parents, community, stockholders). In other words, everyone is included in the process. This encourages the organization's members to build relationships and focus on the relevant performance drivers to achieve positive results. This approach ensures that all concerned parties are more accountable to each other and the organization as a whole (Cady, 1998).
We feel that this is the most effective intervention strategy because we asked several questions concerning whole system change in schools and came to the following conclusions:
• Whole school reform is based on the expectation that all students can learn.
• Data-driven support is necessary and effective. School boards and superintendents need strong evidence.
• Research has shown that the degree of coherence between schools and systems leads to improvement in student achievement.
• Specific context must be considered during the implementation of the model.
• Models must be flexible to suit the needs