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Extrapolating the Problem [WLOs: 2 and 3] [CLOs: 1 and 3] Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Chapter 6, and review various case studies within the textbook that identify organizational change problems that required intervention. To succeed in the marketplace, business leaders need to continuously align strategy, culture, and internal processes, while optimizing cross-departmental communication. A to Z Apps Established in 2003, A to Z Apps is a successful company offering a wide range of products and services, including mobile app development, start-up support, web and podcast development, support, and various other customizable options. The company is a brick-and-mortar and remote organization operating from a home office in Kansas City, KS. There are approximately 80 in-office positions and 25 remote positions. The company has multiple divisions including C-Suite administration, finance, HR, research, legal and safety, product design, product development, implementation, marketing, facility operations, and IT. For this assignment, you will use the previously described organization (A to Z Apps) and assume the role of Human Resource Manager. Be sure to recognize that the organization has multiple departments and divisions and multiple levels of management. As HRM, you have identified a problem within the organization that requires the assistance of an external Organizational Development Consultant. For the purpose of selecting the correct consultant for the job, it is necessary to describe the problem and define the desired outcome of the intervention. For this assignment, you will create a brief description of the organization and its objectives by completing the following: · Describe a hypothetical problem requiring OD intervention within the A to Z Apps organization that relates to one of the following areas: · Productivity · Employee development · Gender equity · Succession planning · Diversity, equity, and inclusion · Collaboration and communication · Explain the desired outcome of the intervention. The Extrapolating the Problem paper · Must be at least five double-spaced pages in length (not including title and reference pages and formatted according to APA StyleLinks to an external site. as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA Formatting for Microsoft WordLinks to an external site. resource. · Must include a separate title page with the following in title case: · Title of paper in bold font · Space should appear between the title and the rest of the information on the title page. · · Student’s name · Name of institution (The University of Arizona Global Campus) · Course name and number · Instructor’s name · Due date · Must utilize academic voice. · See the Academic VoiceLinks to an external site. resource for additional guidance. · Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. · Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper. · For assistance on writing Introductions & ConclusionsLinks to an external site. and Writing a Thesis StatementLinks to an external site., refer to the Writing Center resources. · Must use at least three scholarly and credible sources in addition to the course text. · The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible SourcesLinks to an external site. table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source. · To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view Quick and Easy Library ResearchLinks to an external site. tutorial, which introduces the University of Arizona Global Campus Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips. · Must document any information used from sources in APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA: Citing Within Your PaperLinks to an external site. guide. · Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA Style The client was a petrochemical plant with 1,000 employees in a North American corporation. . . . At the plant, we were greeted with statements of goals ranging from hard-nosed interest in increasing productivity to enlightened aspirations for improving human relations in the organization. But whether the outcomes desired of OD were utilitarian or humanitarian, the nature of OD was, for virtually all members of the organization, shrouded in mystery. As is generally true, prospective clients in this organization had a difficult time understanding what they were getting themselves into. At a meeting to discuss the possibility of working with cross-functional task forces, for example, the consultants sketched in typical fashion the outlines of a team-building scenario. They stressed the importance of the group’s willingness to help themselves, held out the possibility of increased self-awareness, and emphasized the absence of any guarantees of improved effectiveness. In response, one member of the task force remarked, “This is the strangest sales pitch I’ve ever heard” (R. E. Kaplan, 1978, pp. 45–47; Kaplan notes that the initial stages of the consulting process took 2 years). How would you describe the organization development (OD) process to a potential client?How would you clarify the OD practitioner role in an initial client meeting? In any consulting engagement, well before the team-building session is planned or the strategic planning meeting is designed, a great deal of time is invested in setting up the intervention for success. This is done in the first three stages of the consulting process: entry, contracting, and data gathering. In Chapters 6 and 7 we will describe the purpose and structure of these phases for both the client and the OD practitioner. By the end of these two chapters, and the case study that follows them, you will more clearly understand the importance of these three stages, and you will be able to apply what you have learned about contracting and data gathering by developing a data gathering strategy that will seek to reveal the underlying issues behind a problem presented by a client. In this chapter we will first discuss the entry process, in which the client and consultant make contact for the first time. In this stage, the client presents an initial description of the problem or request, and the OD practitioner must consider whether and how to continue the relationship. In the contracting process, the practitioner and client explore both the formal and psychological contractual elements of their relationship, such as further exploring the problem, the request for consulting support, each other’s needs and roles, and how the engagement will progress. The consultant must determine who the client is, a trickier proposition than it may seem. With a successful foundational relationship established, the consulting engagement has a much greater likelihood of success. It is difficult to overstate the consequence of these phases, since many (perhaps most) problems that occur later on can be attributed to shortcuts or omissions in contracting. Investing time early on can save considerable time later. Cunningham (1993) describes this fact persuasively: The planned change process requires more time in the formative sequences of the process. Participants or organizational members are involved in the definition of the need, and have the opportunity to use their creativity in developing the idea and its proposal. As a result, less time may be needed during the implementation stage for making adaptations or dealing with resistances. The investment of time in assessing and focusing can significantly reduce the amount of time required to implement and institutionalize the change. It should also reduce the possibility of having to scrap an unworkable idea and start over again. (p. 68) While consultants and clients find it tempting to jump to solutions, assuming they have a good understanding of the problem, skipping the early phases of the consulting process can have serious consequences later on. Entry Entry is the first step in the consulting process and consists of the first contact with a client before the formal contracting process has begun. It can occur in the form of an unsolicited phone call from an acquaintance, or may it occur as the result of informal networking or even a discussion on a plane or train with a stranger. Gaining entry occurs generally as the result of a number of intentional and accidental factors. For external consultants, gaining entry is often as the result of marketing and selling one’s expertise or success to a potential client. External consultants are more likely to use strategies such as networking, phone calls, direct mail, websites, or presentations at conferences to build awareness among potential clients (Freedman & Zackrison, 2001). Even for internal consultants, marketing one’s services is a part of the job. Geirland and Maniker-Leiter (1995) recommend that internal OD practitioners give presentations, lead lunchtime “brown bag” discussions, create marketing materials, and “take all opportunities to speak before any audience in the company” (p. 45). These marketing events can give examples to internal audiences of how an OD engagement can add value and provide results. While most think of entry in these pragmatic terms, comprising a process of marketing, taking the first phone call, agreeing to take on the assignment, and scheduling a meeting to develop a contract, the entry phase has greater symbolic significance and complexity. Beyond these events, the entry process is the first stage in the consultant’s becoming connected to the social environment of the organization, including building relationships with organizational members who understand first and foremost that the consultant will only be a temporary member (Glidewell, 1959). Thus, the entry phase should also be seen as the first stage in a relationship and trust-building process, and the consultant’s actions during this stage will be perceived as at least symbolic of the working relationship to come. A good entry process will thus entail the consultant listening carefully to the client, showing good faith in expressing care and concern for the client’s request. Glidewell (1959) argues that during this stage, the client wants reassurance that the consultant not only understands but shares the client’s goals and values. It is the first impression that a potential client has of a consulting relationship. Ethical Issues During the Entry Stage It is during the entry stage that the consultant has the first hints about the type of project being requested. Just as clients often approach consultants with assumptions of a different model of consulting in their minds (as discussed in Chapter 5), clients often request projects that consultants are unable to (or should not) fulfill for one or more reasons. This occurs most often when a client asks for a consultant to perform an activity that is inappropriate for the OD practitioner role. Examples of inappropriate consulting activities include advice and counsel to a client on the qualifications or behaviors of specific individuals or job applicants, or confidential advice to a client on the performance or structure of a team. Borderline activities include those activities that fall into the “expert” consulting role, when the consultant is asked to offer content advice (French & Bell, 1999). In some cases, the entry conversation between practitioner and client can reveal the influence of organizational politics on the decision to bring in an OD practitioner. The consultant may be selected to function as a scapegoat to eventually be blamed for the problem, or the project may be designed to fail so the client can remind organizational members how difficult the manager’s job is. When a client wants to hire a consultant to sit in on a team meeting and tell her or him “what’s really going on in those meetings” or “what you think of the leader or team members,” these activities put the consultant in an uncomfortable and unethical position. Ethical challenges can be even greater when the client prefers to keep the consultation hidden from or misrepresented to organizational members. When the consultant role, which must be founded on trust of and by organizational members, begins with a misrepresentation, the consultant and organizational members may no longer be working toward the same objectives. It is at this point, when a client begins to suggest what the consultant considers an inappropriate role, that the consultant should be quick to point out the limits of the consulting activity before misunderstanding occurs. Schein (1969) writes of making these limits explicit early, “so that they don’t function as traps or sources of disappointment later on if and when I refuse to go along with something the client expects of me” (p. 83). Ethical problems can occur when consultants misrepresent or overstate their background or experience (educational background, experience with similar problems, organizations, or industries; White & Wooten, 1983). In their zeal to be hired for an assignment, consultants may also overpromise results, offer an “armchair” diagnosis without background data, or agree to implement an intervention strategy without additional analysis. Even statements to the client such as “We’ll have it taken care of,” “This is easy,” or “I’ve fixed this before,” while reassuring to the client, offer promises that the consultant may be unable to keep. Who Is the Client? A central question to be answered during entry and the initial phases of the engagement is “Who is the client?” On the surface this appears a simple question, especially for internal consultants who may already know the voice on the other end of the phone. Even for internal consultants, however, defining the client is not a simple matter (Geirland & Maniker-Leiter, 1995). Cummings and Worley (2001) write that “it is not unusual for an OD project to fail because the relevant client was inappropriately defined” (p. 46). Schein (1997) has developed an instructive typology of six “client types” that complicate how the client can be defined, noting that “one can find oneself not knowing for whom one is working, or working with several clients whose goals are in conflict with each other” (p. 202): Contact clients are the initial points of communication in the client