CALL FOR INDIAN OD CASE STUDIES

FIRST CALL FOR  INDIAN OD CASE STUDIES

Rupande  Padaki,  Joseph George, Gopal Mahapatra and Mary Mathew

The role documented OD activity in India will play is immeasurable.  Documented OD activity will serve as a resource useful in consulting, teaching, research and knowledge acquisition.  This call aims to motivate members of the ODINSANGAM to contribute written OD case studies they have witnessed, been actors in, heard about.  Case studies can be successful ones or even more interesting, experiences of failed OD efforts. In other words both success and failure stories are most welcome.  Case studies of OD in an Indian context, with Indian actors, in Indian organizational climates and settings are welcomed.  Case studies of foreign multi-national OD experience in India, are also solicited.  All case studies must be originally written by the author/s. 

The general definition of OD given by French and Bell, 1999 can be used as a guideline.  They define OD as follows:  “…. a long-term effort led and supported by top management, to improve an organization's visioning, empowerment, learning, and problem-solving processes, through an ongoing, collaborative management of organizational culture, with special emphasis on the consultant-facilitator role and the theory and technology of applied behavioral science, including participant action research" (French & Bell, 1999). 

 In the long run an edited book on OD case studies will be published and sequels evolved.  Rich OD data on the Indian experience is rare to find. This resource base will have use for both Indians and global change managers alike. 

The following are the guidelines for OD case study submission:

(a) Aspects to note when writing your case study:

Clearly written case studies highlighting the nature of the change that was / is being managed are encouraged.  Indianness in the theme is essential, however cases may well be on a MNC in India, and experiences if any on Indians practicing OD in Indian companies abroad.  Cases on OD successes and failures are equally welcome.    Care must be taken to elaborate  the process in each case study.  The process can be described as follows:

(i)      Planning for change, level of change, individual, group, organization, other, include the industrial sector, functional area if necessary

(ii)    The nature of change will describe the element being changed like, behavioral, structural, process, culture, technology, customer, skills, etc

(iii)  Other interventions like quality movements, HR interventions, cultural change also qualify

(iv)  The characters being addressed in the case must be described: namely the client system, the interventionist (change agent) or the top management of the system.  

(v)    The method of intervention used, for example the diagnostic tools used, the process for diagnosis, target behaviors for change or elements of change, assessments of facilitating and restraining factors, feedback and procedure used for the feedback process, feedback reception, the design of the intervention, the actual intervention,  sub systems involved, evaluation of change, feedback process, success or failure.  Difficulties encountered.

(vi)  Any theory used: for example, action research, systems theory, OD theories, group dynamics and process consulting

(vii)Any hint of philosophies or schools of thought used, like use of science, socio-technical approach, sociology, radical humanism, functionalism,  behaviorist.

(viii)                     The outcome of the intervention, impact and effects, long and short term

(ix)  Learnings and insights from the case study

Whilst these guidelines are essential to maintain uniformity and quality, minor deviations around the guideline is permissible. 

(b) Style guide to follow when writing your case study:

All case studies must have an abstract and main case study.  All abstract must not exceed 250 words.  The following guideline must be followed:

This is the title of your OD Case study and it has a font size of 14 using Times Roman

This is the abstract of the case study.  This abstract must make clear a summary of the process described in (a). The font size for the body of the abstract is size 12 and Times Roman.  Kindly restrict yourself to 250 words. This abstract will be used to screen your case study and assess if it fits and is suitable for the OD database.  In case it is found lacking feedback will be provided. The case studies will be reviewed by Dr Rupande Padaki, Gopal Mahapatra, Dr Joseph and Prof Mary Mathew.  The deadline for the abstract is July 25^th.   Kindly email the case study to marymathew24@gmail.com   All emails bearing your abstract must carry the subject heading “OD Case study”.  Authors will be members from ODINsangam for now, with co-opted co-authors where necessary.  All abstracts must have “key words” below them.  Key words will be small phrases describing the sector of your case study and anything you wish to highlight. Key words will evolve organically and be used to index case studies over time.  Kindly use, Times Roman 12 and italic, for key words. Once all case studies are received we will send you an email with details of how to go about writing your main case study.  Nevertheless, note that the style guide for the main case study will be the same as is in your abstract (namely, font style, size, headings, text).  The main case study must not exceed 10,000 words. The probable time line for the full paper will be October 25^th, 2011. Enjoy!

Word count: 257

Keywords:  Industrial sector, highlight, main issue, main actor

Important Disclaimer:  All authors please note that, abstracts and main case studies must have a disclaimer stating that "The author/s of this case study is/are responsible for permissions from the organization whose name is being mentioned in the OD case study”, alternatively the name must be camouflaged. Also, state that, “To the best of my/ our knowledge, my/our  case study does not contain plagiarism or any kind nor does it contain any form of self plagiarism”.

(c)  Screening process:

The screening of case studies will be done in two stages.  First, the abstract will be reviewed by four reviewers as mentioned above.  Once, the abstract is accepted, there will be a call for the full paper.  Second, the full paper will be further reviewed and comments provided by the same team of reviewers for revisions if necessary.  Following the style guide is mandatory.  The abstract and full paper will be screened to assess if the guidelines mentioned in points (a), (b) and the disclaimer are strictly followed.  Irrespective of the time duration of the OD exercise in weeks, months and years, and the complexity of the case, the length of the case study must not be more than 10000 words and less than 5000.  Short case studies that lack OD content as mentioned in the guidelines will not received high reviews, neither will cases longer than 10000 words.   Plagiarism and self plagiarism of any kind must be avoided. For any queries/clarifications please write to marymathew24@gmail.com

We look forward to your submissions !!!

***

Language in thoughtless Inaction:

Language  in thoughtless Inaction:

Eversince  I had attended  a month long  NLP course @ the feet  of venerable NLP  Guru ,  Jesuit Priest and Indo American ( IMV he is more Indian than many who are born, bred and brought up here)  Dr.Richard Mchugh,   I  was interested in language constructs. My good friend  and trainer   Daniel Pacheco  who  is also into NLP ( he  studied under maverick Richard Bandler)  used   to say that anythhng  people say  has 3 meanings.  Stated, understood and hidden. And I would hasten to add most often we miss all 3 of them.
S.I. Hayakawa’s  classic book “ Language in thought and action” just reinforced that belief.  It
is a small book , written some 70 years ago.  That wonderful book offers  invaluable insight into how language affects human thought and conditions behaviour, and addresses the question of how
language should be sued  to achieve cooperation and understanding  than  confrontation.

A few days back  TIME magazine published an interesting  article  two  well meaning ladies who live
in  Mexico.  It  was reported , “ The survival of an endangered language may depend on two people --
and all they want to do is ignore each other. Manuel Segovia and Isidro Velazquez, the last speakers of a language called Ayapaneco, live less than half a mile away from each other in Ayapa, Mexico. But no matter how precious the cultural implications of keeping their language alive are, they are not
going to speak to each other.”

The Guardian notes that, “It is not clear whether there is a long-buried argument behind their mutual avoidance, but people who know them say they have never really enjoyed each other's company.”

Btw, Ayapaneco is one of many dozens of indigenous languages remaining in Mexico, many are on the verge of extinction. Regardless, linguists are still attempting to preserve the language despite the lack of communication between the last two fluent speakers, who no longer converse with
anyone regularly in their native tongue. When Segovia, 75, and Velazquez, 65, both die, their language will pass away with them.

Still, Daniel Suslak, a linguistic anthropologist, sums up their relationship succinctly: “They don't have a lot in common."

Senator Hayakawa's main point is that, we need to pay focus on how we use the language, since it is language  humans use in order to think, and since language has such an extraordinary power to influence others and ourselves.

Then when what happens  when we cease to use a language. Do  we stop thinking ?  or how do we influence others ?

It is said  that “By age four, most humans have developed an ability to communicate through oral
language. By age six or seven, most humans can comprehend, as well as express, written thoughts. These unique abilities of communicating through a native language clearly separate humans from all animals.”

The animal that comes closest to producing anything that even vaguely resembles human speech is not another primate, but rather a bird.

For instance, a famous African gray parrot in England named Toto can pronounce words so clearly that he sounds rather human. Like humans, birds can produce fluent, complex sounds.  Infact I do remember during my childhood, my cousin  had  a myna, which could utter a few words.

One of the big ‘success’ stories in looking at the human-like qualities of non-human primates is a male bonobo chimpanzee known as Kanzi. Kanzi was born 28 October 1980, and began his long journey to learn to ‘speak’ as a result of the training provided for his mother, Matata, via a
‘talking’ keyboard. Matata never did master the keyboard, but Kanzi did. Through many years of intense training and close social contact with humans, this remarkable animal attained the language abilities of an average two-year-old human. By age ten, he had a vocabulary (via the keyboard) of some two hundred words. In fact, Kanzi was able to go beyond the mere parroting or ‘aping’ of humans; he actually could communicate his wants and needs, express feelings, and use tools.


One of the examples of Kanzi’s behavior is In an outing in the Georgia woods, Kanzi touched the symbols for "marshmallows" and "fire." Susan Savage-Rumbaugh said in an interview that, "Given matches and marshmallows, Kanzi snapped twigs for a fire, lit them with the matches and toasted the marshmallows on a stick."

The biggest tragedy  is  while those animals make a sincere attempt in mastering the single most differentiating factor between them and humans (  language),  we humans cease to communicate.

For example  Jaylalitha and  Karunanidhi ?  Or  Mulaym Singh and Mayawati ? 
 And aren’t we really happy that  many others do  talk in Tamil and Hindi ?