OD Interventions at TCS

1.1 OD Intervention - Introduction

“To intervene is to enter into an ongoing system of relationships, to come between or among persons, groups, or objects for the purpose of helping them” - (Chris Argyris (1970) Intervention theory and method. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley)

“Intervention is any event, directed toward improving organizational effectiveness, that disrupts an organization’s normal way of operating” (Smither, R. et al. (1970) Organization Development: Strategies for Changing Environment. New York, NY: HarperCollins)

Interventions sometimes involve a consultant from outside the organization, but many times management itself intervenes to make organizational changes.

OD interventions are plans or programs comprised of specific activities designed to effect change in some facet of an organization. Numerous interventions have been developed over the years to address different problems or create various results.

However, they all are geared toward the goal of improving the entire organization through change. OD interventions can be categorized in a number of ways, including function, the type of group for which they are intended, or the industry to which they apply. In fact, W.L. French identified 13 major "families" of interventions based on the type of activities that they included—activity groups included teambuilding, survey feedback, structural change, and career-planning.

The techniques that OD practitioners use to bring about change. Specific activities, resulting from the process of diagnosis and feedback that OD practitioners use to bring about change.

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1.2 The Founder of Intervention Theory:

1.3 Different Types of Interventions in Organizations

1.3.1 Human Process Interventions:

Coaching Training & Development Process Consultation Team Building.

1.3.2 Techno-structural Interventions

Restructuring Organization. Employee Involvement. Work Design.

1.3.3 Human resource management interventions

Goal setting. Performance appraisal. Reward systems.

1.3.4 Strategic Change Interventions:

Mergers & Acquisitions. Alliances Networks

1.3.5 Individual Interventions

Third Party Interventions Laboratory Group Training Career/ Life planning.

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1.3.6 Group Interventions

Family Group Team Building Diagnostic Team Building Intergroup Organisational Mirror Process Consultation

1.3.7 Organisation Interventions

Confrontation Meeting Survey Feedback Environmental Scanning

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2. Pre – OD Scenario of TCS

2.1 Strengths

TCS had grown a lot in the past decades. During the year 1998-99, TCS had grown into the largest Indian software company. It raced towards achieving its vision of being global top ten. The one of the strengths of the company was its on time delivery. Due to its strengths company generated good revenues and took Premier position in the industry in terms of revenues. The company had good focus on training programs and also encouraged quality initiatives. The other strengths were that it used good technical tools and procedures. The individual excellence in performance was also encouraged at the company.

2.2 Diagnosed problem

As the company was growing by generating high year on year revenue, it mounted the pressure on the company to provide the high revenues in the future too. The next issue was the selectivity in projects by the company. Due to its selective approach of projects it was difficult to get more projects. The company was focused on specialization. The efforts on experimentation & innovation were lacking in the company. The company needed lacked the environment of risk taking and innovation. As the company, the employees expected better rewards and recognitions. So the need of designing better rewards and recognitions policies was needed. The company needed to have higher Inter group co-ordination & knowledge sharing. TCS needed to establish itself as a brand and PR activities for the same were required.

2.3 Alignment and Attunement

The diagnosis of TCS depicted various issues that were emerging in the organisation as it was progressing. So the issues were needed to be dealt conveniently to have sustainable growth. The interventions were required to address the diagnosed issues. In TCS, these solutions needed to be in sync with the four major voices. The four voices were:

Voice of Shareholders Voice of Employee Voice of Customer Voice of Technology

To do so, the integration and balancing out these four voices was needed. The stakeholders needed to be kept in focus before taking any steps. The employees and customers were also required to be taken in confidence. The technology was very dynamic so it also needed to kept in mind while designing the interventions.

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3. Organisational Development Interventions at TCS

The organisational development interventions at TCS were on focused on various factors. The first factor was strategizing the OD inventions well. Further, it was required that the values of the company should be kept in focus too. The serving and energizing the environment of the organization was required. The investment in the organisational interventions to have desired results was also taken into account. Lastly, it focused upon how much improvement will it bring in the organization through these OD interventions.

Some of the OD Interventions at TCS have been discussed below:

3. 1. Human Process Interventions

With today's strong emphasis on humanistic values, the following interventions are getting a great deal of attention and emphasis during efforts for change. They focus on helping members of the organization to enhance themselves, each other and the ways in which they work together in order to enhance their overall organization. Although the types of interventions selected for a project depend on a variety of considerations and the interventions in a project often are highly integrated with each other, the following human process interventions might be particularly helpful during change projects in organizations where there is some combination of the following: many new employees, different cultures working together, many complaints among organizational members, many conflicts, low morale, high turnover, ineffective teams, etc.

3.1.1 Scenario Building Workshops

Internal organization workshop was conducted with top management for scenario building. An internal organization workshop was conducted with top management for scenario building. This program focused at a larger level, on the “The TCS that can be “. The idea  was to challenge the conventional ways of thinking and to give shape to the key drivers of change through realistic listening and dialoguing. These workshops were followed by dissemination and communication of the scenario with teams in order to develop a new language in the organisation, consistent with the envisaged future scenario. As a fallout of this workshop, several representatives of senior management worked on building scenarios as for e.g. on TCS tools and approach to high end consulting. These looked at ‘what we were and what we wished to be, our competition, changes and challenges with regard to our business models, technologies, products and support functions’. Further, the factors that would facilitate the desired change and focuses that needed to be redefined were clearly laid down.

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The workshop focused at a larger level, on the “The TCS that can be”:

Aim:

To challenge the conventional ways of thinking and to give shape to the key drivers of change .

Realistic listening and dialoguing. Dissemination and communication of the scenarios with teams. To develop a new language for the organization, consistent with the envisaged future

scenario.

Participants: Representatives of senior management.

Theme of Scenarios: The nature of the struggle the organization would go through and etched out realistic possibilities based on present factors.

Factors: Wealth creation Enhanced productivity factors Feeling of being valued Resource allocation and team-work Membership criteria and norms of the group Learning opportunities for individuals and teams

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3.1.2 Team Alignment Initiative – PROPEL

PROPEL was introduced as a revolutionary intervention with the dual objectives of facilitating the exchange of ideas and helping in immediate problem solving, while also encouraging bonding and self-development among and within teams. Propel covers all employees across TCS. Camps and confluences are conducted for problem solving, discovery of new ideas, dialogue, reflection and fun. Through these sessions, the employees are provided a platform for learning, interacting and problem solving. It was a team alignment initiative.

Aim:

To set up a dialogue among associates to reflect, build and channel potent restlessness into a convergent blueprint of responsiveness by redefining desirable role behaviours.

Features:

Stages of PROPEL:

Initiation Conducting Awareness Sessions Workshop to share the findings Implementing Improvement Plan Evaluation/Feedback

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3.2 Techno-Structural Interventions

These interventions deal with an organization’s technology (for examples its task methods and job design) and structure (for example, division of labour and hierarchy). These interventions are rooted in the disciplines of engineering, sociology, and psychology and in the applied fields of socio-technical systems and organization design. Practitioners place emphasis both on productivity and human fulfillment.

3.2.1 Value Cards at the Large Relationship

Value Cards at the Large Relationship Value card for the relationship was fallout of the analysis of tensions existing in the four dimensions as represented by Voice of Customer, Strategy, Employee and Technology. A tool called “Value Card” was used to analyze the problems faced by the relationship in relation to these tensions and to arrive at workable solutions to the identified problems, within designated timeframes. The Value Card helped to effectively capture and track.

Helped to effectively capture and track this through the following steps:

The situation summary was charted out. Improvement goals, action plans and owners of each plan were identified. Success measures were identified against the dimensions of Valuing, Strategizing,

Improving, for each actionable, along with timeframe for closure. Impact was analyzed in terms of short term and long-term actions.

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3.2.2 AEP programme : Improvements through Measurements/ Initiatives

The Account Excellence Program (AEP) at the large relationship was modelled on the lines of the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award/Tata Business Excellence Model, which touches upon seven key categories viz Leadership, Strategic planning, Customer and market focus, Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge management, HR focus, Process management, Business results. This was aimed to help the relationship to evolve towards meeting changing business needs with agility.

7 Key Categories:

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Strategic PlanningCustomer & Market FocusAnalysis & Business Model HR FocusProcess Management & Business ResultsLeadership

3.3 Human Resource Management Interventions

It aims to enhance overall organisational performance by improving the performance by improving the performance of individual and groups with in the organisation.

3.3.1 Goal Alignment

In the interest of better alignment, a need was felt to re-look at a few organisational processes and systems, as for instance, the performance management and appraisal system at TCS.

A Teach-Train-Transfer workshop on Goal alignment was conducted, with help from expert OD consultants:

To build the context. To think through goal setting at TCS with a systems perspective to goal alignment. To explore means of institutionalizing goal-oriented performance management within

the organization.

3.3.2 BALANCE SCORECARD

The Balance Score Card has been implemented at TCS.

Outcomes:

Lead to the formulation of career paths in TCS global services, consulting and products, supported by HR processes, tools and support staff.

This structure was designed to enable a fair degree of flexibility in rotating at appropriate levels, provides avenues for individual growth.

Besides, there was an exercise to bring out new role definitions in Human Resources (HR), focusing on alignment, energizing and task facilitation through HR.

Business leaders dialogued to evolve the mission and expectations and further, to design enablers for continuous change, team work, and individual growth.

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3.3.3 DARPAN - Reflect and Improve

DARPAN – Associate Satisfaction Survey for large relationship.

With aggressive expansion and dispersion of ever-growing associate strength in the relationship, communication or the lack of it, had emerged as one of the biggest bottlenecks in employee motivation and managerial decision-making. In this context, an associate satisfaction survey at relationship level christened Darpan was initiated, with the objective to “Reflect and Improve “at the relationship level through a better understanding of the explicit and implicit expectations of associates.

Outcomes From DARPAN : The Cultural Perspective

91 % of the team felt proud of being part of the relationship. 90% of the team felt that they can see the big picture - how their contributions add

value to customer. 90% of the team felt that their supervisors are approachable & enable them to do their

job better.

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3.4 Other OD Interventions at TCS

Initiatives Deployed Summary

Nakshaktra Award

Reward and Recognition initiative within the relationship.

Awarded to encourage star performers for each month within each Business Unit of the relationship.

The unique feature of this initiative is that even team members can nominate their peers.

In Touch

An interaction / mentorship initiative with the lead of the relationship.

Any employee can walk in to meet the lead and discuss out any problems/ suggestions for improvement in the relationship.

Toast Master Club/Lets Talk

To enhance personality/communication ability of associates in the relationship.

To help them gain confidence through sessions by certified facilitators.

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Fun@ Relationship level

Initiated to bring in a spirit of team. To act as a stress buster. There are champions within each

unit who drive these fun activities in the relationship.

Open House/ Town halls

The objective was to encourage strategic communication,

To discuss the larger vision and achievements at relationship level with all employees across the Business Units.

Serves as a platform for recognizing good performers and celebrating milestone achievements.

Walk the talk

A senior associate within the relationship takes any new joinee to the relationship, on a tour of the facility.

The aim of this initiative is to make the new entrant feel valued.

This is followed by a simple quiz to check the effectiveness

of this initiative.

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4. Post – OD scenario of TCS (Culture Perspective)

a) Organizational Development interventions have been instrumental in terms of enhancing value to the customer & employee at Tata Consultancy Services.

b) PROPEL - encouraged sharing of ownership and empowerment to change, as also the sharing of success stories and best practices across the organization.

c) Valuing of employees was institutionalized through establishing processes that enable and enhance individual performance, and lead to empowered project teams.

d) Issue based mentoring was facilitated, with camps and confluences as enabling frameworks.

e) Confluences invested in personal transformation for the employee, camps invested in improving the workspace.

f) Through Scenario building, a collective transformation of dreams and concerns into response capabilities was envisaged.

g) Continuous scanning of environment for opportunities and threats was proactively looked at.

h) Goal alignment through cascading of Balanced Score Card concept could be achieved organization wide.

i) There was continuous investment in learning, and an active sharing of knowledge with the aim to convert learning into action.

j) The focus shifted to adding knowledge through delighting every customer.

k) The earlier tendency of self-sacrificing hard work was replaced by a shift of focus to teamwork and valuing of the employee.

l) Helped push self imposed boundaries and limitations through challenging organizational boundaries and limitations constantly.

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5. Conclusion

a) OD interventions at TCS have helped build a culture of fostering systems thinking.

b) Creating forums for dialogue.

c) Encouraging leadership at all levels.

d) For the organization at large, OD helped to reiterate the merits of valuing enquiry, expressing differences, and constantly generating new knowledge.

6. References

Case Studies. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2014, from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS): http://www.tcs.com/resources/case_studies/Pages/default.aspx

Change Designs. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2014, from Team Interventions: http://www.changedesigns.net/public/team/team_strategy/Team-intervention.html

OD Interventions. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2014, from Organisational Development: http://organisationdevelopment.org/the-od-cycle/the-intervention-phase/od-

interventions- intervention-categories-new/

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