To speak of Organizational Development is to speak of Human Development. However, we often overlook the human element and place more emphasis on new production methods or quantitative systems that magically promise to increase productivity without employee involvement.
And it is a very common mistake to push workers aside in change programs. In many companies, to make change decisions, only a couple of administrative staff meetings are enough, analyze some data presented by the experts and announce to the people on the floor, without so many formalities or preambles, the new changes that are going to be implemented. But, experience shows us that this does not work that way.
Several of my generation partners, Monarch 30, and I too, thought that this was Organizational Development. When we started our studies at UDEM we were too optimistic, we believed that we were going to be the new "agents of change" that would revolutionize the companies where we worked. We saw ourselves as "organizational doctors" who, after making a diagnosis, would detect the "disease", prescribe a program of steps to improve the organization, and the problems would be solved once and for all.
Fortunately, it was not long before we understood the true essence and process of Organizational Development. This is deeply humanistic. The process of change begins in the individual, then in his environment - be it his family or work group - and finally occurs at the organizational level. However, the processes of organizational change in the industries are usually conceived and generated at the executive group level and from there cascade down through the hierarchy.
Another notable feature of change today is that it is not planned. It just happens and only until then, many times too late, do the big organizational hierarchs react with such drastic prescriptions as reengineering, Mean Manufacture, steam mergers or plant closings. Sometimes it seems that there are no people in organizations, but positions, titles and functions.
One of the issues that my Administration students working in maquiladoras are beginning to worry about is how they will be impacted by the latest reengineering plans. For now, travel and training are on hold. "We are victims of corporations," a manager told me recently. Personally, more than victims, I think we are pawns of the great chess of the world industry.
In addition to the cessation of training and development in the industry due to plant closings caused by the recession in the United States, fluctuations in international markets, overproduction of products that were manufactured without customers asking for them, and someone believed that someone else He was going to need, a serious threat of layoffs looming in Nuevo Laredo caused by corporate decisions and reengineering programs.
In our city it is being decided who is leaving and who is staying. Unofficial unemployment figures in the maquiladora industry for the first six months show more than 1,000 unemployed. 300 employees in plant "S", 150 in "D" and 150 in "H", in addition to another 50 in "U" and 400 workers from other various subsidiaries.
A manager of one of these companies commented on this process: "We are running the good guys, the bad guys are running and those who know are quitting." We definitely need to learn more about how to respond to changes in the environment with adequate and planned programs. We still need to see employees as human beings with their own identity, thoughts, feelings and needs.
In summary, it is necessary to develop people first in order to achieve Organizational Development.
