OD PRACTITIONER

OD Practitioner

OD Practitioner

What unique challenges if any do OD practitioners face when dealing with a public sector intervention rather than a private sector one? Explain thoroughly.

OD for the public sector is significantly different than OD for the private sector. A simple and somewhat self-explanatory example of this difference lies in the fact that an OD measure implemented in the public sector will be designed to ensure that the employees in the public sector execute their responsibilities to serve public as best as they can. In comparison, a measure for OD in the private sector will almost always be aligned towards the objective of increasing the employees' productivity for the benefit of the organization (Jelovac, Wal & Jelovac, 2011). Therefore, an OD practitioner can expect to come across a completely different set of variables when attempting to implemented OD measures in the public sector and in the private sector.

The essence of the presence of the public sector is to facilitate the efficient functioning of a society. Public sector organizations serve as the lubricant for the society's infrastructure. As a result, employees in the public sector tend to face objectives that are somewhat immeasurable in nature. However, modern day OD demands that every variable in the organization should be adequately measurable so that it can be monitored and highlighted in case of a need for improvement (Svensson, Wood & Callaghan, 2010). As a result, an OD practitioner generally seeks to identify the measurable characteristics of tasks in the public sector. This not only helps the OD practitioner to monitor the performance of the public sector department in question, but also allows the OD practitioner to develop training and development programs that are meant to bring about an improvement in the functioning of the public sector.

In comparison to the functions of an OD practitioner in the public sector (as highlighted above), an OD practitioner in the private sector seeks to ensure that the mission of the organization is incorporated in the modus operandi of the organization's employees. The objective is to facilitate the development of a scenario in which the organization and its employees realize their role and relevance to the development of an organization. It is critically important to highlight at this point that the purpose of the organization in the private sector is not to serve the public, but to generate a profit (Oakerson & Parks, 2011). The position of the customer is central and the satisfaction of the consumer may be a primary priority for the organization; but this is only because the satisfaction of the consumer guarantees increasing revenue figures. As a result, it all boils down to profit margins. The very same concept holds true for an OD practitioner in the private sector. The OD practitioner actively seeks to identify productivity sinks in the organization and provides the organization with the rationale it needs to engage the issues and problems that may be causing the productivity sink. As a result, the OD practitioner in the private sector seeks ...