Organisation Development, Design and change Individual Assignment Brief

Assignment Brief

You are the HR advisor in Peploughs, a fictitious garden ornament manufacturing company. You have been asked by the Managing Director (MD) Robyn Cribbis to take a look at the Tender proposal produced by the Phoenix team of Organisation Development consultants (see document on bb site Assessment – Tender proposal from Phoenix for students) and to give a report as to the appropriateness of their approach for your organisation.

As HR Advisor you have been with the company from the beginning and seen your role change from a stand-alone HR and finance advisor to managing a team of 4 and you are always very busy. You were around through the previous changes to the organisation and know there were some conflicts between the operations managers that were sorted out by Robyn Cribbis. You have some knowledge of Organisation Development, Design and change through a course you did recently.

• At head office you know that there is a sales team and a marketing team. 
• Finance is done by the HR team. 
• There are no exit interviews carried out. 
• There are no performance management systems in place other than a probation period of 1 month for all staff. 

You feel these are some of the important aspects of the company that might affect any changes that might be recommended. 

In your report you firstly need to critically review the roles of external and internal consultants to demonstrate your understanding of the value of each. Secondly, you need to consider the Tender submitted by the consultants. How does it demonstrate their understanding of the context of your specific organisation and the value of each of the actions they have suggested. What would you add or change? Finally, you need to identify how you and your HR team as the internal consultants might work together with the Phoenix external consulting team throughout this process. What specific tasks would each team be responsible for and why?

Throughout all aspects of your assessment, you should be demonstrating, applying and referencing your knowledge of relevant theory and models around Organisation Development, Design and Change from the taught elements of the block, the materials shared with you through the module and the reading list and also some of your own wider reading.

The background of the company and context

The company was founded by the MD Robyn Cribbis 10 years ago when they opened a small garden ornament manufacturing company in Hull, East Yorkshire, supplying to trade customers and employed their friend to help them, who is now the Hull site Operations Manager. Since that time, they have grown to almost double the size with 400 manufacturing employees at Hull now considered the Head Office, a further smaller site of 150 employees opened 6 years ago in Glasgow, Scotland and the latest site of 100 employees 2 years ago in Cardiff, Wales. Each site has an Operations manager who looks after all the manufacturing employees at the site and the small admin teams that support operations. The manufacturing staff work on a shift pattern of either 12.00-08.00, 08.00-16.00 or 16.00-24.00. All HR and Finance is done at the Head Office by an HR Advisor and 4 assistants. The HR Advisor reports directly to the MD.

The MD is happy about the growth of the company so far however isn’t convinced that the company is now designed in the best way to sustain future growth. The mission of the company is “To be the first choice for all garden ornaments”, but Robyn hasn’t really articulated what that means in practice.

The external consultants have been asked to develop a tender to include their Organisation Development strategy and specific actions with timescales of the steps they would take to help the MD identify changes required to help achieve growth towards their expansion. Whilst costings are not expected, the consultants should show an awareness of the likely costs of the interventions they recommend i.e. interventions recommended should be cost effective.

Suggested Structure for the Report

Include a suitable cover page with your name, module, assignment title, and submission date.

1. Introduction

• Briefly outline the organisational context (Peploughs, its growth, and the engagement of the Phoenix consultants).
• Set out the aims and structure of your report.

2. Main Body 

The Role of Internal and External Consultants

• Discuss the distinctions and respective roles of internal vs. external consultants.
• Evaluate the value each brings to an Organisation Development initiative.

Evaluation of the Phoenix Consultants’ Tender 

• Critique their strategy (what they are suggesting) in terms of its understanding of Peploughs’ context and use of OD theory.
• Analyse their proposed action plan (how specifically this will be achieved), identifying areas for improvement.

3. Recommendations 

• Propose how the internal and external consultants could collaborate and how the internal HR team, would work alongside the external consultants.
• Clearly assign responsibilities to each team and justify these choices based on the roles of internal and external consultants in OD processes.

4. Conclusion 

• Summarise the key findings from your report, including:
• Final thoughts on the consultants’ strategy.