Question

It is not unusual to experience resistance from clients during the diagnosis and feedback stage of the organization development process. Sometimes client resistance is overt, and sometimes it is covert or less obvious. It is critical that an OD practitioner have the skills to accurately identify behaviors indicative of resistance and effectively manage the resistance so that relationships are maintained or enhanced, and the engagement stays on track.

Please read the background information for the exercise on pages 195 - 196 of your textbook ("Exercise: Feedback and Resistance"). You are the OD practitioner in this case. Assume you have provided feedback to the client concerning your findings (as summarized on pages 195 - 196). Read the follow up email sent to you by the client on page 197.

Please respond to the questions below:

• As the OD practitioner in this case, what is your initial reaction and feelings concerning this email? Why do you feel this way?
• Does this email reflect client resistance? Why/Why not?
• If you think this email reflects client resistance, connect the client's responses to the forms of resistance described in Chapter 8 of your textbook.
• How might you respond to the client when you have the opportunity to meet with her again?
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Questions for Discussion 1. Have you ever received difficult or painful feedback? How was it presented? How did the presentation of the feedback affect your understanding and internalization of it? 2. Have you ever had to deliver difficult feedback to a friend, family member, or coworker? How did you do it? How was it received? What, if anything, would you do differently if you did it again? Based on your reflections about these two feedback situations, what lessons would you apply to an OD situation where you might have to give difficult feedback to a client? 3. Look back at the forms of resistance mentioned in this chapter. Can you think of any others that you have felt or experienced? Choose one of the forms of resistance and formulate a response that you could say if you encountered it. For Further Block, P (2011). Flawless consulting: A guide to getting your expertise used (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Burke, W. W. (1994). Diagnostic models for organization development. In A. Howard & associates (Eds.), Diagnosis for organizational change: Methods and models (pp. 53-84) Ford, J. D., & Ford, L. W. (2010). Stop blaming resistance to change and start using it. Ford, J. D, Ford, L. W., & D'Amelio, A. (2008). Resistance to change: The rest of the story. Harrison, M. I., & Shirom, A. (1999). Organizational diagnosis and assessment: Bridging Nadler, D. (1977). Feedback and organization development: Using data-based methods. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Organizational Dynamics, 39(1), 24-36. Academy of Management Review, 33, 362-377 theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Exercise: Feedback and R The client is the CEO of a luxury hotel who is eager to earn a five-star rating for the hotel this year. She contacted you as the OD practitioner to better understand the day-to-day perspective of the staff in order to implement programs and practices to enhance the hotel's customer service and quality. Imagine that the following data come from the summary of seven focus groups conducted with the staff. A total of 72 employees participated in the groups, which were organized into homogeneous categories: (1) housekeeping; (2) front desk, reception, and concierge staff; (3) kitchen and restaurant staff; (4) conferences and events; (5) maintenance and facilities (6) reservations; and (7) department management.

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Answer 1

1. The email is polite, but indicating that the CEO is questioining the authenticity of the findings. Even in cases where the finding are acknowledged, the CEO is abandoning her responsibility.

2. The client is very resistent and alsop very aggressive towards defending her stance. Though accepting the findings, she finds them as if the feedback is not a true reflection of her failure to lead the organization in a better way. Though the responsibilities were delegated, as CEO, it is her overall responsibility to ensure activities like hiring, process adherence,, training, customer complaints are reviewed in a timely manner. CEO seems to deny any responsibility for the inaction of her subordinates.

3. I would start the next meet with the positive feedback that was recieved in the activity. This would, in a way, make the CEO make it more accepting of the findings. A hotel trying to reach a 5-star status would probably have more positives than negative feedback. Displaying the positives first will make CEO gague the reality of what the actual possibility of reaching 5-star status is considering both positives and negatives. Having found about positives, CEO may see that negatives can be easily taken care by just communicating to the teams on their roles and responisibilties, processes in the hotel as a one time activity.