Nogo Railroad Case Study
Executive Summary A team of college students were contracted to develop an organizational development plan for NoGo Railroad. The firm was experiencing low performance and low morale, along with a new Communication Manager who was unsure how to address the issues. The new Communication Manager paid for the student's services and expressed apprehension around having leadership "buy-in", which the students recommended as the first obstacle to address. The firm has traditionally recruited family members, rewarded for hours worked, and has archaic policies and an unbalanced union contract that cannot be renegotiated for two years. The team of local college students identified several systems that were adversely affected by the organization's current design and recommended a broad and sweeping initiative with a focus on building a performance-based culture. This work would include more frequent communication, employee satisfaction surveys, a performance management process, realistic career-pathing, training and development, and finally, future implementation of a job analysis and redesign effort.
Problems
Macro-analysis is conceptual and strategic in nature. Evaluating the NoGo Railroad case at a macro-level, there are three big issues for Dave to begin important work around. These three issues can also be evaluated at a more granular, micro-level, which often brings clarity to the size and scope of the problem. The three problems include: earning the buy-in of the senior leadership team, addressing important culture work that stems from poor communication and outdated practices, and the union's involvement in the organization's human resource practices. First, Dave is apprehensive about his new role in the organization and is not confident that his initiatives will earn the much-needed buy-in from Allen. This is critical to address before any set of initiatives can be prescribed by Dave or an OD Specialist. Dave needs to loop Allen in to the plans he has
Problems
Macro-analysis is conceptual and strategic in nature. Evaluating the NoGo Railroad case at a macro-level, there are three big issues for Dave to begin important work around. These three issues can also be evaluated at a more granular, micro-level, which often brings clarity to the size and scope of the problem. The three problems include: earning the buy-in of the senior leadership team, addressing important culture work that stems from poor communication and outdated practices, and the union's involvement in the organization's human resource practices. First, Dave is apprehensive about his new role in the organization and is not confident that his initiatives will earn the much-needed buy-in from Allen. This is critical to address before any set of initiatives can be prescribed by Dave or an OD Specialist. Dave needs to loop Allen in to the plans he has
References: Brown, D.R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.