This case is an effort to help employees cope with organizational change brought about by a corporate downsizing. Dr. Tom White served as the architect and primary change agent for this organizational development project. Dr. White received his PhD in I/O psychology in 1985 from the University of South Florida. Immediately after graduation, he move to Australia, where he has worked as an I/O psychologist ever since. At the time of this case he was Organization Development manager for Compaq Computer Corporation in Australia before it merged with Hewlett-Packard.

Among Dr. White’s responsibilities was facilitating organizational change and development. He was also involved with conflict resolution among employees, leadership development, planning for the future, and team building. His role was mainly that of an internal consultant and facilitator. This means he functioned as change agent to help the organization manage the frequent change necessitated by rapid technological development in the computer industry.

An important project Dr. White undertook was to help employees cope with a corporate downsizing that was necessary to keep the company profitable in the extremely competitive computer industry. Despite the company’s reputation of caring for employees, heavy losses in recent years required drastic action to cut employees in some areas. This downsizing was a traumatic experience for survivors of the layoffs, many of whom lost close friends at work. The entire company was disrupted, as people found it difficult to work effectively. Dr. White’s job was to find a way to help survivors deal with the situation.

The approach chosen was based on techniques to help people cope with the death of a family member. A series of 2-day sessions was conducted with 100 employees or more in each session. During the sessions, which were conducted by managers, employees engaged in a series of small-group activities to help them grieve for their losses while focusing on plans for the future. Two themes were letting go of the past and committing to the future. Dr. White’s role was to organize the companywide activity and instruct managers in how to conduct sessions. This is a typical role for a change agent, in that managers have to actually implement change. A psychologist will be a facilitator and resource for those who do the change.

Once the full program was completed, which took a month, an evaluation was conducted to determine its effectiveness. Results showed that employees became more accepting of the change and more trusting of management. Employee job performance increased, as did overall productivity of the workforce. Overall, this organizational change effort was beneficial to both the employees and the organization.

Go to the website of a company that does organizational development and answer the following questions.

1. What are the backgrounds of the individuals in the company?
2. What services does the company provide?
3. Can you find out whether the company uses any of the techniques discussed in class?
4. Does it specialize in a particular industry?