Mkombozi Centre for Street Children

Mkombozi's understanding of "organisational effectiveness and development" is expressed below, in the words of Johnson and Johnson (2006, Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills, Pearson International Edition):

Organisational effectiveness is the extent to which the organisation achieves its goals with the use of minimal resources. Organisational effectiveness depends on: (1) members having the interpersonal and small group skills and personal attitudes and technical competencies needed to be effective contributors to the organisation; and (2) members committing high levels of psychological energy to their work. The commitment of psychological energy and the use of teamwork and task work competencies may be encouraged by both the organisational structure and the organisational culture.

Organisational development is the use of diagnosis and intervention procedures to promote effective interpersonal, group and inter-group behaviour within the organisation. Specifically, organisational development utilises the "action research methodology" pioneered by Kurt Lewin to improve organisational effectiveness. This methodology improves effectiveness by: (1) clarifying the vision and goals of the organisation with emphasis on their cooperative nature; and (2) implementing "action research methodology" according to the following steps:

1. Diagnosis: (a) Building a normative theory of how the team or organisation should be functioning. Normative theories focus on such factors as cooperation, communication, leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution.
(b) Measuring current team or organisational functioning by collecting data through interviews, observations, and questionnaires and by hold diagnostic group sessions.
(c) Analysing and organising the data so that discrepancies between observed and ideal performance and the causes of the discrepancies can be identified.

2. Feedback: The data are reported to those organisational members from whom it was obtained to highlight the discrepancies between the ideal and actually functioning of various teams, work groups, departments and the organisation as a whole.

3. Discussion and planning: The problems identified by the data are analysed, and the implications for improving the effectiveness of the relevant work groups, and department within the organisation are discussed. A plan for improving organisational effectiveness is developed.

4. Action: The plan is implemented. Structural supports for the new behaviours are procedures are generated by changing role definition and group norms. Interventions can be made on the individual (skill training or attitude change), group (modifying group structure and procedures), or inter group (inter group problem solving levels).

5. Re-diagnosis: New data are collected to determine if the plan was implemented and if it solved the problem. If not the cycle is repeated.

The process should be continuous and ongoing within most teams and organisations.