Intervention A) Explore the Basic Reasons Why

Intervention

a) Explore the basic reasons why would an intervention fail. Hints: list 5-8 potential reasons (hint: one reason could be unskilled change agent).

Interventions can fail for a litany of reasons within an organization. One such potential reason would be that of available resources in which to enact the change are not readily available. This occurs when resources are scarce and potential uses of those scare resources are numerous in nature. In regards to a University, the organization may not have the funding necessary to facilitate the intervention. This is especially true for smaller universities with a smaller alumni base relative to its peers. A large portion of University revenue is generated through tuition, fee, endowments, gifts, and donations. All of these sources of revenue are contingent on the University's prestige, enrollment, quality, and popularity. In many instances smaller universities may not have the means to adequately address the intervention process. If this occurs, the intervention could ultimately fail.

Another reason could be lack of passion within the change agent. On many occasions, the change agent is usually a very adept individual, or a team that is lead by a very adept individual. In both instances, one person is leading a vision and attempting to enact that vision within the organization. However, the leader or change agent may not have a particular passion for its subsequent implementation. In such instances, the leader will rarely, "Go the extra mile," in order to ensure the success of the intervention. This could potential cause the entire intervention to fail.

The change agent may not possess the necessary skill to enact the change. Rarely does one individual possess all the required skills to enact change in the amount necessary. In such cases, the leader or change agent should enlist the services of a competent management team that possess the skills in which he is lacking. However, ethos gets in the way. Leaders become overconfident in their ability to evoke change. They believe themselves to be better than their actually skills merit. In these instances, the leader ultimately fails once the realization occurs that the intervention can not be conducted solely by one individual.

There may be barriers to entry that inhibit the change agent from enacting intervention processes. These barriers can come in many forms such as employee acceptance, bureaucracy within the organization, or separation of powers within the organization itself

Intervention mail fail because it is simply too complicated for the entire organization to understand and implement. Many leaders have intervention programs that are simply too complicated for the laymen to grasp in a comprehensive manner. As such, the implementations of the intervention falters are individuals do not completely understand their duties and obligations with respect to the intervention.

(b) Choose one of your initiatives and apply these reasons (from (a)) to assess the expected rate of success within the context of your case. Hint: use case information and specifics.

In regards to the change initiative to raise the Universities competitiveness in the field of education, the rate of success varies with the prevalence of the above mentioned reasoning's. To predict the exact rate of success of this initiative would be akin to attempting to predict the exact outcome of the stock market on the Monday following a holiday weekend: it is very difficult to do. What I believe is prudent is to predict a general trend or range of success rates contingent on available information. As such, a more accurate picture can be identified in regards to success. With that being said, I believe success is unlikely given the 12 day and SR 16380 constraints. 12 days is simply not a long enough time period in which to implement decisions that will impact an entire organization. Likewise, the mere fact that only 5 day is allocated to data gathering is another aspect that should be extending. Many expects, when given only 5 days would not be able to adequately address the issue. As I stated above, one reason interventions fail is because resources are not readily available. Time is an indeed a resource. By not allocated adequate time to the situation, the intervention will ultimately fail.

(c) With due consideration to the cultural aspect, if you apply this same initiative to a Saudi-based education institute, would you think the success rate would be any different? Why and why not?