Organizational diagnosis refers to continuous collection of data about the total system, its sub-units, its processes and its culture.
We try to obtain answers to the following questions while engaging in organizational diagnosis:
What are the strengths of the organization?
What are the problem areas?
What are its unrealized opportunities?
Is there a discrepancy between the vision of the desired future and current state of affairs?
A pioneering OD expert Beckhard has outlined the importance of organizational diagnosis as under:
The development of a strategy for systematic improvement of an organization demands an examination of the present state of things. Such an analysis usually looks at two broad areas. One is a diagnosis of the various subsystems that make up the total organization. These subsystems may be natural teams such as top management, the production department, or a research group; or they may be levels such as top management, middle management or the workforce. The second area of diagnosis is the organization processes that are occurring. These include decision-making processes, communication patterns, and styles, relationships between interfacing groups, the management of conflict, the setting of goals, and planning methods.
Diagnostic Tools
Questionnaire surveys: This tool is used in large organizations to assess the total organization, large complex and heterogeneous subsystems, small simple and homogeneous subsystems, goal setting patterns, and superior-subordinate relationships
Interviews: This tool is very effective in assessing performance related problems, culture and climate, competency, conflict resolution patterns, leadership styles, visioning process, organizational learning etc.
Observations: This tool is effective in assessing decision-making patterns, organizational structure, culture and climate, roles, role behaviour etc.
Formal Group Meetings for Self Diagnosis: This tool is effective in assessing organizational culture, climate, attitudes, inter-group and intra-group relations etc.
Confrontation Meetings: This is an effective tool to assess how two groups perceive each other, collaborate with each other, compete with each other and how far such interactions affect performance of the group members.
Role Analysis Technique: This is an effective tool to find out team dysfucntions.
Organizational Mirroring: This is an effective tool to assess how two groups perceive each other, collaborate with each other, compete with each other and how far such interactions affect performance of the group members.
Third-party observation: This is an effective tool to assess how two groups perceive each other, collaborate with each other, compete with each other and how far such interactions affect performance of the group members.
Diagnostic Models
Six Box Model of Organizational Diagnosis
The six-box model is a framework developed by the American analyst Marvin Weisbord to assess the functioning of organizations. It is a generic framework and is intended for use across a wide variety of organizations. It is based mainly on the techniques and assumptions of the field of organizational development.
The model represents a particular way of looking at organizational structure and design. It gives attention to issues such as planning, incentives and rewards, the role of support functions such as personnel, internal competitions among organizational units, standards for remuneration, partnerships, hierarchies and the delegation of authority, organizational control, accountability and performance assessment. The model also follows the basic 'systems' approach to organizational functioning including the well-known inputs and 'outputs' categories.
The six-box model is comprised of the following components (boxes):
Purposes: What 'businesses' are we in?
Structure: How do we divide up the work?
Relationships: How do we manage conflict (coordinate) among people? With our technologies?
Rewards: Is there an incentive for doing all that needs doing?
Leadership: Is someone keeping the boxes in balance?
Helpful mechanisms: Have we adequate coordinating technologies?
According to Weisbord, the proponent of Six Box model, the consultant must attend to both the formal and informal aspect of each box. The formal system defines the official ways things are supposed to happen; the informal system is the ways things actually happen. Weisbord recommends a thorough diagnosis, looking at multiple boxes, before choosing any intervention.
McKinsye’s 7-S Framework
How do you go about analyzing how well your organization is positioned to achieve its intended objective? This is a question that has been asked for many years, and there are many different answers. Some approaches look at internal factors, others look at external ones, some combine these perspectives, and others look for congruence between various aspects of the organization being studied. Ultimately, the issue comes down to which factors to study.While some models of organizational effectiveness go in and out of fashion, one that has persisted is the McKinsey 7S framework. Developed in the early 1980s by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, two consultants working at the McKinsey & Company consulting firm, the basic premise of the model is that there are seven internal aspects of an organization that need to be aligned if it is to be successful.
The 7S model can be used in a wide variety of situations where an alignment perspective is useful, for example to help you:
Improve the performance of a company.
Examine the likely effects of future changes within a company.
Align departments and processes during a merger or acquisition.
Determine how best to implement a proposed strategy.
The McKinsey 7S model involves seven interdependent factors which are categorized as either "hard" or "soft" elements
Hard Elements: Strategy, Structure, System
Soft Elements: Shared values, Skills, Style, Staff
"Hard" elements are easier to define or identify and management can directly influence them: These are strategy statements; organization charts and reporting lines; and formal processes and IT systems.
"Soft" elements, on the other hand, can be more difficult to describe, and are less tangible and more influenced by culture. However, these soft elements are as important as the hard elements if the organization is going to be successful.
Let's look at each of the elements specifically:
Strategy: the plan devised to maintain and build competitive advantage over the competition.
Structure: the way the organization is structured and who reports to whom.
Systems: the daily activities and procedures that staff members engage in to get the job done.
Shared Values: called "superordinate goals" when the model was first developed, these are the core values of the company that are evidenced in the corporate culture and the general work ethic.
Style: the style of leadership adopted.
Staff: the employees and their general capabilities.
Skills: the actual skills and competencies of the employees working for the company.
One can use the 7S model to help analyze the current situation (Point A), a proposed future situation (Point B) and to identify gaps and inconsistencies between them. It's then a question of adjusting and tuning the elements of the 7S model to ensure that your organization works effectively and well once you reach the desired endpoint.
7S Checklist QuestionsHere are some of the questions that you'll need to explore to help you understand your situation in terms of the 7S framework. Use them to analyze your current (Point A) situation first, and then repeat the exercise for your proposed situation (Point B).Strategy:
What is our strategy?
How do we intend to achieve our objectives?
How do we deal with competitive pressure?
How are changes in customer demands dealt with?
How is strategy adjusted for environmental issues?
Structure:
How is the company/team divided?
What is the hierarchy?
How do the various departments coordinate activities?
How do the team members organize and align themselves?
Is decision making and controlling centralized or decentralized? Is this as it should be, given what we're doing?
Where are the lines of communication? Explicit and implicit?
Systems:
What are the main systems that run the organization? Consider financial and HR systems as well as communications and document storage.
Where are the controls and how are they monitored and evaluated?
What internal rules and processes does the team use to keep on track?
Shared Values:
What are the core values?
What is the corporate/team culture?
How strong are the values?
What are the fundamental values that the company/team was built on?
Style:
How participative is the management/leadership style?
How effective is that leadership?
Do employees/team members tend to be competitive or cooperative?
Are there real teams functioning within the organization or are they just nominal groups?
Staff:
What positions or specializations are represented within the team?
What positions need to be filled?
Are there gaps in required competencies?
Skills:
What are the strongest skills represented within the company/team?
Are there any skills gaps?
What is the company/team known for doing well?
Do the current employees/team members have the ability to do the job?
How are skills monitored and assessed?
No comments:
Post a Comment