Organizational diagnostics

Organizational diagnostics
See also
Leadership models Conditions of strategy implementation Hersey and Blanchard model Knowledge management Skills and competencies Bureaucratic leadership Importance of teamwork Change management model Management functions

The models for organizational diagnostics:

• Leavitt's Model (1965),
• Likert System Analysis (1967),
• Weisbord's Six-Box Model (1976),
• McKinsey 7S Framework (1981-82),
• Tichy's TPC Framework (1983),

Leavitt’s Model (1965)

Harold Jack Leavitt was an American management psychologist. He dealt with the analysis of interaction schemes and group communication, as well as interference in communication. He studied the characteristics of the leaders' personalities. He distinguished three types of managers:

• Type 1 manager,
• Type 2 manager,
• Type 3 manager.

Type 1 manager is a visionary and charismatic leader. He is characterized by originality, brilliance and uncompromising. Often it is also eccentric. It seeks to break with the status quo and enter a new path. Historical examples of this type of leaders were Ghandi, Hitler, Gladstone or Ayatollah Khomeini.

Type 2 manager is a strong rationalist, analyst, he sticks to facts that he values especially when presented with numbers. He is systematic and able to control effectively. Examples of this type are Clement Attlee, Robert Peel or Jimmy Carter.

Type 3 manager is a pragmatist, contractor of plans, skillfully solving difficulties. Leaders of this type usually do not show vision. They strive to subjugate people to their will. Historical examples: Bismarck, Lenin, Stalin, Lyndon B. Johnson.

Likert System Analysis (1967)

Rensis Likert was an American social psychologist who is primarily known for developing the 5-point Likert scale, a psychometric scale that allows people to respond to questions of interest, in order to measure people's attitudes (such as personality and attitude tests).

The format of a typical five-level Likert scale has points from strongly agree to strongly disagree.

This analysis is focused on 7 organizational dimensions:

• Motivation,
• Communication,
• Interaction,
• Decision making,
• Goal setting,
• Control,
• Performance.

Weisbord’s Six-Box Model (1976)

The six-box model is a framework developed by the American analyst Marvin Weisbord to assess the functioning of organizations.

The six-box model is comprised of the following components (boxes):

1. Purposes: What 'businesses' are we in?
2. Structure: How do we divide up the work?
3. Relationships: How do we manage conflict (coordinate) among people? With our technologies?
4. Rewards: Is there an incentive for doing all that needs doing?
5. Leadership: Is someone keeping the boxes in balance?
6. Helpful mechanisms: Have we adequate coordinating technologies?

McKinsey 7S Framework (1981-82)

The model takes into account the intangible features of the organization:

"Hard" elements:

• Strategy (strategy) - actions planned and undertaken in response to external changes, economic and social goals of the organization, long-term vision of the organization's operation: goals, ways of acting and rules of behavior.
• Structure (structure) - a formal relationship between the parts that the organization consists of.
• Procedures (systems) - ways to conduct supporting the strategy and implementing the structure. Financial systems, employment rules, evaluation and promotion, communication systems.

"Soft" elements:

• Style (style) - the manner of acting of members of the organization in mutual contacts, management style.
• Staff (staff) - raising the awareness of the management staff, the rules of introducing new employees, supporting the employees' professional careers.
• Skills (skills) - skills of the entire organization and its individual employees in the field of implementation of tasks outside and inside the company and activities supporting the development of these skills.
• Shared values - basic ideas around which the business concept is developed.

Tichy’s TPC Framework (1983)

“The TPC framework raises 4 questions which are vital to organizational diagnosis:

• How well are the parts of the org. aligned with each other for solving the organization's political problems?
• How well are the parts of the org. aligned with each other for solving the organization's cultural problems?
• How well aligned are the 3 subsystems of the org., the technical, political and cultural?
• How well are the parts of the org. aligned with each other for solving the organization's political problems?
• How well are the parts of the org. aligned with each other for solving the organization's cultural problems?
• How well aligned are the 3 subsystems of the org., the technical, political and cultural?”.

References

• Boone H. N. , Boone D. A. (2012). Analyzing Likert Data. Journal of Extension, West Virginia University Morgantown, West Virginia, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp 1-3.
• Di Pofi J. A. (2002). Organizational diagnostics: integrating qualitative and quantitative methodology. Journal of Organizational Change Management, Alabama Vol. 15, Issue: 2, pp 156-168.
• Firlej K. (2007). Modele systemów zarządzania – model Levitt’a i Wattermana w ujęciu holistycznym. Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowie, Kraków, pp 1-19.
• Hall J. W. (1972). A Comparison of Halpin and Croft's Organizational Climates and Likert and Likert's Organizational Systems. Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University, New York, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp 586-590.
• Kašík J. (2011). Organizational Diagnostic Models. Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, pp 7,20,23.
• Weisbord M. R. (1976), Organizational Diagnosis: Six Places to Look for Trouble with or without a Theory. Group & Organization Studies, Vol. 1, Issue: 4, pp 430-447.

Footnotes

Author: Daniel Żołna