Strategic Organizational Diagnosis and Design - Case Study Example

ABC and Whole Food Market Organizational Diagnosis Introduction Apparently, organizational diagnostic models are used in the research to analyze organizational performance. According to Alderfer (1981), organizational diagnosis is a process based on behavioral science theory entering a human system, collecting data about human experience and feeding that information back to the system. This analysis helps the organization identify its structure, subsystems and processes which helps to know the strengths and weaknesses leading to performance evaluation of the organization. This performance evaluation will help the organization apply effectiveness and efficiency for good outputs. These models also help to investigate the external and internal factors affecting the organization and help to evaluate itself and prepare according to the demands from the environment (Falletta, 2005). There are several theories explaining the organizational diagnosis: 7S Model This model investigates whether the company’s inputs align with the company objectives (Leadersphere, 2008). Every organization has objectives which help them achieve their vision and mission and therefore this model is used to assess the progress of the organization. Variations in the variables often result notable changes. Strengths This model analyzes the essential variables affecting the organizational performance. It does not emphasize on all factors either internal or external. Weakness This model does not put into consideration the environmental effects on the organization’s effectiveness and operations. Even though there might be some negative effects from the external environment, this model has limitation to it and does not consider its effects. Congruence Model This model identifies the degree to which the needs, objectives and structures of one part of an organization are congruent to the needs, objectives and structures of another part (Leadersphere, 2008). This model is only useful in making sure that these needs, objectives and structures are harmonious with another part. Strength After identifying this, the model enables the organization to improve its efficiency and effectiveness by ensuring that they are matching. Weakness According to Nadler & Tushman (2008), this model does not evaluate the effect of demands from the environment. It only evaluates the demands from the organization but not external effects. Burke-Litwin Model This model is used to investigate the internal and external factors influencing the organization and also how the factors interact (Martins & Coetezee, 2009). Moreover, the model does not have limit to the external environment since it analyzes both internal and external factors on how they affect the organization and also how they interact. This model helps the organization evaluate itself based on both factors which improves its performance. Strength This model deals with both internal and external factors and it analyzes the organizational performance which determines if the organization is running efficiently and effectively. Weakness Since this model is concerned with the internal and external factors it may be complex to use and more complicated. It can also be cumbersome to some extent. Leavitt’s Model According to Burton (2006), this model analyzes how variations occur in variables. Its analysis is based on organizational structure and human resources. This determines how human resources and the organizational structure are used to bring out the best. Human resources are applied in an organization according to the organizational structure in order to produce excellently according to ones skills, experience and knowledge. Strength This model is simple to use because it depends with the human resources which are available based on the organizational structure. Weakness The model cannot provide direct information relating to the organizational variables hence; it cannot be so much relied on. Likert Systems Model The model examines issues relating to motivation, communication, interaction, goal setting, decision making, control and performance. It also analyzes management system within an organization and how it affects the organizational performance (Leadersphere, 2008). The management system if not carefully handled can have negative impact on the performance. This model emphasizes on how people in an organization communicate to each other, how they interact, how goals of the organization are set based on the vision and mission, decision made for the smoothing running of the organization and how staffs are motivated(Falletta, 2005). Strength This model determines the scales to be used to both employees and employers in the organization which makes work easier. Since each category of the workers is different from the other one, this model is best applied here to determine the scale of each person. Weakness It only emphasizes on social aspects affecting the organization and not what effects structures, processes and the environment has on the organization. This model cannot be used to assess the organizational performance since it has nothing to do with the structures, processes and the environment. Force Field Analysis According to Fuqua & Kurpius (1993), this model emphasizes on the forces within the organization. The driving forces are the environmental factors which act as barriers to change while the restraining forces are the organizational factors. Strength This model is simple to understand and easy to visualize since it clearly shows the driving forces and the restraining forces which enables the organization analyze on what factors to deal with. Weakness These driving forces in this model acting as barriers to change in the organization bring the complexity that the organization is incapable of changing to a better position. Issues facing Whole Foods Market Competition: Whole Foods Market is facing competition from their entrants and this leads to low rate of income. The entrants come into market with similar products or other products which can act as substitutes whereby the customers might easily shift due to the quality of the product, high price or even a change of taste. Competitors might both lower the prices of the product hence lowering the quality where customers will automatically shift to a better quality product. Marketing trends: As time changes, the market also changes and it becomes hard to portend the future. Prices of products or raw materials might raise from time to time and therefore the prices of the products raises as well. It is desirable to have a large stock due to inflation to avoid losses since it is also expensive when the prices plummet and as an organization, it used a lot of money to buy the stock when the price was higher. Increased food costs: High underlying food costs may reduce profitability to the organization due to decreased customers from increased prices. Prices of products keep on changing day-to-day and thus a customer would not risk buying an expensive product in lieu of a cheaper one. Burke-Litwin is the best model to use since it analyzes the organizational performance and both internal and external factors affecting performance. It considers both organizational and environmental factors which help the organization have a successful change. It does not have limit to the environmental factors. Burke-Litwin model can be recommended to use since it considers both external and internal factors. External environment is the input to the organization and every organization must have inputs for it to run and the environmental factors are one of the important factors since they help an organization analyze what external factors contribute to the production or performance of the organization and it is worthwhile to deal with this model because it handles both factors. Additionally, the model is very critical to use since an organization can know what it is required from them by the people from their behavior towards its products. This makes the change successful unlike the other models which deal with internal factors of an organization only. Burke-Litwin model can be used to put in the picture how the marketing trends are affecting the organization from time to time and therefore, due to this inflation the organization might decide to have big stock to avoid increased expenses. In view of the fact that this model deals with external factors, it can be used to determine customer demands hence regulating the production in the organization to avoid going into waste or into a loss. While analyzing the environmental factors, this model can make people aware of the new entrants or competitors whereby the organization is capable of planning on how to deal with this challenge on either to improve the quality of the products or to reduce the price (Falletta, 2005). Conclusion Evidence based on models used in analyzing the organizational diagnosis shows that the best model to be used in any organization is Burke-Litwin model because this handles both the internal and external factors. There are other models which can be used in an organization even though they emphasize on different factors and variables. This Burke-Litwin model is best used to show how the external and internal environmental factors interact. Despite the other models not dealing with both internal and external factors they can still be used as well. References: Beer, Michael; Harvard Business School. (2013). The Strategic Fitness Process: A Collaborative Action Research Method for Developing and Understanding Organizational Prototypes and Dynamic Capabilities. (Journal of Organization Design; Vol. 2, No. 1 (2013); 2733.) Organizational Design Community. Bhattacharyya, D. (2010). Cross-cultural management: Texts and cases. New Delhi: PHI Learning Ldt. Brender, J. (1997). 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