Organizational Diagnosis: Steps, Levels, & Case Studies

Unit Lesson

Unit Lesson
Organizational Diagnosis
During this unit, we will focus on the diagnosis process and how it can assist the organization in determining the gaps that exist between the current and desired performance areas. The diagnosis phase also helps the organization see how its goals can be achieved by making changes within the organization (Rothwell, Stopper, & Myers, 2017). There are nine steps in the diagnostic process. These steps are listed in the graphic below

 

Three Levels of Diagnosis
During the diagnosis process, there are three levels of diagnosis (Rothwell et al., 2017). These include the organization level, group level, and individual level. It is important to conduct the diagnosis at each level in order to tie in all areas of the organization with the overall strategic plan. By aligning the organization, the structure, the departments, and the employees together, the organization can determine the areas that are effective and where changes may be necessary.

 

Applying Organizational Diagnosis
Many organizations consider the organic process of organizational diagnosis (Rothwell et al., 2017). There are three companies that have gone through the organic process of organizational diagnosis in order to make strategic changes.

 

Microsoft suffered through a stagnant period after their industry-wide success of Office Products and Windows. They struggled with finding the next stage in their business plan. In 2014, their new chief executive officer (CEO), Satya Nadella, started to restructure the company (Quain, 2018). Nadella focused on reinventing the business processes by building more cloud-intelligent platforms and even more personal computing. The organic process begins by looking at the organization and the structures. Today, they are still going through the changes but are focusing a great deal of time on the artificial intelligence of their company.

 

They have seen a renewal of employee morale and shareholder excitement about the company (Quain, 2018).
Google grew fast, and they had many different diverse aspects of the organization. From Gmail, Google Maps, and the search engine, they were running with many different aspects. The CEO decided to break up Google, and each of its parts became its own company (Quain, 2018). They would all operate under Alphabet Inc., but each part would function as its own company with separate goals and ideas. With each company being responsible for its own revenue and innovation, all aspects of Google have continued to grow and not be slowed by having too many irons in one fire (Quain, 2018).

 

After their organizational diagnosis, British Airways restructured the entire organization. Their CEO found the organization to be inefficient and wasting valuable resources (Quain, 2018). The workforce was reduced by almost 20,000 people, unprofitable flight routes were eliminated, and they modernized the airplane fleet. After 10 years of the changes being implemented, the company had its highest revenue of $284 million in 2018 (Quain, 2018).

 

Development Plan Steps
For the organization, after the diagnosis of the issues, the development plan needs to be established. There are six areas that the development plan should include.
The first area is the establishment of goals that are actionable and measurable. Establishing sound goals will allow the organization to have action steps to take and will provide the organization with the ability to measure the effectiveness of the change throughout the process.

 

The second area is to include the timeframes for the change. Change initiatives cannot continue to go on for an indefinite period of time. A clear date for completion of the change needs to be set in order to move the organization forward and to take the necessary steps during the timeframe.

 

The third area is to create the milestones and checkpoints discussed in the first area. These checkins allow the organization to determine if the development plan is moving forward in the right direction or if changes need to be made.

 

The fourth area includes the support or resources that are necessary to make the changes. Without the resources being available at the right times, the timeframe and ultimate goals will not be accomplished.

 

The fifth area includes the accountability partners. The accountability partners will help to keep everyone on track with the goals that each person has been given.

 

The sixth area is the contingency plan. Making sure that the organization has the timeframe set is critical because the changes cannot go on forever. If the organization is not becoming more effective through the development plan, changes need to be made to the development plan (Rothwell et al., 2017).