Diagnostic Models

DIAGNOSTIC MODELS: AN INTRODUCTION
Julie A. C. Noolan
Traditional diagnostic models can be categorized as descriptive models or normative

models.
Descriptive models
With descriptive models, the role of the OD practitioner is to illuminate “what is” for
the client, and “what could be”. Within descriptive models, contingency theorists
would argue that the OD practitioner facilitates change only, not focus. The client
determines the direction of change and the OD practitioner helps the client get there.
Most diagnostic models fit under the “descriptive” category. Examples include:
! Bolman and Deal: Four Frames Model
! Freedman: Socio-technical Systems Model
! Galbraith: Star Model
! Hornstein and Tichy: Emergent Pragmatic Model

[Sometimes used in developing consultant or company specific models]
! McKinsey: 7-S Model
! Nadler and Tushman: Congruence Model
Normative Models
With normative models, the practitioner recommends specific directions for change,
prior to the diagnosis – the “one best way of managing.”
Examples include:
! Blake and Mouton’s Grid [Concern for People/Concern for Productivity 9, 9].
! Likert’s Profiles
Yet other diagnostic approaches include Levinson’s Clinical Historical Approach,

patterned on a psychoanalytic approach to the client system.
NEA/NTL OD Certificate Program

Diagnosing Organizations With Impact
Kaye Craft & Arty Trost
March 29-April 1, 2004 2-1
WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO LOOK AT IN ORGANIZATIONS
By Robert J. Marshak, Ph.D.
Organizational theorists and consultants have developed a wide variety of models

identifying important organizational elements and their interrelationships. Each is
predicated on a particular theory/theories or perspective(s), and each intended to
highlight and bring into focus a broad range of data and experience for purposes of
diagnosis and intervention.
A range of well-known models are displayed on the following pages. Please note:
! Most of the models suggest interaction or interrelationships among all the

selected variables.
! Many of the same variables are contained in all the models, although not
necessarily in the same way or with the same emphasis.
! The fewest number of variables depicted in a model is four (Leavitt), the greatest
is twelve (Burke-Litwin), most are between five and seven.
! Each model leaves out variables that another school of thought might include or
emphasize. For example, only the Hanna model mentions “hard numbers,” i.e.
financial performance.

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-2
LIST OF MODELS INCLUDED, in Alphabetical Order by Author/s
Compiled by Robert J. Marshak, Ph.D
Beckhard, Richard GRPI 2-4

Beckhard, Richard & Pritchard, Wendy Change Model 2-7
Blake, Robert & Mouton, Jane Managerial Grid 2-8
Bolman, Lee G. & Deal, Terrence E. Four Frames Model 2-9
Burke, W. Warner & Litwin Causal Model of Performance & Change 2-12
Freedman, Arthur M. - Swamp Model Of Sociotechnical Systems 2-13
Galbraith, Jay R. Star Model 2-21
Hanna, David P. Organizational Performance Model 2-22
Killman, Ralph Five Track Model 2-23
Kotter, John P. Organizational Dynamics Model 2-24
Leavitt, Harold J. 2-25
Mckinsey Consulting 7 Ss Model 2-26
Morgan, Gareth Metaphors 2-28
Nadler, David A. & Tushman, Michael L. A Congruence Model for Diagnosing 2-29
Organization Behavior
Weisbord, Marvin R. Six-Box Diagnostic Model 2-30

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-3
GRPI MODEL
RICHARD BECKHARD
GOALS -- Do we have clarity?

-- Do we have agreement?
ROLES -- What are our roles and responsibilities?
PROCEDURES -- How we do our work?

! Procedure, rules, approaches?
Systems
! How we work together?
INTERACTIONS -- Interpersonal, inter-group?

How do we work together in a mutually
supportive way?
GOALS
ROLES
PROCEDURES
INTERACTIONS
Source: Richard Beckhard, Optimizing Team Building Effort, Journal of Contemporary Business,
Vol1 (3), 1972

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-4
BECKHARD’S G R P I MODEL
Julie A. C. Noolan, Ph.D.
Although Beckhard’s model* originally addressed teambuilding, I have found it a

very useful approach for dealing with a broad range of groups and companies when
they are stuck. In this model you work from the top down.
As organization development consultants we are often called in when a group

appears to be in conflict. And often our backgrounds tend to make us focus more on
the inter-personal or inter-group dysfunctionality. But Beckhard would argue that
that is the last thing we should look at when a group is having difficulties. He says
that not only does it make more sense to start at the top, ensuring that a group or
organization has clarity regarding its vision, mission, or purpose, but that it is also
much easier and quicker to work these issues, getting agreement, than it is to deal
with interactions, whether they be between individuals or parts of an organization.
I describe it sometimes using a sports analogy. It doesn’t make matter how well the
players on a football team like each other if they don’t know that their goal is to get
that football across the goal line or kicked between the uprights. And it doesn’t
matter how well they get along with each other, and pat each other on the back or
elsewhere, if they don’t understand what their positions or roles are on the field—
that the quarterback throws the ball and the place kicker kicks it, and so on. And it
doesn’t matter that they really trust each other, if they don’t understand the
procedures or rules of the game. And it is only when there is clarity and agreement
on the above three areas that the consultant should address interactions, either
inter-personally or inter-group.
This model is one of the templates I routinely run through in my head in working with
a group, even if it is not what I have initially been called upon to address. Without
clarity on goals, roles, and procedures, there is little long-term benefit in working at
the interaction level.
*Richard Beckhard (1972) “Optimizing Team Building Effort” Journal of

Contemporary Business. Volume 1 (3) pp.23-32

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-5
MISSION OR PURPOSE
! Who we are
! What we do
! For whom do we do it
! Why we do it
GOALS OR OBJECTIVES
! What’s the work and how is it sequenced (milestones)?

! How is success measured?
! Priorities
! Specific, time bound, with accountabilities
ROLES
! Where does leadership for this team/group reside?

! How is the work divided up?
! Individual responsibilities, accountabilities, authority
! How are roles addressed across interfaces?
! To whom am I responsible and who is responsible to me?
PRACTICES
! How is work organized?

! How do we “operate”…..what are the important “norms”
! How and when do we communicate, and to whom?
! All infrastructures: performance management, decision making, problem-solving,
resolving conflict, organization structure, team/group versus individual practices,
etc.
RELATIONSHIPS
! How do we work together in a mutually supportive way?

! What do we need from one another and what do we get/not get?
! What are our expectations of one another and of the group?
! How do we give feedback to one another?
! Trust, support…..saying what we’ll do and doing what we say.

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-6
BECKHARD & PRITCHARD CHANGE MODEL
Mission
Corporate
Key
Identity
Relationships
Ways of
Culture
Working
Source: Richard Beckhard & Wendy Pritchard, Changing the Essence: The Art of
Creating and LeadingFundamental Change in Organizations, San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1992

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-7
MANAGERIAL GRID
BLAKE and MOUTON
Concern
9
for
9,9
People
0 9
Concern for Production
Source: Burke, W. Warner Organization Development 2nd ed. Pages 116-121.

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-8
THE FOUR FRAMES MODEL
by
BOLMAN AND DEAL
Structural HR
! Roles ! Tailoring the organization to meet

! Relationships human needs
! Structures
! Rules & Policies
Goal: Coordination Goal: Individual job fulfillment

Political Symbolic
! Scarce resources which lead to: ! Organization’s shared values and

conflict, bargaining and coalitions culture
! Rituals
! Myths
! Ceremonies
! Beliefs
Goal: Increase political skills Goal: Manage symbols, myths, and

traditions
The following is excerpted from Bolman and Deal: Modern Approaches to

Understanding and Managing Organizations. Jossey-Bass, 1989.
Bolman and Deal describe their model as embracing “conceptual pluralism” – they
take the various schools or organization thought and categorize the perspectives
into four “frames” to characterize these different vantage points. As they say, frames
are windows on the world. Frames filter out some things while allowing others to
pass through easily. Frames help us to order the world and decide what actions to
take. Every manager has a personal frame, or image, of organizations to gather
information, make judgements, and get things done.
Understanding organizations is nearly impossible when the manager is

unconsciously wed to a single, narrow perspective. Managers in all organizations
can increase their effectiveness and their freedom through the use of multiple
vantage points. To be locked into a single path is likely to produce error and self-
imprisonment. We believe that managers who understand their own frame –and
who can adeptly rely on more than one limited perspective – are better equipped to

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-9
understand and manage the complex everyday world of organizations. Sometimes
they can make a significant difference in how that world responds.
There are four frames for looking at an organization in this model:
1. Structural – the rational, tough-minded side of organizations … clarifying

basic issues in organization design … the relationship between goals and
structure organizations.
2. Human resource – the human side of enterprise … examines strengths and

weaknesses of current approaches to humanizing the workplace.
3. Political -- the darker side of organizations – conflict, coalitions, and

struggles for power and positions.
4. Symbolic – organizational symbols … explains the roles played by myths,

rituals, ceremonies, and plays at all levels of the organizations.
The structural frame emphasizes the importance of formal roles and relationships.
Structures – commonly depicted in organization charts – are created to fit an
organization’s environment and technology. Organizations allocate responsibilities
to participants (“division of labor”) and create rules, policies, and management
hierarchies to coordinate diverse activities. Problems arise when the structure does
not fit the situation. At that point, some form of reorganization is needed to remedy
the mismatch.
The human resource frame establishes its territory because organizations are
inhabited by people. Individuals have needs, feelings, and prejudices. They have
both skills and limitations. They have great capacity to learn and a sometimes
greater capacity to defend old attitudes and beliefs. From a human resource
perspective, the key to effectiveness is to tailor organizations to people – to find an
organizational form that will enable people to get the job done while feeling good
about what they are doing. Problems arise when human needs are throttled.
The political frame views organizations as arenas of scarce resources where power
and influence are constantly affecting the expected because of differences in needs,
perspectives, and life-styles among different individuals and groups. Bargaining,
coercion, and compromise are all part of everyday organizational life. Coalitions
form around specific interests and may change as issues come and go. Problems
may arise because power is unevenly distributed or is so broadly dispersed that it is
difficult to get anything done. Solutions are developed through political skill and
acumen – much as Machiavelli suggested centuries ago.
The symbolic frame abandons the assumptions of rationality that appear in each of
the other frames and treats the organization as theater or carnival. Organizations
March 29-April 1, 2004 2-10
are viewed as held together more by shared values and culture than by goals and
policies. They are propelled more by rituals, ceremonies, stories, heroes, and myths
than by rules, policies, and managerial authority. Organization is drama: the drama
engages actors inside, and outside audiences form impressions based on what they
see occurring on-stage. Problems arise when actors play their parts badly, when
symbols lose their meaning, when ceremonies and rituals lose their potency.
Improvements come through symbol, myth and magic.
Each frame has its own vision of reality. Only when managers can look at
organizations through all four frames are they likely to appreciate the depth and
complexity of organizational life. Successful managers rely intuitively on all the
different frames, blending them into a coherent, pragmatic, personal theory of
organizations. We believe than an explicit introduction to, and grounding in, all four
frames can enrich any manager’s native intuition. Success becomes possible even
for the great majority of us who were not born with the ability to understand and act
effectively in such a complicated and ambiguous world.

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-11
CAUSAL MODEL OF PERFORMANCE CHANGE
BURKE-LITWIN
External
Environment
Mission and Organization

Strategy Culture
Leadership
Systems
Structure
(Policies and
Management Procedures)
Practices
Work Unit Climate
Individual
Task Requirements
Needs and
and Individual Motivation Values
Skills/Abilities
Individual and
Organizational
Performance
Source: W. Warner Burke, in Ann Howard (ed.) Diagnosis for Organizational Change,
Guilford Press, 1994
March 29-April 1, 2004 2-12
THE SWAMP MODEL OF SOCIOTECHNICAL SYSTEMS
Output –Side Stakeholders:

Input-Side Stakeholders:
Clients, Customers, Investors,
Suppliers, Regulators, Investors,
Regulators
Market Information, Environmental
Trends
Leadership
Boundary
Management
Mechanisms
Human
Resource Structure
Management
Management
Strategic
Direction PRODUCTION
Financial
Management Technology
Feedback Loop
(Variance Analysis)
External Environmental Conditions: Political, Economic, Social, Technological,

Market, Environmental
Copyright ©1987, Arthur M. Freedman, Ph.D.

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-13
Elements of Socio-Technical Systems
Arthur M. Freedman, Ph.D.
1. Vision: Goal Structure (Organizational Direction):
A. Alternative Future Scenarios: Best-Case, Worst-Case, and Most Likely-Case.

B. Mission.
C. Strategic Goals or Operational Objectives.
D. Strategic Plans.
E. Philosophy and Values.
2. Production:
A. Nature of the core work processes:

1. Project (“job shop”).
2. Production (assembly line).
3. Continuous process.
B. Operational plans for:

1. Human Resources:
a. Number and type of employees (current and future).
b. Deployment schedule for employees.
c. Inducements to be exchanged for contributions.
2. Work flow (design or redesign of the organization’s value-adding business
processes).
3. Differentiation of responsibilities: tasks, activities and functions.
4. Integrative structure for communications and decision-making.
5. Assessing match between “expected” and “actual” performance and
results.
6. Scanning for, identifying, defining, and solving emerging operational
problems or improvement opportunities.
C. Corrective and preventive maintenance measures for human resources.
D. Corrective and preventive maintenance for physical resources
3. Financials:
A. Projected versus actual revenues (funds).

B. Budgeted versus actual expenses (costs).
C. Profit and loss.
D. Financial management and auditing systems and procedures – including real-
time value-adding activity-based accounting (EVA).

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-14
4. People (Human Resource Management Systems):
A. Strategic H.R. Plans: Determining how to satisfy current and projected H.R.
needs for all organizational subsystems.
B. H.R. Utilization: Developing, enhancing, retaining competencies of current

employees to satisfy current work requirements.
C. H.R. Development: Preparing current employees to meet projected work

requirements.
D. H.R. Monitoring: Auditing systems to identify and study human performance

and indications of underachievement or non-achievement.
5. Organizational Structure:
A. Organizational charts indicating hierarchical levels, positions, and lines of

authority and accountability.
B. Responsibilities for individuals (roles) and intact work units (charters): Tasks,
activities, and functions.
C. Policies and procedures.
D. Rules and regulations.
6. Technology:
A. “Hard” technologies: E.g., equipment, materials, facilities.
B. “Soft” technologies: E.g., managerial-supervisory practices; interpersonal,

team and inter-group communications, problem-solving and decision-making
processes.
7. Organizational Culture and Climate:
A. Culture: The persistent manifestations and impacts of historical

organizational traditions, practices, beliefs, values, precedents, myths, and
legends that are the foundations of contemporary, informal (unwritten) norms
and standards governing acceptable behavior by organizational members.

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-15
B. Climate: Current levels of tension, sense of urgency, pace, and tempo of
activities in response to temporary conditions (e.g., crisis, emergency,
uncertainty, turbulence, calm, predictability, or consistency).
8. Organizational Leadership:
A. Support the goal structure (direction) of the enterprise.
B. Insure the integrity of the boundaries between the system and the external
environment:
1. Support (or perform) boundary management functions including the
development of teamwork between organizational elements or
subsystems and significant external stakeholders and constituents.
2. Represent the requirements, preferences and concerns of all parts of the
organization to their relevant, significant external stakeholders and
constituents.
3. Represent the requirements, preferences, and concerns of relevant,
significant external stakeholders and constituents to the organization’s
major subsystems and employees.
C. Provide “Variance Analysis”

1. Scan, monitor all socio-technical system functions within the enterprise.
2. Identify, define operational problems, improvement opportunities, and
entrepreneurial opportunities.
3. Develop and implement action plans to solve or prevent problems and to
capitalize on improvement or entrepreneurial opportunities.
4. Evaluate effectiveness of corrective and preventive actions taken.
D. Ensure timely, effective corrective and preventive maintenance for human,

fiscal, and physical resources.
9. Input-Output Transactions at the Interface Between the Organization and

its Relevant External Stakeholders:
A. Relevant stakeholders and constituents are identified as having a legitimate

“stake” or vested interest in the enterprise and its manner of operating.
B. Inputs imported into the organization:

1. Nature of the inputs which are delivered by supply-side stakeholders:
E.g., market information, technical knowledge and skills, information on
regulations and ground rules, people, materials, equipment, and/or
financial resources.
2. Quality of inputs: I.e., the degree to which inputs provided by suppliers
satisfy the organization’s specifications (standards or criteria),
requirements, and preferences.
March 29-April 1, 2004 2-16
3. Reliability and/or timelines of delivery of inputs to the organization.
C. Outputs exported from the enterprise:

1. Nature of the outputs delivered by the organization to its demand-side
stakeholders (customers and users): E.g., goods, services, marketing or
sales activities, dividends to shareholders, reports to governmental
regulators, employees’ salaries and wages, and waste materials and
garbage.
2. Quality of outputs: The degree to which the system’s outputs satisfy the
customers’ specifications, requirements, and preferences.
3. Reliability and/or timelines of delivery of outputs to customers and users.
D. Organizational boundary management systems or mechanisms:

1. Identity of persons or groups responsible for negotiating and conducting
input-output transactions with external demand-side or supply-side
stakeholders.
2. Standards or criteria used to determine the limits of acceptability of inputs
from suppliers or outputs to customers.
3. Methods, procedures, or processes used to determine “acceptability”.
4. Degree of decision-making authority, including the source or basis of this
authority.
5. Degree to which the boundary management system scans the external
environment (proactively or reactively) for relevant activity, changes,
trends, novel conditions or events, etc.
E. Methods of managing transactions across lateral interfaces between the

organization and its relevant stakeholders and constituents:
1. Effective communication: Accurate, timely, comprehensive transmission
and reception of relevant, influential input and feedback.
2. Goal clarification and negotiation for agreement.
3. Role clarification and negotiation (and re-negotiation).
4. Conflict management and utilization.
5. Clarification and negotiation of mutual expectations.
6. Negotiating decision-making procedures and strategies, including
responsibilities and authority.
7. Joint identification and solving of problems or capitalizing on improvement
opportunities.
8. Negotiating commitments and consequences.

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-17
Assessing the Fit Between a System and Its Environment
Arthur M. Freedman, Ph.D.
Divide group into sub-groups (teams) that represent major stakeholder groups or
constituent populations within the larger organization (e.g., “Managers,” “Labor
Union,” “Finance,” “Maintenance,” “Marketing,” “Engineering Group,” “Human
Resources”).
Each team is to describe itself in terms of its:
1. Direction being taken by the group
! What is your Vision of the world in which you must compete, operate and survive
in the future?
! What is your Mission? In what business or businesses is your group involved?
What is your market? How do you add value to your customers’ operations?
What is your competitive advantage?
! What are the Strategic Goals that you must achieve to survive and grow? What
must you do to contribute to the realization of Mission of your larger
organization?
! What is your Strategy to achieve these Goals?
! What are the Values or Philosophy that you use to guide your group’s operation
and the behavior of its members?
2. Production
! From whom does your group get its work requests? How are they originated?
How do you know what to produce? Why are you able to obtain work? How do
you attract work?
! What goods, products, or services does your group produce? What will your
group be producing in the future?
! What standards or criteria must be satisfied for these work results to be
considered acceptable? Who establishes these standards or criteria?
! How effective is your group? Are you satisfying these production standards or
criteria? Are you profitable? Are your deliveries on time? Are you efficient?
How do you know?
3. People
! How many of what types of people doe the group currently require to operate
effectively? Do you have all these people under contract now? Are your people
over- or under-qualified?

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-18
! How many of your people will still be fully qualified next year? Five years from
now? 10 years from now? 20 years from now? Is it possible that the future work
demands that your people must satisfy will exceed their current types or levels of
competence?
! How many of your fully qualified people will leave or retire next year? Five years
from now? 10 years from now? 20 years from now?
! How many of what types of people will the group require next year? Five years
from now? 10 years from now? 20 years from now?
! Where will your group find the people you will need? How will you recruit,
screen, and select those who are fully qualified?
! What will it take to attract and contract with the fully qualified people that your
group will need?
4. Structure
! Who is responsible for which tasks, activities, and functions?

! Who has what level of authority over whom?
! Who is accountable to whom?
! What guidelines, rules, regulations, policies, and procedures reinforce, limit or
prescribe the behavior or activities of the members of this group?
5. Culture and climate
! What behaviors are acceptable and encouraged or rewarded in this group?

! What behaviors are unacceptable and tolerated, ignored or punished?
! What is the current emotional climate within the group?
! Is your group’s culture and climate similar or different compared with the
prevailing culture and climate within the larger organization? Among your
stakeholder groups? Among your constituent populations?
6. Leadership
! How does your group stay in touch with internal organizational and external
environmental events and conditions? How do you know if significant changes
are taking place that could effect your group’s business?
! How does your group ensure that its members’ activities are all oriented toward
the same common goals and purpose?
! How does the group identify, define and solve its problems – and exploit or
capitalize on emerging opportunities to improve its effectiveness?

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-19
7. Transactions with stakeholder groups and constituent populations
! Which significant groups or individuals have some vested interest in this group’s
activities? Which of these suppliers, customers, regulators, investors, etc. are
internal to the group’s organization? Which are external?
! What does the group “import” from its “suppliers”?
! What does the group “export” to its “customers” or “users” or “targets”?
! By whom and how are these transactions managed?
! Through the use of which methods are these transactions managed so as to
maximize mutual satisfaction and to minimize or eliminate difficulties?

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-20
STAR MODEL
Jay R. GALBRAITH
Structure Organizing Mode

Strategy Choice of:
! Division of Labor
Choice of: Domain ! Departmentalization
Objectives ! Configuration
Goals ! Distribution of Power
Task Information & Decision

Processes
! Decision Mechanism
! Frequency
! Diversity
! Formalization
! Difficulty
! Data Base
! Variability
People Reward System
Integrating Individuals
! Promotion Choice of:
! Training & Development ! Compensation System
! Transfer ! Promotion Basis
! Selection ! Leadership Style
! Job Design
Source: Jay R. Galbraith, Organization Design, Addison-Wesley, 1977

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-21
ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE MODEL
DAVID P. HANNA
Business Situation Business

The needs which must Results
be satisfied and the What the organization
pressures which must actually delivers now
be managed, including
hard number
requirements
Business Strategy Culture

The organization’s How the organization
purpose, strategy, really operates:
operating attitudes, norms,
principles, goals, politics, actual work
values and
assumptions
Structure Rewards
Tasks Decision
Making
People Information
Source: David P. Hanna, Designing Organizations for High Performance, Addison-

Wesley, 1988

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-22
FIVE TRACK MODEL
RALPH KILMANN
Organization
Culture
Management Team Dynamics

Skills
Strategy and Reward System

Structure
Source: Ralph Kilmann, Beyond the Quick Fix, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Publishers, 1984

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-23
ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS MODEL: JOHN P. KOTTER
EMPLOYEES AND
OTHER TANGIBLE
ASSETS:
People
Plant, equipment, $, etc.
SOCIAL SYSTEM
Culture FORMAL
ORGANIZATIONAL
Social Structure
ARRANGEMENTS
Structure
Operating systems
KEY
ORGANIZATIONAL
PROCESSES
Information gathering
Communication
Decision making
Matter/energy transporting
Matter/energy conversion
DOMINANT COALITION
TECHNOLOGY Personal characteristics
Methods
Goals, strategies
Techniques
EXTERNAL
ENVIRONMENT
Task environment
Wider environment
Source: John P. Kotter, Organizational Dynamics: Diagnosis and Intervention,

Addison-Wesley, 1978
March 29-April 1, 2004 2-24
LEAVITT MODEL
Structure
Technology
Task
People (Actors)
Source: Harold J. Leavitt, “Applied Organizational Change in Industry: Structural,

Technological and Humanistic Approaches,” in James G. March (Ed.) Handbook of
Organizations, Rand McNally and Company, 1965.

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-25
7-S MODEL
McKINSEY CONSULTING
Structure
Systems
Strategy
Shared
Values
Skills Style
Staff
Source: Robert H. Waterman, Jr., Thomas J. Peters & Julien R. Philips, “Structure
is Not Organization,” Business Horizons, June 1980.
March 29-April 1, 2004 2-26
MCKINSEY’S 7 S’S MODEL
McKinsey Consulting developed a model for looking at organizations. The 7 S’s

Model provides an especially useful framework for reviewing the impact of change.
! Shared Values and Beliefs: A role of the vision statement is to impart to the
organization (and externally) what the organization stands for and what it
believes in.
! Strategy: States how an organization will attain its vision and respond to the
threats and opportunities of the new mediums. Capabilities are needed in:
marketing, distribution, product and service development, business requirements
analysis; creation and management of alliances & partnerships.
! Systems, including Processes: Capabilities are required in: IT & IS, sales and
service, legal, actuarial.
! Staff: HR management for developing the skills and aptitude for building lifetime
customer relationships. Needed are policies, standards and processes re:
recruitment, training & development, motivation & regards.
! Style: This refers to the management style best suited for the organization. The
challenge for management is to use appropriate styles for the situation without
confusing staff.
! Structure: Organizations will find that changes to processes and style inevitably
require changes to their structure. (e.g. centralized, decentralized, network,
matrix, process structures.)
! Skills: The degree to which necessary skills exist is the core of workforce
planning and often a major aspect in organization diagnosis. If staff and
managers are to acquire all the skills outlined above, then there needs to be an
appropriate learning environment.

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-27
MORGAN METAPHORS
GARETH MORGAN
ORGANIZATIONS AS …..
ORGANISMS MACHINES BRAINS CULTURES
POLITICAL PSYCHIC FLUX AND INSTRUMENTS

SYSTEMS PRISONS TRANS- OF
FORMATION DOMINATION
Source: Gareth Morgan, Images or Organization, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage

Publications, 1986 and 1997.

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-28
A CONGRUENCE MODEL FOR DIAGNOSING ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR
NADLER-TUSHMAN
Transformation Process
Inputs Information Outputs

Organization Organization
Environment
Group
Resources
Individual
History
Strategy
Task Formal
Organizational
Arrangements
Individual
Feedback
Source: David A. Nadler & Michael L. Tushman” A Model for Diagnosing

Organization Behavior,” Organization Dynamics, Autumn, 1980

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-29
SIX-BOX DIAGNOSTIC MODEL
MARVIN R. WEISBORD
PURPOSES:
What business are we
in?
STRUCTURES:
RELATIONSHIPS:
How do we divide up the
How do we manage
work?
conflict among people?
With technologies?
LEADERSHIP:
Does someone keep the
boxes in balance?
HELPFUL REWARDS:
MECHANISMS: Do all needed tasks have
Have we adequate incentives?
coordinating
technologies?
ENVIRONMENT
(Human Needs)
NOTE: The model can be seen as a radar screen. Organizational problems appear
as “blips” of varying intensity. It is management’s unending task to scan, assure
balance among the boxes, identify and close gaps between “what is” and “what
ought to be,” between “what is produced,” and “what should be produced.”
Leadership is responsible for providing a mechanism to maintain the scan.
Moreover, closing a gap always requires the use of some helpful mechanism.
Unless a mechanism exists or can be created, nothing is likely to happen.
Diagnostic tip: Identify the “missing pieces” in each box.

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-30
Organizational Diagnostic Model
1. The chart summarizes relationships among Purposes, Structure,

Relationships, Rewards, Helpful Mechanisms, Leadership, Environmental
Demands.
2. It assumes that Purposes will be related to Environmental demands – i.e., an

organization’s priorities should be based on what it must do to fulfill its
mission at this time in this place.
3. Structure will be based on Purposes. In organizations, as in architecture,

form follows function. For example, functional—or departmental—
organization is a strong structure for developing in-depth special competence.
It is much less effective in carrying out integrative projects. By contrast, a
product—or program or project—organization is strong at coordinating around
special purposes, and pays for his through less in-depth specialized
capability, such as production or sale.
Historically, organizations have reorganized periodically in one or the other

mode as environment, technologies, and strategies changed. Where both
capabilities are equally important, organizations—e.g., aerospace industry,
medical schools—have gone to a matrix. This requires sophisticated conflict
management.
4. Relationships refers primarily to the way units are coordinated. This is

another way of saying “conflict management,” for the critical problem in
coordinating differentiated activities is managing inevitable conflict between
them. The more complex—i.e., matrix-like—the required structure, the more
conflict management becomes a critical requirement for effective
organization.
5. Rewards help or inhibit the “fit” between individuals and organizational goals.
Ideally, organizations should offer incentives—e.g., promotions,
achievements, money—for people to do what most needs doing. In practice,
reward systems sometimes work against the organization’s best interest.
Piecework incentive plans sometimes have this unintended consequence
and, in medicine, academic promotion may hinge on research, even though a
medical center is under pressure to teach and serve patients.

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-31
6. Cutting across all four issues—Purposes, Structure, Relationships,
Rewards—is the notion of Helpful Mechanisms. These are procedures,
policies, systems, forms, committees, agendas which contribute to
appropriate Purposes, Structure, Relationships, and Rewards. An effective
organization continually revises its mechanisms, eliminating some and adding
others as the need arises. Whenever a “gap” between what is and what
ought to be is identified, it is often discovered that no present mechanism
exists to close it. Hence, the creation of new mechanisms is central to the
identification and closing of gaps.
7. Only Leadership can scan the entire environment and act on behalf of the
whole. This is the appropriate role for top administration—to keep the entire
organization in balance, continually creating mechanisms to articulate
Purposes (and change them as the environment changes), alter Structure,
and provide for appropriate Relationships and Rewards.
8. The model provides a vocabulary and way of thinking about these issues.
Source: Weisbord, Marvin R., Six –Box Diagnostic Model, Consultation Skills
Readings, NTL Institute, 1983

March 29-April 1, 2004 2-32

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Diagnostic Models

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DIAGNOSTIC MODELS: AN INTRODUCTION

Traditional diagnostic models can be categorized as descriptive models or normative

! Bolman and Deal: Four Frames Model

! Freedman: Socio-technical Systems Model

! Galbraith: Star Model

! Hornstein and Tichy: Emergent Pragmatic Model

! McKinsey: 7-S Model

! Nadler and Tushman: Congruence Model

Yet other diagnostic approaches include Levinson’s Clinical Historical Approach,

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Organizational theorists and consultants have developed a wide variety of models

! Most of the models suggest interaction or interrelationships among all the

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Beckhard, Richard GRPI 2-4

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GOALS -- Do we have clarity?

ROLES -- What are our roles and responsibilities?

PROCEDURES -- How we do our work?

INTERACTIONS -- Interpersonal, inter-group?

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Although Beckhard’s model* originally addressed teambuilding, I have found it a

As organization development consultants we are often called in when a group

*Richard Beckhard (1972) “Optimizing Team Building Effort” Journal of

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! What’s the work and how is it sequenced (milestones)?

! Where does leadership for this team/group reside?

! How is work organized?

! How do we work together in a mutually supportive way?

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BLAKE and MOUTON

Source: Burke, W. Warner Organization Development 2nd ed. Pages 116-121.

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! Roles ! Tailoring the organization to meet

Goal: Coordination Goal: Individual job fulfillment

! Scarce resources which lead to: ! Organization’s shared values and

Goal: Increase political skills Goal: Manage symbols, myths, and

The following is excerpted from Bolman and Deal: Modern Approaches to

Understanding organizations is nearly impossible when the manager is

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There are four frames for looking at an organization in this model:

1. Structural – the rational, tough-minded side of organizations … clarifying

2. Human resource – the human side of enterprise … examines strengths and

3. Political -- the darker side of organizations – conflict, coalitions, and

4. Symbolic – organizational symbols … explains the roles played by myths,

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Mission and Organization

Work Unit Climate

Output –Side Stakeholders:

External Environmental Conditions: Political, Economic, Social, Technological,

Copyright ©1987, Arthur M. Freedman, Ph.D.

1. Vision: Goal Structure (Organizational Direction):

A. Alternative Future Scenarios: Best-Case, Worst-Case, and Most Likely-Case.

A. Nature of the core work processes:

B. Operational plans for:

C. Corrective and preventive maintenance measures for human resources.

D. Corrective and preventive maintenance for physical resources

A. Projected versus actual revenues (funds).

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