Solution Manual for Organization Development and

Change 10th Edition Cummings Worley 1133190456

9781133190455
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Chapter 5
Diagnosing

Learning Objectives

 Discus the philosophy and purpose of diagnosis in organization development (OD).

 Explain the role of diagnostic models in OD, especially the open-systems model.
 Describe and apply organization-level diagnostic processes.
 Describe and apply group-level diagnostic processes.
 Describe and apply individual-level diagnostic processes.

Chapter Outline and Lecture Notes

5-1 What Is Diagnosis?

Diagnosis is the process of understanding how the organization is currently functioning

and it provides the information necessary to design change interventions.

One of the defining and distinguishing characteristics of OD is its emphasis on diagnosis

prior to intervention. Several points need to be stressed. First, align diagnosis with the
predominant values underlying OD by emphasizing the joint and collaborative nature of
the diagnostic process. Second, be clear that the purpose of diagnosis is to uncover the
true causes of the problem. It is a central tenet of OD that organizations often waste time
solving symptoms of a deeper issue. In this sense, diagnosis is often associated with the
“medical model” of consulting. This is risky in OD, because there is no extant
assumption that something is wrong with the “patient.”

5-2 The Need for Diagnostic Models

Diagnosis follows entering and contracting activities and is designed to uncover the root
causes of issues that the organization wants to address. To do that, some sort of
framework is needed in order to ensure that all important areas of concerns are addressed.
Diagnostic models point out what areas to examine and what questions to ask in assessing

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 how an organization is functioning. The general model that underlies most of the
diagnosing in OD is the “open-systems model.”

Note: For more sophisticated students who have several years of business experience, the
professor might find the Emergent-Pragmatic exercise useful. It can be found in N. Tichy,
Managing Strategic Change (New York: John Wiley, 1983, pp. 50-68). It involves
reading a case and then going through a step-by-step process of building an
organizational model. In turn, this model can be used to diagnose the student’s own
organization, an organization they are familiar with, or the cases found at the end of the
major sections of text.

5-3 The Open-Systems Model

The open-systems model recognizes that organizations exist in the context of a larger
environment that affects how the organization performs and in turn is affected by how the
organization interacts with it. It is based on systems theory which is a set of concepts and
relationships describing the properties and behaviors of things called systems including
organizations, groups, and jobs.

5-3a Organizations as Open Systems

The open systems model is adopted by this text as the most appropriate way to
view organizations. It is not the only model (i.e., contingency model). Figure 5.1
illustrates the open-systems model. The model includes environments; inputs,
transformations, and outputs; boundaries; feedback; and alignment.

1. Environments
Environments are everything outside the system that can directly or indirectly
affect its outputs.

2. Inputs, Transformations, and Outputs

Inputs are human capital or other resources such as information, energy, and
materials. Transformations are the process of converting inputs into outputs.
Outputs are the results of what is transformed by the system.

3. Boundaries
Boundaries help to distinguish between organizational systems and their
environments because they establish the limits of the system. The boundaries
can be defined as physical locations as well as managerial, technical, and
social purposes.

4. Feedback
Feedback is information regarding the actual performance or the outputs of
the system.

5. Alignment

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 Alignment describes how well the system’s different parts and elements align
with each other to influence effectiveness.

5-3b Diagnosing Organizational Systems

Organizations can be diagnosed at three levels: (1) overall organization, (2) group
or department, and (3) individual. Figure 5.2A presents a comprehensive model
for diagnosing at the three organizational levels.

5-4 Organization-Level Diagnosis

The relationship between inputs, design orientation or “strategic orientation”, and

alignment of these dimensions is critical to organization level diagnosis. In addition,
students must consider that two key inputs determine an organization’s strategic
orientation: the general environment and industry structure. OD practitioners must design
diagnostic and intervention activities that fit these contexts.

5-4a Inputs

At the organization-level, the inputs include the general environment, the task
environment, and the enacted environment.

1. Environmental Types
The general environment consists of all external forces that can directly or
indirectly affect an organization. It can include a variety of social,
technological, economic, ecological, and political/regulatory forces.

The task environment is defined in terms of the industry structure represented

by five forces: supplier power, buyer power, threats of substitutes, threats of
entry, and rivalry among competitors.

The enacted environment consists of organization members’ perception and

representation of the general and task environments.

2. Environmental Dimensions
In addition to understanding what inputs are at work, the environment can be
understood in terms of its rate of change and complexity. The rate of change
in an organization'’ general or task environment can be characterized along a
dynamic-static continuum. The complexity of the environment refers to the
number of different elements in the general and task environments that can
significantly affect the organization.

5-4b Design Components

An organization’s design is composed of four components—technology,

structure, management processes, and human resources systems. It is surrounded

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 by an intermediate input—strategy—and an intermediate output—culture—that
need to be considered along with the organization’s design. Effective
organizations align their strategy to environmental inputs and then fit the design
components to each other to support the strategy and to jointly promote strategic
behaviors. A strategy represents the way an organization uses its resources to
achieve its goals and to gain a competitive advantage in a particular environment.
 Technology is concerned with the way an organization converts inputs into
products and services. It represents the core transformation process and
includes production methods, workflow, and equipment. Two features of the
technological core influence other design components: technical
interdependence and technical uncertainty.
 Structure is the basic organizing mode for (1) dividing the overall work of an
organization into subunits that can assign tasks to groups or individuals, and
(2) coordinating these subunits for completion of the overall work. The
amount of coordination needed is a function of (1) the amount of
environmental uncertainty, (2) the degree to which subunits differ from each
other, and (3) the amount of interdependence among subunits.
 Management processes are methods for processing information, making
decisions, and controlling the operation of the organization. They help the
organization to understand how well it is performing, to detect and control
deviations from goals, to make relevant decisions, and to communicate the
results.
 Human resources systems include mechanisms for selecting, developing,
appraising, and rewarding organization members. These influence the mix of
skills, personal characteristics, and behaviors of organization members.
 Organization culture represents the basic assumptions, values, and norms
shared by organization members.

5-4c Outputs

The outputs of organization design are measures of how well the design
contributes to organization effectiveness. This can include three kinds of
outcomes. Organization performance refers to financial outcomes, such as sales,
profits, and ROI. Productivity concerns internal measurements of efficiency such
as sales per employee. Stakeholder satisfaction reflects how well the organization
has met the expectations of different groups having an interest in the organization.

5-4d Alignment

Diagnosing the effectiveness of an organization requires knowledge of the process

and elements to determine alignment or fit among them. One might ask the
following questions:
 Does the organization’s strategy fit with the inputs?
 Do the organization design components fit with each other to jointly support
the strategy?

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 5-4e Analysis

In diagnosing inputs, two questions are important.

 What is the company’s general environment?
 What is the company’s task environment?

Application 5.1: Steinway & Sons

This application provides an opportunity for students to perform an organization-level
analysis. A useful starting point is to examine outputs and ask about the organization’s
current effectiveness.

5-5 Group-Level Diagnosis

Work groups are prevalent in all types of organizations. Figure 5.2B shows the inputs,
design components, outputs, and relational fits for group-level diagnosis.

5-5a Inputs

Organization design and culture are the major inputs to group design.

5-5b Design Components

Group designs have five major components: goal clarity, task structure, group
composition, team functioning, and performance norms.
 Goal clarity involves how well the group understands its objectives.
 Task structure is concerned with how the group’s work is designed. It varies
along the two key dimensions of coordination of tasks and regulation of task
behaviors.
 Group composition concerns the membership of groups. Members can differ
on a number of dimensions having relevant to group behavior including
demographic variables and personal traits.
 Team functioning involves group processes having to do with how members
relate to each other, which is important in work groups because the quality of
relationships can affect task performance.
 Performance norms are member beliefs about how the group should perform
its task and what levels of performance are acceptable.

5-5c Outputs

Team effectiveness has two dimensions: performance and quality of work life.
Performance is measured in terms of the group’s ability to control or reduce costs,
increase productivity, or improve quality. Quality of work life concerns work
satisfaction, team cohesion, and organizational commitment.

5-5d Alignment

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 Diagnosing team effectiveness requires assessment of how well the group
elements described fit with each other.

5-5e Analysis

Application 5.2: Top-Management Team at Ortiv Glass Corporation

This application presents an example of applying group-level diagnosis to a top-
management team at Ortiv Glass Corporation.

5-6 Individual-Level Diagnosis

The final level of organizational diagnosis is the individual job or position. An

organization consists of numerous groups and a group is composed of several individual
jobs.

5-6a Inputs

Four major inputs affect job design: organization design, culture, group design,
and the personal characteristics of the jobholders. Organization design is
concerned with the larger organization within which the individual job is the
smallest unit. Culture represents the values and norms shared by the organization.
Group design concerns the work group containing the individual job. Task
structure, goal clarity, group composition, performance norms, and team
functioning serve as inputs to job design. Personal characteristics of individuals
occupying jobs include age, education, experience, skills, and abilities.

5-6b Design Components

Figure 5.2C shows that individual jobs have five key dimensions: skill variety,
task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback about results. Skill
variety is the degree to which a job requires a range of activities and abilities to
perform the work. Task identity measures the degree to which a job requires the
completion of a relatively whole, identifiable piece of work. Task significance
identifies the degree to which a job has a significant impact on other people’s
lives. Autonomy indicates the degree to which a job provides freedom and
discretion in scheduling work and determining work methods. Feedback involves
the degree to which a job provides employees with direct and clear information
about the effectiveness of task performance. These five job dimensions can be
combined into an overall measure of job enrichment.

5-6c Outputs

Individual-job effectiveness includes two kinds of outputs, those related to how

well the job is performed and those related to how people experience their job
(e.g., job satisfaction).

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 5-6d Alignment

The diagnostic model in Figure 5.2C suggests that the job-design elements just
described must align with each other to produce effective job outputs such as high
quality and quantity of individual performance, low absenteeism, and high job
satisfaction.

5-6e Analysis

Application 5.3: Job Design at Pepperdine University

This application presents an example of individual-level diagnosing at Pepperdine
University. Diagnosis of individual-level inputs answers the following questions:
 What are the design and culture of the organization within which the individual job is
embedded?
 What is the design of the group containing the individual job?
 What are the personal characteristics of the jobholder?

Summary

This chapter presented background information for diagnosing organizations, groups, and
individual jobs. Diagnosis is a collaborative process, involving both managers and
consultants in collecting pertinent data, analyzing them, and drawing conclusions for
action planning and intervention. The comprehensive model presented here views
organizations as open systems. An organization-level diagnostic model was described
and applied. It consists of environmental inputs; a set of design components called a
strategic orientation; and a variety of outputs, such as performance, productivity, and
stakeholder satisfaction. Diagnosis involves understanding each of the parts in the model
and then assessing how the elements of the strategic orientation align with each other and
with the inputs.

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