Module 3: Culminating Project Milestone One Submission

An organization is built on the idea that people come together to achieve a common

purpose, whether it be non-profit, for-profit, private, public, and others. Throughout the

development of an organization, it will go through many phases before it is a stable being. Even

after an organization gets to the point of maturity, success is not promised. As time passes,

customer bases change, needs may be rearranged, and some purposes may be obsolete. Although

not ideal, some organizations stray away from their original purpose and the conglomerate

begins to decline, or in some cases never achieve what was set forth. In order to combat this and

to make sure that the organization is on the right path, organizational assessments were created.

Stakeholders initiate organizational assessment for an array of reasons, varying from

making investment decisions to commemorating amazing performance. Understanding the

motivations behind conducting an organizational assessment can assist with keeping the project

on par without losing sight of the purpose (Luthaus, 2002, p.133). Organizational assessments

are necessary because not every organization will succeed by implementing a standardized

business model for every scenario. Mission statements may vary from organization to

organization, which entails different needs for each schema (Perkins et. al., 2010, p.3). To

combat this, organizational assessment takes a detailed look at important factors that impact an

organization’s success. These include technological, demographic, environmental, socio-cultural,

economical, and political factors that can influence organizational approaches (Luthaus, 2002,

p.12). From there, an assessment that fills the need of both the stockholders and outside
environmental factors will be developed and implemented in order to give a holistic view of the

organization.

Works Cited:

Lusthaus, C., Adrien, M., Anderson, G., Carden, F., & Montalvan, G. (2002b). Organizational

Assessment: A Framework for Improving Performance. IDRC Books.

Perkins, Nathan L., Valderi, R., Nightingale, D., Rifkin, S. (2010) Organizational

Assessment Models for Enterprise Transformation. INCOSE