Assessment and Diagnosis for Organization Development

Powerful Tools and Perspectives for the OD Practitioner

William J Rothwell, Angela L.M. Stopper, Jennifer Myers, William J Rothwell, Angela L.M. Stopper, Jennifer L. Myers

• Publisher: Productivity Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781315310596
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Consulting
• Index: Business

Although the theory and methods of organization development (OD) assessment and diagnosis have been covered in other books, there is a lack of practitioner-focused guides that introduce real-world case studies and tools rooted in the methodology. This book will fill that gap, providing practical perspective and insight from practitioners and consultants currently practicing OD assessment and diagnosis. Organization Development (OD) differs from management consulting in that OD assessment and diagnosis is not a prescriptive consulting engagement. Instead, OD methods include engaging clients to build change leadership initiatives customized to their particular situation. OD is not about a consultant telling a client company what to do. It is about an OD professional guiding client companies on their journey towards the best end point for their particular situation. This book will address that journey. The theory and foundational principles of OD are covered, but the primary focus is on providing practical applications to businesses. While the book is grounded in sound academic theory, its strength is its practitioner-focused methodology containing vignettes and tools that individuals can use to help guide the assessment and diagnosis efforts in their own or their client organizations.

Chapter 1

Introduction and Overview of Diagnosis and Assessment for Organization Development

William J. Rothwell

Contents

1.1 Introduction

1.2 What Is Organizational Assessment and Organizational Diagnosis?

1.3 Who Conducts Organizational Assessment and Diagnosis?

1.4 When Is Organizational Assessment Conducted?

1.5 Where Is Organizational Assessment Conducted, and How Does Context Affect the Assessment Process?

1.6 Why Is Organizational Assessment Conducted?

1.7 How Is Organizational Assessment Conducted?

1.8 How Is Organization Development Assessment Different from Other Consulting Approaches to Organizational Assessment?

Bibliography

1.1 Introduction

Organizational assessment, often associated with organizational diagnosis, is the systematic process of examining how well an organization is functioning. It is the single most important step in any helping relationship—and consulting is a helping relationship—because the issues surfaced in assessment become the basis for subsequent action. If the assessment is performed poorly (or not at all), then subsequent action will not be targeted properly. If that happens, then any subsequent action may worsen conditions rather than improve them.

This chapter addresses several important questions:

• What is organizational assessment and organizational diagnosis?
• Who conducts organizational assessment and diagnosis?
• When is organizational assessment conducted?
• Where is organizational assessment conducted, and how does context affect the assessment process?
• Why is organizational assessment conducted?
• How is organizational assessment conducted?

1.2 What Is Organizational Assessment and Organizational Diagnosis?

Organizational assessment is a systematic investigation of an organization (Lusthaus et al. 2002; Levinson 2013). It may focus on outputs (results); it may focus on processes (throughputs); it may focus on inputs; it may focus on feedback systems; or it may focus on any or all of those. It may focus on the organization’s performance within the context of its industry, community, nation, or its global position. Organizational assessment may focus attention on specific problems or strengths but may also examine how well an organization functions within a larger context outside the organization.

Organizational assessment implies measurement. But organizational diagnosis implies a problem-solving focus by which an organization is compared to something else (Levinson 1976; Weisbord 1978; Howard and Associates 1996; Harrison 2004). Diagnosis, often associated with the medical profession, suggests comparing something wrong (like a sick patient) with a desired or desirable standard (like a healthy person).

1.3 Who Conducts Organizational Assessment and Diagnosis?

Organizational assessment or diagnosis may be carried out by internal or external consultants. It may also be carried out by managers, workers, or other organizational stakeholders. It can also be carried out by stakeholders working as internal and/or external consultants.

Who conducts the organizational assessment is important because ownership and buy-in usually stems from participation and a say in decision-making. If consultants conduct assessment, then only consultants have ownership in the process and results. If managers conduct assessment, then only managers have ownership in the process and results. Deciding who should conduct the organizational assessment is a strategic issue because it determines how much other stakeholder groups may be invested in the process and its results.

1.4 When Is Organizational Assessment Conducted?

Organizational assessment is not (and should not be) conducted at only one time; rather, it should be conducted on a continuing basis.

But consultants of all kinds often face a challenge when they propose to conduct assessments. The reason is simple. Managers, who may pay the bill for consultants, assume that they already know what the problem or issue is, and what should be done about it. With a strong bias for action and a compelling sense of urgency, managers may believe that conducting assessment is too time-consuming, too expensive, and delays harvesting the benefits of action. Managers may tell consultants to skip any systematic assessment and go right into implementation because the managers believe they already know what is wrong or what strengths should be leveraged to advantage.

In organization development (OD), assessment should at least be conducted at two points in time. The first point is upon the consultant’s initial entry to the organizational setting. If consultants are brought in from outside, they may not be familiar with the organization and must be oriented to it promptly. That process is called a mini-scan, but it really involves orienting the consultant to the client’s world. A second form of organizational assessment, typically associated with what most consultants mean when they use the term, is to gather information about the issues affecting the organization. It may be carried out comprehensively or situationally. A comprehensive organizational assessment seeks to place the organization in context and to gather information about how well the organization is performing. It may focus on solving organizational problems or building on organizational strengths. A situational organizational assessment seeks to uncover information about a felt need—that is, a feeling that a need exists for change.

Examples may help clarify the meanings of these terms.

Suppose an internal consultant is called in to help one facility. The consultant may not be familiar with the facility and may need to learn about it quickly to become helpful. The consultant may seek information about that the facility. The same need would also exist if an external consultant were called in to help the same facility, since neither the internal consultant nor the external consultant may be familiar with the facility. Becoming oriented to the facility is a mini-scan.

But consultants are rarely called in to organizational settings for no reason. There is always a reason for the consultant to be there. If top managers, who are paying the consultant’s fee, ask for the consultant to examine the organization broadly to find areas for improvement (or areas of strength to leverage), the consultant may undertake a comprehensive assessment of the organization. A comprehensive assessment can be difficult to organize, because there are so many areas that may be the focus of attention. For instance, consultants could look at the following:

• Organizational history
• Organizational mission
• Organization strategy
• Organizational structure
• The organization’s relationship to external groups such as industry, community, nation, suppliers, distributors, customers, unions, and other groups
• Organizational performance against targets
• Organizational performance against best practices
• Organizational performance against legal issues
• Organizational performance against common business practices

As organizing the assessment is the biggest challenge in a comprehensive assessment, consultants may rely on various models of assessment to focus attention. Clients are briefed on the model(s) that consultants may use and, if clients will pay for such an assessment, the consultants are then positioned to move forward with a work plan.

A third form of organizational assessment runs during implementation. After all, OD change efforts may extend over long timespans. During a three-year implementation, for instance, there may be need to assess problems coming up during implementation, prioritize them, surface solutions for them, and develop action plans to implement those solutions. Assessment can be ongoing and overlapping with evaluation.

As a simple example of the approach described in the previous paragraph, I was involved with a multiyear OD intervention. As part of that process, I conducted a weekly survey on Friday by e-mail. Results were fed back on Monday in staff meetings as a continuing way to assess how the implementation was going, and how any issues surfacing during implementation could be addressed.

More common in consulting is that managers already feel they know what the problem is (or the strength to be leveraged) and will ask consultants to gather information about the issue. For instance, managers may say our turnover is too high. To them, turnover is the problem, though good consultants know that turnover is really a symptom of some other root cause(s). In this example, turnover is a presenting problem (i.e., the symptom that led a client to call in a consultant). But turnover is not the real problem; rather, it is a consequence of other problems (i.e., root causes that lead to the turnover).

But consultants entering an organizational setting must take care to avoid biasing results by how they approach organizational assessment. As a simple example, if managers complain about turnover, consultants may choose not to ask people “what do you think about the high turnover?” To take that approach is to jump to the conclusion that managers are right. They may not be. A better approach would be for consultants to gather information about organizational strengths and weaknesses and then see what common themes surface across many groups.

Before leaving this section, there is a third common scenario that consultants face. The situation is this: Managers call the consultants in but already have a solution in mind. When consultants ask about conducting an organizational assessment, they are assured by the managers that it will be a waste of time and money. It is a common problem in consulting. In addition, there are no easy, simple ways to cope with this problem. If consultants assume managers are correct and act accordingly, they are placing themselves at risk of applying the wrong solution because they have not checked the issues. They have failed to perform their due diligence. It would be akin to going to a doctor, asking for medicine, and then assuring the doctor that no diagnosis is needed because the patient already knows the cause.

1.5 Where Is Organizational Assessment Conducted, and How Does Context Affect the Assessment Process?

Carrying out a ...