Management
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dimensionsofanalysisforHW1.docxSEVEN DIMENSIONS of ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
There are seven dimensions of organizational analysis that are briefly described below. Your assignment is to select three of the dimensions and use the dimensions to describe the organization as specified in the HW#1 assignment directions.
1. Leadership
Leaders influence people to do things. There are several ways to exert influence. The power to influence people may be due to:
Coercion – based on punishment
Rewards – based on rewards
Legitimacy –based on an assigned role
Expertise – based on necessary knowledge
Charisma – based on appearance and behavior
The use of one type of power or another may be described as transformational leadership or transactional leadership.
The term "transactional" refers to the fact that this type of leader essentially motivates people by exchanging rewards for performance. Transactional leadership is essentially reactive and works in the ongoing present and within the established organizational culture.
Transformational Leaders broaden and elevate the interests of people by generating awareness and acceptance of the purposes and the mission of a group and stir people to look beyond their own self-interest for the good of the group. Transformational leadership is essentially proactive in establishing new expectations and in changing the established culture.
For more information about leadership, see:
https://learn.umuc.edu/d2l/le/content/354101/viewContent/14628765/View
https://learn.umuc.edu/d2l/le/content/354101/viewContent/14628795/View
2. Structure
Structure is the designation of roles and responsibilities and their relationship to one another for the purpose of achieving the organizational mission, objectives, and goals.
The alignment of structure with purpose extends from the “top” of the organizational to the “bottom.” In addition to senior managers, the top or upper levels of the organization may include owners, a board of directors, and/or stockholders. Some organizational theorists have even extended the structure to include stakeholders such as customers, clients, and even the public at large, although most theorists include these groups as part of the external environment.
While the primary determinant of structure is the purpose and goals of the organization, the design of the organizational structure is influenced by the size of the organization, the resources available to it, the type of organization (government, not-for-profit, privately owned, publicly traded), the “industry” that it is a part of, the history of the organization, and the larger context of culture and laws which envelops it.
For more information about organizational structure, see:
https://learn.umuc.edu/d2l/le/content/354101/viewContent/14628787/View
https://learn.umuc.edu/d2l/le/content/354101/viewContent/14628791/View
3. Culture
Culture is comprised of written and unwritten, norms, beliefs, values, attitudes, and feelings that are expressed in the stories, rituals, ceremonies, behaviors, and the workplace’s physical setting. Culture has two levels: the seen and the unseen. At the visible level we can observe how people dress, the size of their offices, how they interact with each other, and the annual ceremonies and rituals that occur. Each of these visible signs of culture rests on an invisible set of values and beliefs about how the organization sees the world and how it responds to it. An organization’s culture is like an individual's personality. It shapes behavior. And like personality, it is very difficult to change or alter. Cultures determine how organizations and the people within them, respond to their environment.
Culture provides people with a sense of identity, guides their behavior, determines the way they communicate and interact with each other, and influences the way they respond to problems and challenges in the environment and helps them learn what is acceptable and what is not. Culture impacts organizational structure. The way an organization is designed reflects the values of the culture. For example, organizations that value responsiveness, flexibility, autonomy, and adaptation will likely embrace horizontal, organic, and team-based structures.
The leaders in an organization have a significant impact on its culture, but followers can also influence leaders and the trajectory of the culture.
For more information about organizational culture see:
https://learn.umuc.edu/d2l/le/content/354101/viewContent/14628788/View
https://learn.umuc.edu/d2l/le/content/354101/viewContent/14628792/View
4. The External Environment and Organizational Strategy
An organization and its purpose and goals exists within a broader societal environment that is made up of national and regional culture(s), laws and regulations, physical environments, financial, business, and organizational life cycles, and potential competitors and partners. The ability of an organization to scan the environment and use data and information from the environmental scan to develop a winning strategy is the difference between success and failure.
In an annals of overused corporate clichés, few match the immortal words of Walter Gretzky, as passed on to the world through his son Wayne: “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” Steve Jobs quoted Gretzky here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXqrOkyAIEw
Warren Buffett spoke to stock market pessimists in 2008 by saying “In waiting for the comfort of good news, they are ignoring Wayne Gretzky’s advice: ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.’ “
Why has Gretzky been quoted so often by so many? It is because strategy and the strategic planning process is at the heart of success. Without a crafted strategy and an ongoing process to keep it fresh, an organization will flail and flounder. The process of creating a plan is so important that Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States and Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in World War II said “plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” He understood that the environment is constantly changing and that plans need to react to the constant change in the environment.
A significant change in the tempo and nature of planning has occurred in the past ten years due to the proliferation of data that is available to organizations. The amount of data that is collected by technology is staggering. In fact there are silos (megaflops) of data that are moldering away without being used at all because the amount of data that is collected far exceeds the amount that is accessible and analyzed. One lesson from this fact is clear. Collect only the data that you will need and use.
For more information about the external environment and strategic planning, see:
Strategy Formulation. (2009). In Encyclopedia of Management (6th ed., pp. 875-882). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=umd_umuc&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CCX3273100280&asid=464f829129b8e54df1befd532ccba24e
5. Efficiency and Effectiveness
The effectiveness of an organization is the degree to which it meets its mission and goals. Organizations often set their goals to measurable objectives to determine the level of success that they can claim much the way that students can measure their learning success through the numerical grades that they receive for their work. Some goals are difficult to measure with numerical measures and success may be inferred from related indicators of success. For example, the goal of a university may be student learning. The grades earned by students do not measure learning per se, but they are indicators of success that can be used to support the contention that students are learning (or not;-) The grades do not impact student learning success directly, however, they offer guidance on whether the student is learning. The critical success factors for learning include student engagement, time on task, mental preparation, etc. These factors may be hard to measure, although critical success indicators may be developed for each critical success factor.
Efficiency is the measure of resources (r) used to achieve a goal (g). Resources may include direct and indirect costs for services, people, materials, etc. If we reach 1 goal (g) with a total expense of $10 (r), then the r/g = $10 per goal. $10 per goal is the value that the organization has provided in this example. If University A is graduating 100 students for a total cost of $100,000, the value is $100,000/100, or $1000 per graduate. If University B is graduating 100 students for a total cost of $200,000, the value provided is $200,000/100 or $2,000 per student. Since University A provided the same value for less cost, it is more efficient than University B. Organizations within the same industry often either tacitly or explicitly agree on goal definitions and descriptions. When this occurs, an organization may more easily determine how efficient it is by comparing the value provided with that of its competitors. While this sounds straight forward, it is rarely easy, as there are often a number of variables that confound comparisons, especially in the human services industries, such as health, education, social services, hospitality, etc.
The ideal for most organizations is pursuing the right goals and being efficient, by making use of technological advances, not wasting time, and having better alignment and collaboration of between employees. Many organizations know what goals they want to achieve, but are inefficient in achieving those goals. Other companies are efficiently run, with all employees working together and focused on the task at hand. But what if the task at hand is in pursuit of the wrong goal? Organizations are constantly in search of the right mix of effectiveness and efficiency, and this is often where they can focus on other dimensions of the organization.
Denison, D. R., & Mishra, A. K. (1995). Toward a theory of organizational culture and effectiveness. Organization Science, 6(2), 204-223. Retrieved from
Quinn, R. E., & Rohrbaugh, J. (1983). A spatial model of effectiveness criteria: Towards a competing values approach to organizational analysis. Management Science, 29(3), 363-377. Retrieved from
Hammer, M. (2001). The superefficient company. Harvard Business Review, 79 (8), p82-91. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cmedm&AN=11550633&site=eds-live&scope=site (Note: HBR does not allow the use of perma link so search directly for the title of the article – Superefficient Company in Ebscohost)
6. Technology and Change Management
Change management is a process that a change management team or project leader follow to apply change management to an organization in order to propel transitions and ensure the project meets its intended outcomes. The elements identified from research (Prosci, N.D.) as key to a successful change management process include:
1. READINESS ASSESSMENTS - Assessments are tools used by a change management team or project leader to assess the organization's readiness to change. Readiness assessments can include organizational assessments, culture and history assessments, employee assessments, sponsor assessments and change assessments. Each tool provides the project team with insights into the challenges and opportunities they may face during the change process.
2. COMMUNICATION AND COMMUNICATION PLANNING - Many managers assume that if they communicate clearly with their employees, their job is done. However, there are many reasons why employees may not hear or understand what their managers are saying the first time around. In fact, you may have heard that messages need to be repeated five to seven times before they are cemented into the minds of employees.
3. SPONSOR ACTIVITIES AND SPONSOR ROADMAPS - Business leaders and executives play a critical sponsor role in times of change. The change management team must develop a plan for sponsor activities and help key business leaders carry out these plans. Research shows that sponsorship is the most important success factor. Sponsorship involves active and visible participation by senior leaders throughout the process, building a coalition of support among other leaders and communicating directly with employees.
4. CHANGE MANAGEMENT TRAINING FOR MANAGERS - Managers and supervisors play a key role in managing change. Ultimately, the manager has more influence over an employee’s motivation to change than any other person. Unfortunately, managers can be the most difficult group to convince of the need for change and can be a source of resistance. It is vital for the change management team and executive sponsors to gain the support of managers and supervisors. Individual change management activities should be used to help these managers through the change process.
5. TRAINING DEVELOPMENT AND DELIVERY - Training is the cornerstone for building knowledge about the change and the required skills to succeed in the future state. Ensuring impacted people receive the training they need at the right time is a primary role of change management. This means training should only be delivered after steps have been taken to ensure impacted employees have the awareness of the need for change and desire to support the change. Change management and project team members will develop training requirements based on the skills, knowledge and behaviors necessary to implement the change. These training requirements will be the starting point for the training group or the project team to develop and deliver training programs.
6. RESISTANCE MANAGEMENT - Resistance from employees and managers is normal and can be proactively addressed. Persistent resistance, however, can threaten a project. The change management team needs to identify, understand and help leaders manage resistance throughout the organization. Resistance management is the processes and tools used by managers and executives with the support of the change team to manage employee resistance.
7. EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK AND CORRECTIVE ACTION - Managing change is not a one way street; employee involvement is a necessary and integral part of managing change. Feedback from employees as a change is being implemented is a key element of the change management process. Change managers can analyze feedback and implement corrective action based on this feedback to ensure full adoption of the changes.
8. RECOGNIZING SUCCESS REINFORCING CHANGE - Early adoption, successes and long-term wins must be recognized and celebrated. Individual and group recognition is a necessary component of change management in order to cement and reinforce the change in the organization. Continued adoption needs to be monitored to ensure employees do not slip back into their old ways of working.
9. AFTER-PROJECT REVIEW - The final step in the change management process is the after-action review. It is at this point that you can stand back from the entire program, evaluate successes and failures, and identify process changes for the next project. This is part of the ongoing, continuous improvement of change management for your organization and ultimately leads to change competency.
Technology is a key element of many, if not most, organizational change initiatives. Unfortunately many change management initiatives focus on the technology and not on the processes, organizational learning, and support that are required for successful change management.
For more information about technology and change management search the library databases or see:
Benson, John D. (2015). Motivation, Productivity and Change Management. Research Starters: Business (Online Edition). Retrieved from
Benson, John D. (2016). Embracing Change: four critical concepts. Physician Leadership Journal, 3 (3), 36-39. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edselc&AN=edselc.2-52.0-84979223424&site=eds-live&scope=site
Clark, A. (2016). Toward an entrepreneurial public sector. Public Personnel Management. 45(4): 335-359. Retrieved from
Greenberg, J. & Mollick, E. (2017). Activist choice homophily and the crowdfunding of female founders. Administrative Science Quarterly, 62(2), 341-374. Retrieved from:
Prosci, (N.D.). An introduction to change management. Retrieved from
https://www.prosci.com/change-management/what-is-change-management
7. Ethics, Social Responsibility, and Globalization
The United States is a County of laws. The system of laws and regulations however, does not come close to covering all the challenging situations that organizations, and the individuals in them, encounter on a regular basis. The complexity of a world with over 7.5 billion people and millions of organizations almost defies comprehension, but somehow, the system seems to continue, and in many cases, even thrive because organizations do the right thing, not just what is legally required. Organizations and the system of relationships among organizations and stakeholders is particularly challenged however when organizations and their employees do the “wrong” things.
Ethics is a moral code which defines acceptable behavior as determined by a set of values and norms which help people determine what is right. Behaving ethically means doing the right thing, even when no one is looking. It means acting in a way that respects the social contract among people to support the planet and each other. These behaviors build trust and set a foundation for ethical behavior:
• Honesty: Tell the truth. Let people know where you stand. Don’t manipulate or distort the facts to fit your personal agenda.
• Show Respect: Show people that you care for them, and respect the dignity of every role. Show kindness and caring.
• Be Transparent: Tell the truth so it can be verified. Be genuine, open, and authentic. Don’t have hidden agendas or hide information.
• Right Wrongs: Admit your mistakes. When you are wrong, apologize. Don’t cover up things. Take responsibility for your actions.
• Show Loyalty: Acknowledge. Don’t bad mouth others behind their back. Don’t disclose private or confidential information.
• Accountability: Hold yourself and others accountable. Don’t blame others or point fingers when things go wrong.
• Keep Commitments: Do what you say you are going to do. Don’t make excuses for a broken commitment.
Organizations that operate in multiple countries are particularly challenged as ethical codes of conduct vary across countries and research has demonstrated that the culture of a country or region is a strong determinant of organization behavior (Hofstede).
Corporation 2020's Principles for Ethical Business in a Global Economic Setting (Corporation 2020, 2012)
The purpose of a corporation is to harness private interests to serve the public interests:
· Corporations shall accrue fair returns for owners but not at the expense of the legitimate interests of other stakeholders (i.e., people who are customers, consumers, and clients).
· Corporations shall operate sustainably without compromising the ability of future generations (children and grandchildren).
· Corporations shall distribute their wealth equitably among those who contribute to their creation and success (this principle aids in constraining the desire of upper level management to award salaries and bonuses unfairly).
· Corporations shall govern themselves in a manner that is transparent, ethical, and accountable.
· Corporations shall not infringe on people’s right to govern themselves, nor infringe on universal human rights.
For more information on ethics, social responsibility, and globalization, see:
https://learn.umuc.edu/d2l/le/content/354101/viewContent/14628789/View
https://learn.umuc.edu/d2l/le/content/354101/viewContent/14628793/View
Hofstede, G. (1983). National Cultures in Four Dimensions: A Research-Based Theory of Cultural Differences among Nations. International Studies of Management & Organization. 13(1/2):46-74. Retrieved from
Baskerville, R. F. (2003). Hofstede never studied culture. Accounting, Organizations & Society, 28(1), 1-14.
Retrieved from:
Corporation, (2017). Corporation 20/20 Designing for a social purpose. Retrieved from
http://www.corporation2020.org/
