Custom «Approach and Process of Diagnosing an Organization for Change» Essay Paper Sample

Introduction

According to Sergio (1997), diagnosis in organizations is done to look at the gaps between the performance is currently in the organizations and one that is desired and how it can be able to have its goals achieved. Diagnosis is done with the main intention of identifying the problems that are faced by an organization and how they are caused so that solutions can be planned for them by management. Diagnosis can be done by understanding how the whole organization operates, know its weaknesses and strengths.

They need to also focus on the processes of the organization for example, patterns of the work flow, decision making, patterns and styles of communication, setting of goals and inter and intra-group relationships of .The process of diagnosis in organizations is useful because of the outcome it brings out. This is paper will talk on the approaches and processes of diagnosing an organization for change, effective diagnosis, how it integrates with project management, and value of an effective diagnosis when a problem arises in an organization.

Diagnosis is an effective way for organizations to find out the problems that it faces. This covers all the structures of the organization as different problems face the various structures of the organization. I have taken this position because most organizational managers have spent a reasonable amount of time and energy in the planning and management of change in organizations. While the organizations feel that they need the change, they need to understand and realize why they need to have the change, how and who is to undertake the change, and when the change is to take place (Sergio, 1997).

Approaches and processes

How the consultant and client relate is a requirement for a successful diagnosis. This will encourage the provision of the real findings and recommendations. The consultants should relate cooperatively and constructively to create and maintain a good relationship with the client. There is need for successful negotiation relations between the consultants, focal, and other organizational members (Sergio, 1997).

Sergio, (1997) asserts that there is need for scouting so that both consultants and clients can venture into what is studied. The client will present the challenges while the consultant will look into the assessment of the techniques and tools that will be appropriate the relevance on the research to diagnose the organizational strengths and problems. The methodology research investigation can be agreed by both parties. The contract for the negotiations, diagnosis and conditions and terms should be agreed which qualify for relations between the client and consultant. The study design is planned to find out the objectives, study methods, aims, procedures to be used in measurement, sampling, procedures in administration and analysis.

Primary and secondary measures will be used to collect data. This include group discussions, making of observations that are personal, work-shops, procedures, rules books, interviews, reports analysis and questionnaires and other data that is secondary. Analysis of the data go through organization and analyzing using techniques, statistical tools that are relevant and methodologies that are descriptive for example, critical incidents, content analysis etc., and summarized in a meaningful way (Sergio, 1997). Consultants usually do the interpretation and prepare feedback for the clients but in some instances the clients do the interpretations themselves. The consultants present feedback to the clients and other organization members. The feedback may have an inclusion of explicit recommendations or findings that are more general for decision making through stimulation of discussions and if need be further studies.

For a diagnosis to be effective, the purpose of the study, the goals, their definitions, problems and challenges to be studied, and evaluation of the study outcomes should be known. The features of the organization should be studied, individuals and units that will be involved in the gathering of data, data collection, and should know how it is to be done. The study methods, design, and how the members of the organization will perceive them should be known and taken into account.

Diagnosis must have support and management for the study, the contributions of the client organization in terms of resources, and the attitudes of the external stakeholders and members of the organization towards the study. The interest and participation of the members of the organization must be taken into account because they will be involved in data gathering, interpretation, and reactions. The time, when, how and the format of the feedback, the feedback recipient and the use of it and how it can be used for further studies are factors in having an effective.

 We can say that all the processes involved in diagnosis can constitute for a project. Project management is the planning, organizing, securing, and managing the resources to bring out. There is integration of diagnosis and project management because all processes that will be involved in diagnosis of an organization for change by management will plan, organize in a manner that they will be carried out, secure, and manage resources involved in the diagnosis (Sergio, 1997).

 Effective diagnosis has values that benefit organizations. These values include understanding the performance of all processes and subsystems of the organizations and how they can be improved, studying social psyche of groups and individuals of the organization, moving away from practices that have been tried and tested. These practices may have served the organization well earlier but now they do not. Enable strategic planning for challenges perceived in the organization. The greatest value that diagnosis presents to organizations is avoiding pitfalls that come about due to implementations of change which are initiated unsystematically and benefit from the learning management of change through experiments (Sergio, 1997).

Counter Argument

Consultants cannot be people who are members in the organizations. Individuals have interests that they vest in their organizations. Even if these consultants do not bring their own interests, other employees of the organization would not accept the peer to peer relationship hence the insider undertaking the diagnosis would be ineffective. These consultants cannot have any consultation with their groups and have problems with some structures of the organization they have been members in before.

The above problem can be solved by having consultants who are of a higher hierarchy in the organization. This will prevent the peer-to-peer relationship hence allows individuals to have their problems expressed for solving. The employees will present the problems honestly during diagnosis because they know they are giving the information to management and will be solved in one way or another. The consultant should be chosen from the organization, as he/she knows the system better than an outsider would and the data collected can be reflected to other scenarios that may have risen at some point in the management of the organization. The argument that consultants cannot be from the organization is not valid.

This is because it is efficient and effective to have consultants who are familiar with the system and can interpret data in a way that will be effective for the working of the organization. The suggestions made on the data interpreted to solve the problems, will enable the consultant to make suggestions that the organization can handle within their budget and they should apply specifically to the organization at hand. Most consultants interpret data for organizations as a whole and this may not apply for other organizations in this case (Sergio, 1997).

Conclusion

Organizational problems and change can be solved by carrying out an effective diagnosis. It is the first step to solving problems and covers the external and internal environments. The diagnosis to be done effectively, the organization requires a competent consultant who knows how to use social science tools and possess a theory that is sophisticated and behavioral skills that enable entering, collecting and information feedback to complex organizations. The methods or conclusions from the diagnosis in this case allow the consultant to use the theory of diagnosis and technique.  For success in the diagnosis, each step relies on the relationship between a consultant and a client to be effective. When the diagnosis is properly carried out, the methods used are self-correcting such that each phase of the diagnosis gives a chance to change limitations of the phases that came before. This approach provides for client systems a learning experience in solving future problems that may arise and can solve them by conducting a diagnosis.