Paper Topic:

Diagnosing the Need for Organizational Change and/or Transformation

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Diagnosing the Need for Organizational Change and /or Transformation

Introduction

Organizational diagnosis for change or transformation involves various phases of the action research process (Alksafaji , 1989 . pp 25-40 . It starts with entry followed by data collection and then completed with feedback . Data collection methods includes the following among others review of the archival documents and records , individual interviews focus groups , diagnostic surveys which are ideally based on theoretical models like Burke-Litwin and larger group interventions in which the groups generates the

data together in the real time . For diagnosis to be effective , it does not only involve the data collection but also involves insightful analysis of that data (Lawson , et al , 1992 .pp 25-35 . Earlier , diagnosing the need for organizational change was conducted by experts who were external to the organization

However , currently , the organizational consultants normally work in close collaboration with the organizational management and members to make meaning from the data together . This normally helps to ensure that the external and internal views inform each other and that important details of the data are not overlooked . Diagnosing the need for organizational change is very important to knowing levels and nature of the change required . After completing the diagnosis and the results shared with key organizational stakeholders , these stakeholders engage in action planning to determine the appropriate intervention needed to address issues identified in the diagnosis . After the issues are identified , then implementation plan is thus formulated (Alksafaji 1989 . pp 13-24

From behavioral science theory organizational diagnosis for change can be viewed as publicly entering a human system , collecting valued data about human experiences in that system and then feeding that information back to system to promote increased understanding of the system by its members . The main objective of organizational diagnosis is to establish a widely shared understanding of a system and based upon that understanding to determine whether change is desirable . Diagnosis activities should focus its attention to top management , department group , individual as well as organizational processing or organizational health . Individuals cannot be diagnosticians in system which they are fully pledged members due to overt or covert invested interests (Lawson et al , 1992 . pp 42-58

The role of the researcher should always be maintained by diagnosticians and must establish some type of liaison system between the researcher and the element of the system . The liaison may be an individual or a group . Sometime a researcher or researchers can work in parts of a larger system in which they have not been or currently are not members Nevertheless , they cannot start their own groups as they generally have a great deal of difficulty with part of the system with which they have recently been members (Domini , 2001 . pp 72-80

The first phase of organizational diagnosis is Entry . The key objectives of entry are to determine which units of the system that is individual , group as well as organization which will participate in the diagnosis and to establish whether the researcher and the respondent...

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