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The effective diagnosis of organizational culture, and structural and operational strengths
and weaknesses are fundamental to any successful organizational development
intervention. As Beckhard[2] said in the preface to his seminal work:
... in our rapidly changing environment, new organization forms must be developed; more
effective goal-setting and planning processes must be learned, and practiced teams of
independent people must spend real time improving their methods of working, decision-
making and communicating. Competing or conflicting groups must move towards a
collaborative way of work. In order for these changes to occur and be maintained, a
planned, managed change effort is necessary - a program of organizational development.
This was written in 1969 and while much has been learnt it is just as true today.
Contents
1 The organizational diagnosis models
2 The consulting process
3 Notes
4 References
5 See also
All models are based on open system (Open System Theory, OST): From the General
System Theory defined by Von Bertalaffy (a system complex of interacting elements), Katz
and Kahn (1978) apply the concept of Open System Theory (OST), looking at the
relationship between the organizations and the environment in which they are involved.
This focus reflects on the organization's ability to adapt to changes in environment
conditions (with or without the need for information processing). (Boulding, 1956; Katz
and Kahn, 1978)
As the second phase in the consulting cycle, it is also the first fully operational phase of the
consulting process or cycle. The purpose of the diagnosis is to examine the problem faced
by the organization in detail, to identify factors and forces that are causing the problem and
to prepare the collected information to decide how to implement possible solutions to the
identified problems.
The diagnosis of the problem is a separate phase from the solutions themselves.