MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

The executive leadership team and local management will be participants in the introduction of the organizational effectiveness training program. The objectives of this workshop are to gain an overall understanding of organizational effectiveness, for each participant to understand their role in improving their area or department, be introduced to the objectives of this training, how to perform an analysis using specific analytical tools and how the success of this training is determined. To generate an overall understanding of organizational effectiveness, the first section of the workshop will focus on when the world began developing organizational effectiveness all the way to the way it is used today. The participants will be given bespoke examples relating to both, their industry and their function within an organization. This section will end with where organizational effectiveness is trending today and what to expect from the future. The next section of the workshop focuses on the roles each executive manager will play within this training program and what is expected of each of them. This cements the foundation of ownership with each participant of the process and the results of the training. During this section, participants will receive a brief overview of the challenges of change management, work management and management operating systems. Determining the success of any engagement begins with understanding a baseline or starting point. The last section of this workshop focuses on determining the perceived and actual baseline of current performance. The remainder of this section and the workshop is to demonstrate and train participants on how to conduct analysis using some specific tools that will be made available to them. These analysis tools focus on opportunities in work execution, defining the gap to absolute capacity and barriers to reaching absolute capacity from both, the employee and manager’s points of view. The local management team that will be conducting the initial analyses will be trained in how to perform the analysis, what to look for when conducting the analysis and why what they are looking for is meaningful and impactful. The assignment between this workshop and the next will be to complete an initial series of analyses that focus on the work execution (employee and manager day in the life studies), defining the gap to absolute capacity and barriers to reaching absolute capacity. Additionally, they will be asked to complete some initial personal assessments that they will receive feedback on from consultants during the next workshop.

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Objectives

01. Overview: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. Examples; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Organizational Goals; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Executive Leadership; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Managerial Effectiveness; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Change Management; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Work Management: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month
08. Job Design: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
09. Systems Evaluation: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
10. Performance Baseline: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
11. Resource Assessment: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
12. Improvements: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month

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Strategies

01. Overview: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. Examples: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Organizational Goals: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Executive Leadership: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Managerial Effectiveness: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Change Management: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Work Management: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
08. Job Design: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
09. Systems Evaluation: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
10. Performance Baseline: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
11. Resource Assessment: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
12. Improvements: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.

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Tasks

01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Overview.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Examples.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Organizational Goals.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Executive Leadership.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Managerial Effectiveness.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Change Management.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Work Management.
08. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Job Design.
09. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Systems Evaluation.
10. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Performance Baseline.
11. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Resource Assessment.
12. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Improvements.

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Introduction

This corporate training program on Organizational Effectiveness is aimed at delivering an overall understanding of what organizational effectiveness is and how it can help organizations improve their business operations. It also aims to define the roles of the executive leadership and management teams within the organization in improving organizational effectiveness to improve their respective business areas. Participants will be taught the objectives of organizational effectiveness, the use of specific analytical tools to analyze various aspects of the business, and the measurement of the success of the organizational effectiveness program.

What is organizational effectiveness?

The term organizational effectiveness can be defined quite literally as the ability of an organization to run smoothly and achieve its goals successfully. An effective organization is not just one that is successful but has to cover other aspects of effectiveness as well. How effective an organization is, depends on the kind of goals and missions that it sets, the level of efficiency within the organization, the positioning of its products and services in the market, and much more.

An effective organization is required to achieve its goals and meet the market demands with minimum wastage. The processes need to be efficient and must be continuously improved to ensure that the efficiency of a business process is maintained over time. Since continuous improvement is an important concept under the Six Sigma methodology followed by organizations, both organizational effectiveness and Six Sigma are closely related.

Despite the general idea of organizational effectiveness discussed above, defining effectiveness in the organizational context in absolute terms is difficult. Each organization can be effective in its own unique way. While one organization may measure its effectiveness in terms of the revenue it has been able to generate, another may consider the number of users it has gained and yet another may measure effectiveness in terms of its impact on society. Depending on an organization’s purpose and mission, the definition of organizational effectiveness may vary.

Organizational effectiveness may be measured in terms of the degree to which an organization is able to achieve its goals, align its internal process, or secure resources to meet a certain goal. There can be different approaches to organizational effectiveness and this brings us to the different organizational effectiveness models.

Effectiveness in various business areas

Organizational effectiveness may refer to effectiveness in a number of different business areas for different organizations. These business areas may include –

Employee performance – Organizational effectiveness may be determined in terms of how well the employees of the organization perform. Whether employees are motivated and productive enough to work for the growth of the organization. Or whether they are just doing what they have to do without any drive to contribute to the organization’s progress. Employee performance can be a very clear indicator of organizational effectiveness. When there is effectiveness in employee training, employee empowerment, adoption of new tools and technology, work environment, management, and other aspects, employee performance can improve drastically.

Leadership – Another business area that can define organizational effectiveness is the effectiveness of the leadership of the organization. How efficiently the leadership of the organization functions, how well the leaders can motivate the employees, etc. have a huge impact on the organizational effectiveness. The quality of leadership in an organization can affect employee performance, the corporate culture, the productivity of the organization, communication flow, and many other aspects of the business.

Business processes – The quality and efficiency of the business processes also impact organizational effectiveness. Organizational effectiveness can be measured on the basis of how lean, fast, and cost-effective the business processes are. Business processes that use minimum resources, generate minimum wastage, and deliver value faster can make an organization more effective and efficient.

Organizational structure – Organizational effectiveness can also be determined in terms of how effective the organization’s structure is. The organizational structure defines how information flows within the organization, how the hierarchy within the organization is, and whether everyone has the liberty to put forward their views. Organizations with a top-down hierarchical structure where most of the authority lies with the top management are usually found to be less productive and effective. Whereas, organizations that have a flatter, more democratic structure gets inputs from everyone working in them and are found to be more productive.

Alignment between different business areas – Organizational effectiveness is also impacted by how coherent an organization’s different business areas are. The alignment between different areas of business such as leadership, management, organizational culture, employee performance, customer satisfaction, and others is essential for a business functioning efficiently. An effective organization has to ensure that all its business areas and operations work in harmony.

Organizational behavior – How the people within the organization behave and how they view their role in the organization’s growth also play a major role in improving organizational effectiveness. How employees behave determines how they perform on the job, how engaged they are, or how satisfied they are. These factors in turn determine how they can contribute to the organization’s progress. So, the kind of behavior that the organization promotes and encourages impacts its effectiveness.

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Importance of organizational effectiveness

So far, we have discussed what organizational effectiveness is and how it is different from the efficiency of an organization. But before we delve deeper into the details of organizational effectiveness, we ought to know why it is important to an organization. Organizational effectiveness plays a crucial role in an organization’s overall growth in many ways.

Some of the crucial benefits that an organization gets from being effective include –

Better management – An effective organization will have better management capabilities. Better management means better training of leaders and managers, better communication between management and employees, better managerial policies, and a better work culture apart from other things.

Better employee engagement – Organizational effectiveness can also lead to more engaged and productive employees. If the business processes are effective, it helps with employee satisfaction and engagement as well. As employees see better outcomes in the business, they are more engaged and willing to contribute to its growth further. More engaged employees mean better performance for the organization as a whole.

Better customer engagement – Customer relationship is a primary concern of most businesses. Organizational effectiveness can help improve customer engagement and maximize customer value for the business. Improving the effectiveness of departments that directly deal with customers, such as customer service, an organization can improve its customer relations and add more value.

Reduced costs – Making a business unit more effective automatically reduces the costs involved in it. Since an effective organization requires its processes to be lean and consume minimum resources, the organization is bound to save more. Lesser wastage and lean processes mean there will be no outdated technology, no unproductive processes, and no inefficient workflows, which all add up to cost saving.

Improved use of technology – An effective organization will usually get rid of all obsolete or inefficient technology and replace them with newer technology. Effective adoption of new digital technology can improve data analytics and aid decision-making, improve workflows, employee training, and help with other aspects of the business.

Better outcomes – Organizational effectiveness comes from achieving the goals set for the organization. When an organization is successful at achieving the goals for itself, it has to have better outcomes. An effective organization knows its strategic priorities and is more capable of fulfilling its long-term vision.

When an organization is more effective, it is more likely to sustain and overcome its struggles to flourish in the long run. It cannot be, however, a one-time event of trying to improve the different business areas to make them more efficient. Organizational effectiveness has to be learned by each member of the organization, particularly the leaders and managers and made a part of the day-to-day working of the business. It has to be continuously monitored, evaluated, and improved. Organizational effectiveness can only be achieved with a thorough behavioral change and an ongoing commitment to sustain this change.

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Organizational effectiveness models

There are several ways of looking at organizational effectiveness from one organization to another. Organizations working towards different goals can be equally effective in their operations. This gives rise to a number of different perspectives or approaches to organizational effectiveness. Some of the commonly followed organizational effectiveness models and the meanings of organizational effectiveness under these models are discussed below.

Goal based approach

The goal based approach measures effectiveness in terms of the degree to which an organization achieves the goals it has established for itself. This is usually the conventional way of measuring organizational effectiveness. The goals may, however, be different for different organizations. The goals may be product or service quality, production volumes, revenue generation goals, societal or environmental impact, shareholder value of the organization, or others. An organization may often have more than one of these goals as well. The goal based approach to attaining organizational effectiveness focuses primarily on the output of the organization but does not pay much attention to the inputs required to achieve these goals. It is, therefore, not a very proactive approach and is less actionable than some of the other models.

Internal process based approach

The internal process based approach to attaining organizational effectiveness focuses not on the output of the organization but rather on the internal functioning of the organization. Under this model, an organization gauges the effectiveness through an assessment of how smoothly the business processes are being carried out. An organization that focuses on internal processes achieves organizational effectiveness through proper information management and flow, complete documentation of all processes, and a continuous consolidation of all the available data to make processes more coherent.

The processes in an effective organization are ideally meant to be lean and aiming for continuous improvement. It is, however, important for organizations to understand the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. In this internal process based model, the focus often tends to shift more towards efficiency rather than effectiveness. Though the aim is to eventually make processes more efficient, the primary focus of this model should be on making processes effective. Process engineering guru, Lon Roberts, differentiated between the two terms – efficiency and effectiveness – quite clearly. He defines efficiency as how economically a process consumes resources, particularly time and money. Effectiveness, on the other hand, is defined as how well a process achieves its intended purpose. So, while efficiency is the effort the organization puts in to do things the right way, effectiveness is ensuring that the right thing is being done consistently.

The process based model aims to make the organization’s processes more effective through continuous value addition.

Resource based approach

The resource based model prioritizes exploiting resources that can help the organization gain a competitive advantage. It focuses on gathering resources that are valuable, hard to find, and hard for competitors to copy. These resources could be a proprietary product, a new cutting-edge technology, a robust brand image, or anything else that gives the business an upper hand in the market. Effective organizations focus on securing these resources to maintain a profound competitive advantage that is sustainable.

Strategic constituency based model

The strategic constituencies of an organization are groups that have an impact on the organization’s survival. These can be owners, shareholders, customers, employees, government bodies, or any other interest group that has a certain amount of power and stakes in the organization. The strategic constituency model of organizational effectiveness tries to ensure that the expectations of these groups are met. Under this model, relevant strategic constituencies are chosen and their expectations from the organization are identified. The organization then needs to devise ways to fulfill these expectations and keep these important strategic groups satisfied.

Stakeholder based model

The stakeholder based approach to organizational effectiveness is quite similar to the strategic constituency approach. Stakeholders are groups that have stakes in the organization but may not have any direct powers over it or may not be directly affected by it. These groups may include families of employees, certain communities in society, activists, or others. This model focuses on satisfying these stakeholders through the organization’s operations.

Competing values model

The competing values model of organizational effectiveness is based on the competing values framework designed by Cameron and Quinn. The framework suggests that if an organization is able to sustain several competing values, it can be much more effective. So, the competing values model measures organizational effectiveness in terms of the organization’s ability to promote and sustain certain competing values together.

For instance, an organization may be able to drive profits and customer satisfaction while also ensuring that employee’s interests are taken care of. Or an organization may be able to hold its internal structure while allowing innovation and new ideas. These are usually conflicting values, but if an organization is able to manage these simultaneously, it can be considered to be truly effective.

Abundance model

The abundance model works on the principle that organizational effectiveness is driven by utilizing the highest potential of the organization’s human resources. This potential can be unleashed by promoting positive values and virtues within the organization. Human systems require both positive and negative reinforcements to uncover their full potential. For example, an organization has to ensure that its human resource flourishes and performs at its best but that is not possible unless they are challenged and made to put in enormous efforts. The organization has to, therefore, balance the struggle that the human system has to go through with the rewards that they achieve. This balance between the positive and negative values is the key to effectiveness in an organization under the abundance model.

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