Page 222 - Managing Change in Organizations

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Techniques for assessment

V Support VI Management VII Attitude towards VIII Performance
leadership change
5 6 7 8
13 14 15 16
21 22 23 24
29 30 31 32
37 38 39 40
Total
Average

For a sample of n people, first add together all the scores for a particular state-
ment, divide the total by n, and proceed as above.
The results of the diagnostic survey were analysed by groups of managers from
International Engineering. From this analysis it appears that the definition of key
tasks, organizational structure and management leadership are all seen as areas of
weakness. People do not understand overall objectives or how their jobs fit into
the whole company picture. They do not feel motivated by the work they do,
partly, it appears, because of this latter problem.
The organization is not seen as being very effective, for reasons covered under
the functional analysis. Most important, jobs and lines of authority are seen as
inflexible and little attempt is made to achieve improvements. The organiza-
tional structure is seen as inappropriate.
Management style is not seen as helpful to individual performance and, over-
all, people perceive relatively weak leadership. Conversely, there is a relatively
positive attitude to change. Indeed, it might be argued that the perceived lack of
leadership is felt to be particularly frustrating to employees who felt strong com-
mitment to the company and a positive attitude towards change.

Increased competition led to declining economic performance. Greater atten-
tion to cost control and internal conflict within the organization meant that cor-
porate policy reflected increasingly short-term pressures. Declining performance,
short-term perspectives and limited investment in management development all
contribute to the growing difficulty of improving the quality of management in
the organization.
The functional analysis checklist and questionnaire results can then be sub-
jected to more detailed analysis. For example, in the engineering consultancy firm
92 managers and engineers completed the assessment exercise. The data were
reviewed by the executive committee in a senior management workshop. They
concluded that a number of priority issues needed to be addressed, as follows:
1 Commercial focus and accountability
(a) focus commercially both in defining accountabilities and in the manage-
ment of the business;
(b) decentralize responsibilities, clarify individual accountability.
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