Organizational Diagnosis: Six Places To Look for Trouble with or Without a Theory

Abstract

This article presents a practice theory for diagnosing organizations -that is, a combination of many ideas in a relatively simple framework that can be applied in various settings. It brings together organization/environ ment, sociotechnical, and formal/informal systems concepts, and pro poses six broad categories for looking at an organization: purposes; struc ture ; relationships; rewards; leadership; and helpful mechanisms. The author illustrates how these six factors influence each other and provides clues about what to diagnose in each category, considering the infinite number of possibilities. He also suggests that what are called "process" issues show up as blocked work that can be freed by understanding and intervening in one or more of the six boxes.