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Organizational Character in LSI


The character of an organization includes the pattern of exchanges between the organization and its environment and the design of the organization’s internal structures, processes, and procedures that produce desired products or services.

The two major components of organizational character are : Organization-environment relations and internal-design components

The organization-environment relationship is defined as the fit or symbiosis between an organization’s inputs and design components.

The key inputs include strategy and environment. Strategy defines how an organization will use its resources to gain a competitive advantage in the environment, While the environment includes suppliers, customers, competitors, and regulators. It also includes cultural, political, technical, and economic forces.

OD consultants, along with the organizational members, must assess an organization’s environment in order to plan a large-system intervention.

An organization’s performance depends on the alignment among its design components which are : Technology, structure, organizational feedback systems, performance-management systems, and culture.
Technology includes the methods an organization uses to convert raw materials into products or services. It involves production methods, equipment, and work flow. Total-quality processes, such as statistical process control, are also part of technology.

Structure is the way in which an organization divides tasks into departments or groups and coordinates them for overall task achievement.

Organizational feedback systems are the methods an organization uses to gather, assess, and disseminate information relevant to organization performance.

Performance-review systems serve the same function with employees and teams. Performance management systems focus on selecting, developing, and rewarding people.

Culture includes the basic assumptions, values, and norms shared by organizational members. It guides and coordinates members’ decisions and behaviors by providing a shared understanding of what actions are required for successful performance and culture is so pervasive and central to an organization’s design and can significantly impact success or failure of strategic change, it is central among the design components.
Organizations achieve high performance when all five design components fit with one another and mutually reinforce behaviors needed to achieve the organization’s strategic objectives  Conversely, when an organization’s strategy and environment demand innovation and change, its design elements should promote flexibility and experimentation, such as those found in high involvement organizations.

Interventions in large systems are ever more prevalent in organization development. They enable organizations to make significant improvements in performance through changes in how they design themselves and relate to their environment. Such large-scale changes may be essential for organizations to succeed in today’s competitive environments, which change rapidly and unpredictably.

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