The organizational diagnosis is defined as the analysis of providing organizations with opportunities for improvement, all this through an in-depth analysis that allows us to know the weaknesses and strengths of the company or organization.
The organizational diagnosis must be carried out under the best conditions and for this to be possible, certain requirements are necessary:
- Before you start the procedure, you need to be sure that you want a change. The client must be fully committed and be a support force to support the results of the diagnosis. The interested client must provide the consultant with the facilities to have access to the necessary information. The consultant who carries out the collection of the information must Handle it confidentially, so that when delivering the results, the source from which it was obtained is not disclosed. The consultant must establish the points of improvement through feedback. Make the agreements between client and consultant.
The organizational diagnosis process consists of three stages:
- Collection of information
In this first stage, the search for tools, information and procedures to be used should be considered; the methods for collecting information, such as questionnaires, interviews, and those used through observation. The frequency and ease with which the information can be obtained will depend largely on the stability of the system.
- Organization of the information.
In this second stage, the design of the procedures to process the information, the adequate storage of the data and the organization of the information, allow both the consultant and the client easy and fast access.
- Analysis and interpretation of information.
In the latter, it is intended to analyze and examine each part of the information collected, in order to answer the questions posed at the beginning of the investigation.
Organizational diagnosis is divided into two types of diagnosis ; cultural and functional, each one consists of objectives, methods and techniques that complement each other, alluding to the method and techniques with which it complements itself in order to achieve its objectives.
Functional diagnosis
Functional diagnosis gets its name from a functionalist perspective, it mainly examines the formal and informal communication structures, communication practices that have to do with production, staff satisfaction, organization maintenance, and innovation..
It uses a diagnostic process in which the consultant assumes almost total responsibility for its design and management (objectives, methods and the interpretation of the results).
In this type of diagnosis, the most used information collection methods are the interview, the questionnaire, the analysis of communication networks, the group interview, the analysis of critical communication experiences, and the analysis of the dissemination of messages.
- This technique is complemented by the questionnaire and allows to collect information that can be investigated down to the smallest details in a personal conversation with the members of an organization. It allows to collect more information from more people and in a faster and more efficient way. economic than other methods; and facilitates statistical analysis. Message transmission analysis. It consists of a specialized questionnaire that discovers the process of spreading a message in the organization, from its point of origin until it manages to reach the different members of it. This method reveals the time it takes to spread a message, its communication process, who blocks communication, informal communication networks, and the way information is processed.Analysis of critical communication experiences. It is used to know the positive and negative experiences that exist within the organization and their effectiveness or ineffectiveness. Analysis of communication networks. Analyze the communication structure of an organization and its effectiveness. Who communicates with whom, what groups exist in the organization, which members act as a bridge between the groups, the blockages suffered by the information, the content of the communication and the amount of information disseminated are evaluated. The group interview. This technique selects a certain number of representative members of the organization to be interviewed as a group. The interview usually focuses on critical aspects of organizational communication.
Objectives of the Functional Diagnosis
- Evaluate the formal and informal internal structure of the communication system and the different communication channels. Evaluate communication systems and processes at the interpersonal, group, departmental, and interdepartmental levels. Evaluate the organization's external communication systems and processes. public and private with which there is interdependence. Evaluate the role, efficiency and need for Organizational communication technology.
Cultural diagnosis
The cultural diagnosis is a series of actions designed to ascertain the values and principles of an organization, the extent to which these are known and shared by its members and the congruence saved with organizational behavior.
The objectives from this perspective are:
- Evaluate the role of communication in the creation, maintenance and development of the culture of an organization. Evaluate the content of communicational productions and the meaning it has for its members, such as conversations, rites, myths, philosophy and values. organizational life and the role of communication from the perspective of the members of the organization.
The basic values and principles of an organization can be determined through the fields in which they are manifested, so that the more cultural manifestations that are analyzed, the richer and more accurate the diagnosis will be.
The conceptual and symbolic manifestations are made up of the following categories and elements:
- Spiritual: Ideology / philosophy, symbols, myths and history Behavioral: Language, non-verbal behavior, rituals and forms of interaction Structural: Policies and procedures, norms, internal status systems, power structure Materials: Technology, facilities, furniture and team.
The cultural diagnosis process is supported by certain tools. Regarding its application, we can basically speak of two approaches: the qualitative and the quantitative.
The first seeks the precise measurement of certain variables established in advance and their subsequent comparison, the second depends more on the sharpness of the researcher's perception when analyzing the data.
Applicable qualitative techniques:
- Observation. To carry it out, the researcher can choose to become one more member of the group (participant observation), or he can observe them from outside (non-participant or ordinary observation). In any case, the researcher must win the trust of the people who are going to study, achieve their acceptance and avoid as much as possible that their presence interferes or disturbs the group's daily activities in any way. Individual interviews. It is very important that what is known as "sympathy" is achieved in interviews. This implies the establishment of a climate of mutual trust, understanding and emotional affinity between the interviewer and the interviewee. Document analysis.The researcher will assemble a collection of diverse documents that need to be interpreted in order to extract the information they contain about the history and characteristics of the organization, and which will lead him to infer some important aspects of the organization's culture. Small group discussion. Group sessions with a directed discussion. Dramatization. Provides data on people's perception of certain roles, relationships, and work situations. Projective techniques. It consists of presenting a subject with a little structured material, with vague instructions and asking her to organize it in her own way, things that she cannot do without projecting the structure of her own personality.
Applicable quantitative techniques:
- a) The information collected by means of this technique can be used for a quantitative analysis in order to identify and know the magnitude of the problems that are supposed or are partially or imprecisely known. The method that can be used to complete the survey is the questionnaire.
Within the application of an organizational diagnosis it is convenient to keep in mind that every process has advantages and disadvantages, depending on what you want to achieve.
Advantage:
- A group spirit is awakened. It is participatory. People feel committed to solutions. It gives a logical structure to the problem. It is the most efficient and effective way to manage resources, comply with and find problems. It allows knowing operational processes where you have to start working urgently and achieve immediate improvement. It provides data to structure a temporary planning, until the new objectives of the organization are set and changes are implemented in the organization's systems and processes. As a methodology, it is very clear and contains elements that can be combined with other techniques to create more efficient particular approaches.
Disadvantages:
- The normative model is never specified and can be different for different people. Not all social groups are ready for this type of interactions. Defining problems raises expectations of solutions. It can cause interpersonal conflicts. It can be biased.
The tools used in the application of the organizational diagnosis are based on the participation of the company's capital stock and can be of two types, quantitative and qualitative. In methodological terms, the tools and techniques facilitate and improve the possibility of collecting and organizing information efficiently. For this, participatory techniques will be put into practice, the most used being the interview, the questionnaire, the analysis of communication, the SWOT analysis, the documentary and bibliographic compilation, observation, among others.
Qualitative techniques:
They are techniques that are based on the description of events, that is, words are used to narrate the facts that surround the development of a phenomenon or event of interest. These include the following:
| QUALITATIVE TECHNIQUE | DESCRIPTION |
| Interview | It is a conversation that has a defined purpose and this purpose is given depending on the topic under investigation. In general, it is considered as a transaction process of giving and receiving information, question and answer, from sender and receiver, until the objectives set by the researchers are reached. |
| Questionnaire | Systematic collection of data in a population and in a faster, cheaper than other methods and facilitates statistical analysis. |
| The group interview | It is the collection of data to a group of people who represent the organization. The interview usually focuses on aspects related to the crisis that is currently occurring in the company |
| Observation | It is one of the most widely used and oldest instruments in research, because it is an easy procedure to apply. The act of observing and perceiving is the most direct and immediate way of knowing the phenomena, the processes and the activities that take place around which you are interested. |
| Dramatization | It provides information about the community's appreciation of situations that arise at work or in the company. |
Projective techniques It is based on supplying a person with material with vague instructions and asking them to organize it in their own way, which allows them to reflect their personality
SWOT It is one of the most used techniques for preparing strategies
| to overcome conflicts or crises presented in a company or community, where their strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats are identified. | |
| The documentary and bibliographic compilation | Data collection starts from secondary sources, that is, from information obtained through documents, books, or research conducted by people outside the researcher. Here the document is a written testimony of a past or historical event and that is obtained from the people or the environment where the situations and phenomena studied are generated and developed. |
Quantitative techniques:
Quantitative tools to support decision-making have advantages, such as being able to divide complex problems into smaller fragments that can be easily diagnosed. However, it is not a source of automatic decisions and responses to all the problems managers face.
| QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUE | DESCRIPTION |
| Simulation | It is a procedure that studies a problem by creating a model of the process involved in that difficulty and then, through a series of organized trial and error solutions, attempts to determine a better way out of that problem. |
| The Results Matrix | It is a widely used instrument that shows the possible results that can be achieved by following alternative courses of action (strategies) in different circumstances. |
| The inventory system | They help control total inventory costs; These approaches can successfully reduce the total cost of buying to store, carrying inventory, and running out of it. |
