Part 1 (5 marks): Please refer to application 5.2 entitled as Top Management Team at Ortiv Glass Corporation. available in your textbook and answer the following:

1. Discuss why strategic orientation is fundamental to diagnosis in OD. Demonstrate your answer using two examples from this application.

2. Describe and evaluate each of the Ortivs team design components: - Goal clarity - Task structure - Team functioning - Group composition - Group norms

5-2 The Need for Diagnostic Models Entry and contracting processes can result in a need to understand either a whole system or some part, process, or feature of the organization. To diagnose an organization, OD practitioners and organization members need to have an idea about what informa- tion to collect and analyze. Choices about what to look for invariably depend on how organizations are conceived. Such conceptions can vary from intuitive hunches to scien- tific explanations of how organizations function. Conceptual frameworks that OD practi- tioners use to understand organizations are referred to as "diagnostic models." They describe the relationships among different features of the organization, as well as its environment and its effectiveness. As a result, diagnostic models point out what areas to examine and what questions to ask in assessing how an organization is functioning, However, all models represent simplifications of reality and therefore emphasize cer- tain organizational features as critical while ignoring other features. Focusing attention on particular features, often to the exclusion of others, can result in a biased diagnosis. For example, a diagnostic model that relates team effectiveness to the handling of inter- personal conflict would lead an OD practitioner to ask questions about relationships among members, decision-making processes, and conflict resolution methods. Although relevant, those questions ignore other group issues such as member skills and knowledge, the complexity of the tasks performed by the group, and task interdependencies. Thus, OD practitioners must choose diagnostic models and processes carefully to address the organization's presenting problems as well as to ensure comprehensiveness. Potential diagnostic models are everywhere. Any collection of concepts and relation- ships that attempts to represent a system or explain its effectiveness can potentially qual- ify as a diagnostic model. Major sources of diagnostic models in OD are the thousands of articles and books that discuss, describe, and analyze how organizations function. They provide information about how and why certain organizational systems, processes, or functions are effective. The studies often concern a specific facet of organizational behav- ior. such as employee stress, leadership, motivation, problem solving, group dynamics, job design, and career development. They also can involve the larger organization and its context, including the environment, strategy, structure, and culture. Diagnostic mod- els can be derived from that information by noting the dimensions or variables that are associated with an organization's effectiveness. Another source of diagnostic models is OD practitioners' experience in organiza- tions. So-called "field knowledge" offers a wealth of practical information about how organizations operate. Unfortunately, only a small part of that vast experience has been translated into diagnostic models that represent the professional judgments of people with years of experience in organizational diagnosis. The models generally link diagnosis with specific organizational processes, such as group problem solving, employee motiva- tion, or communication between managers and employees. The models list specific ques- tions for diagnosing such processes. This chapter presents a general framework for diagnosing organizations rather than trying to cover the range of OD diagnostic models. The framework describes the systems perspective prevalent in OD today and integrates several of the more popular diagnostic models. The systems model provides a useful starting point for diagnosing organizations, 92 PART 2 THE PROCESS OF ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT groups, and individual jobs. (Chapters 10-20 present additional diagnostic models that are linked to specific OD interventions.)