All too often, strategic planning neglects an essential step -- diagnosing the organization's current state at the beginning and end of an improvement cycle. What's required is a systematic review of the critical factors in organizational learning and growth. These are determinants that require the monitoring, measurement, and management of resources to ensure that your company competes successfully. This executive workbook provides a step-by-step methodology for diagnosing an organization's strategic health and measuring its overall competitiveness against world class standards. The Corporate Diagnosis handbook is used to verify policy or measure the results of corporate strategy and vision (the "business renewal" stage ). Detailed diagnostic questions in each key areas act as guidelines for developing your own self-assessment survey. To support the diagnostic process, three primary aids are provided: a check sheet to record observations and score each area under diagnosis; a radar chart to plot and track your company's position visually; and extensive progress tables that allow you to see your standing in each diagnostic area. Over 50 specific categories of company health are meticulously graded and charted to help you see where your company stands in its quest for world class status. Corporate Diagnosis is an excellent companion and aid for meeting the Deming, Shingo, or Baldrige Award criteria.

Organizational Diagnosis and Assessment presents sharp-image diagnosis, a distinctive approach to organizational consultation and planned change, that reflects current research and theorizing about organizational change and effectiveness. The authors draw on multiple analytical frames to produce empirically grounded models of sources of ineffectiveness and forces for change, showing how consultants, managers, and applied researchers can break free of unproductive practices and ways of thinking to avoid uncritical adoption of management fads. They offer workable solutions to critical problems and demonstrate ways to meet organizational challenges like market downturns, technological change, and alliances with other organizations. Organizational Diagnosis and Assessment covers diagnosis and assessment of work groups, organizations, and whole systems. This volume develops analytical approaches for problem solving and strategy formation in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Diagnosis of public policy issues, like assessments of the effectiveness of health systems, is also addressed. Many of the models and techniques contribute to assessing the changing nature of the workplace, examining organizational decline and other life-cycle transitions; gendering; change and diversity in organizational culture and in workforce composition; the spread of new forms of work organization, including teams, flat hierarchies, and networks; new uses of information technology; and mergers and alliances among organizations. Organizational Diagnosis and Assessment will be invaluable to advanced students, consultants, and applied behavioral scientists in social sciences, management, social work, organizational and industrial psychology, organizational sociology, nursing, and public administration.

Business Diagnostics™ is an invaluable reference for today's business owner. The authors have devised a unique framework that allows company owners and managers to complete a powerful external and internal evaluation of their corporate health. This indispensable book provides insights and reference sources covering a broad spectrum of business issues from raising equity, obtaining financing, implementing growth strategies and surviving when times get tough. You will learn to: Complete an effective external 'size-up' of your business environment and industry sector Critically examine your key functions - Finance, Marketing, Operations, Human Resources and Technology - using a unique and concise evaluation of your strengths and what need to be fixed Assess your Customer focus Hone your diagnostic and evaluation skills by reviewing a fictional company and then completing a 'size-up' to assess the health and prospects of a company experiencing growth challenges Enhance your equity raising proposals and avoid the many pitfalls that confront participants in this complex process Submit an effective and successful bank financing proposal by understanding the risk assessment that commercial bankers use to separate the winners from the losers Complete and initial valuation of your company (or one that you intend to purchase) by considering four key valuation techniques and the due diligence process that needs to be followed Simplify the business and strategic planning process by reviewing the 'Seven Ways To Create An Effective Business Plan'

A unique set of complementary hands-on tools for learning about and applying a deeper and practical theory for diagnosis and design. This edition has been significantly updated and rewritten to make it easier to read.

The Practice of Organizational Diagnosis: Theory & Methods presents a new paradigm for examining the intergroup dynamics of organizations by combining the procedures of organizational diagnosis with the theory of embedded intergroup relations. In this volume, Alderfer explains the relevance of the paradigm concept for the present work, shows the importance of intergroup relations in the formative organization studies, reviews extant modes of organizational diagnosis, and demonstrates the limitations of interpersonal and intra-group theories. He then presents the five laws of embedded intergroup relations as a response to the problems associated with the earlier work. After comparing and contrasting alterative group level theories and explaining the several meanings of empirical support, the author describes the empirical basis of the five laws. Based on examining alternative codes of professional conduct and applying the five laws, he provides his prescriptions for the ethical basis of sound diagnostic practice. With the theory and ethical position in place, he then explains procedures for conducting each phase of organizational diagnosis: entry, data collection, data analysis, and feedback. He follows that by reporting the empirical bases for the methods used in the four phases. The volume concludes by describing the courses and educational processes essential for educating people to conduct organizational diagnoses. A recurring theme from beginning to end is that the lawfulness of human behavior in relation to organizations is as applicable to diagnosticians, whether working alone or in teams, as it is to their clients. By addressing theory, method, data, and values, the volume presents a complete paradigm for organizational diagnosis.

Providing the necessary background information and hands-on tools to build compelling business cases, this book will increase the reader's capability to champion new business development ideas, take them to senior management, and facilitate the decision process by understanding the key theories and practices of finance and corporate investments.

Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.

Increase Profitability and Decrease Liability with 5S A criticalyet often overlooked area in the visual workplace is the concept of continuous improvement. In this important work, JIT expert Hiroyuki Hirano introduces his 5S System: Sort, Set In Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. These steps are designed to improve efficiency, strengthen maintenance, and provide continuous improvement in all facets of a company’s operations. Addressing the skepticism of executives who deride the 5S System for its simplicity, the author, revered for his no-nonsense approach, warns of disastrous consequences for companies that fail to recognize its value; if they cannot successfully implement 5S, there is little hope of integrating large-scale changes such as JIT or re-engineering. Presented in a thorough, detailed style, 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace explains why the 5S's are so important, as well as the nuts- and-bolts of 5S implementation. Filled with numerous case studies, hundreds of graphic illustrations, and training materials, including over forty 5S user forms, this volume is a must-have guide for organizations seeking to thrive. To introduce the 5S system and sell its use to executives as well as workers, consider purchasing— 5S System: An Introduction DVD Catalog no. PP5934, Adhering to the principle of efficiency that defines this revolutionary and proven system, this video succinctly explains what is involved, who should participate, and what it will take to get started.

One study after the next shows that most employees are unhappy with their jobs and that less than a third actively engage with their work. That means that two out of every three are merely putting in their time, rather than maximizing productivity and attaining satisfaction. One could argue that such a malaise is the symptom of an unhealthy workfor