Organisational Diagnosis

Perform a diagnosis of an organization that you are familiar with, using the diagnostic organizational level analysis. Your diagnosis should include an assessment of the organization's performance and an indication of the underlying cause of problems.

1. What is diagnosis?

Diagnosis is a systematic approach to understanding and describing the present state of the organization.

2. The open system: The general diagnosis model based on systems theory that underlines most of OD.

The elements in open system model are:

- Input: Information, energy, people

- Transformations: Social component, technological component

- Output: Finished goods, services and ideas

3. Organizational level diagnosis

The elements in organizational level diagnosis are:

- Inputs: General Environment, Industry Structure

- Strategic Orientation: Strategy, Organizational Design

- Output: Organization Performance, Productivity, Stakeholder Satisfaction

MICROSOFT CARPOINT ANALYSIS

INPUT

* General Environment:

- Technology--depends on the advancement the technology, e.g. easy to imitate products/services.

- Social and Ethical --- less privacy, accuracy and safety.

- Economic --- different income and spending, e.g. crisis in Asia causes less purchasing power.

- Political and legal --- government regulation, e.g. taxation, domain name registration, copyright.

* Company Industry Structure:

- Threat of Entry

High barriers: brand identification, economies of scale, international market

- Intensity of Rivalry among Competitors

More online car industries, e.g. AutoByTel, AutoWeb, and Auto Vantage

Difficult to maintain unique offerings.

- Pressure from Substitute Products

The availability of substitute products: traditional dealers, other online car industry.

- Bargaining Power of Buyers

More purchase options, more valuable and timely information, and the degree of transaction simplicity.

- Bargaining Power of Suppliers

R&R - strong brand name, good reputation

Power to control the selling process, sales force incentives and compensation, and the message conveyed to customers.

STRATEGIC ORIENTATION

a. Strategy

* Mission :

- Own the largest share of the internet Automobile

* Product and Services :

- Provide services for new car buying and used class classifieds

- Convenient ownership services

* Market to be served :

- People that feel unsatisfied with the current automobile purchasing process

* Goal and objectives :

- combine best content aggregation and leading edge technology to become consumer destination point of choices for internet car buying

- focus on developing scale consumer selection vehicles

* Strategic intent :

- development on technology

- product differentiation

* Functional policies :

- Dealers have to meet up certain performance required

b. Organization Design

* Core activity system :

- Highly use of technology infrastructures

- Customized services

- Use of e-commerce to support transaction process

* Structural

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