The McKinsey 7-S Model Paper Example

Introduction

The McKinsey 7-S Model is a change management technique used by an organization to analyze its coherence rather than banking on deep evaluation and extensive changes. The company may stress the shifts it requires by examining its seven elements to establish a united model to the business. The seven aspects include strategy, systems, structure, staff, shared values, style and skills.

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How the model can be used to implement a Quality Change Project

As stated, the McKinsey 7-S Model uses seven aspects namely strategy, systems, structure, staff, shared values, style and skills to implement a quality change project. The first way the firm executes a quality change project is by assessing strategy. The approach should be formal enable the corporation gain a competitive advantage over its rivals (process.st). Additionally, the tactic needs to be flexible enough to acclimatize to changes without interfering with the progress. Before adopting the strategy, it is imperative that the organization considers the following questions:

• What are the objectives of the company?
• How is the organization planning to achieve the objectives?
• How is the firm maintaining its competitive nature?
• How can the business policy adjust to the present and future conditions?

By answering and recording these questions convincingly, the company will be certain that it is ready to successfully implement the strategy element needed for the organizational growth.

Another way is analyzing the systems. This aspect requires the company to evaluate its systems such as regulations, official procedures, and unofficial shortcuts. Common systems and processes that require assessment include human resource, staff meetings, finance, team management and document management (process.st). The following questions may help in analyzing the systems.

• What are the organization's major systems?
• How does the company store and use these systems?
• How are these systems tracked and assessed?
• Who can access the systems?
• Are the systems updated?
• How does the organization update the systems?
• Are the systems reliable?

Another way to implement a quality change project is by reviewing the business structure. The formation of the organization should be simple because it is more concrete than the strategy (process.st). The structure must be stated clearly from the top management to the bottom staff for effective communication. This flow helps the company in making quick and justifiable decisions. The following questions may be used to review the aspect of structure in the McKinsey model.

• What is the structure of the company?
• What is the chain of command?
• How are the departments organized and managed?
• How are the departments, teams, and individuals organized and managed?
• What is the communication channel?
• How frequent does communication happen?
• How are the decisions made?
• Who makes the organization's decisions?

Another way is taking note of the business style. It entails assessing the leadership style employed in the corporation. The questions used to assess these styles include the following:

• How are the organization's teams and departments managed?
• How effective is the leadership style used?
• Does the organization encourage team-work and competition?

Another way is recording shared values which include both the firm's value and the organizational culture. Arguably, using values alongside culture make them more satisfying to the employees who find it easy to realize. The questions used to establish this aspect include the following

• What are the primary values of the company?
• What is the organizational and team's culture?
• Do the organizational and team cultures correspond?
• How strong are these values?
• How can these values be strengthened in practice?

Another way is listing the company staff. It helps the organization identify whether it has the required workforce to achieve its objectives. In this section, it is important to assess the staff list, their skills, responsibilities, job descriptions and common tasks to answer the questions below.

• What positions are filled?
• Do the staff members have adequate skills for the job?
• Does the organization need more employees?
• Who will be next to hire if the company needs to recruit more workers?

Finally, the organization can use the model to implement a quality change by assessing the skills of the staff. This can be done by acquiring information about the view of the company from the outside. In particular, feedback from the customers may provide an overview of the employees' skills (process.st). Conducting performance worker's performance appraisal is also important in this case. The following questions are important in carrying out this procedure.

• Are the employees qualified to do quality work?
• What skills are lacking in the organization?
• Are these missing skills important?
• How is the company evaluating these skills?
• What is the customer feedback about the company performance?

Benefits of the McKinsey 7-S Model

The first benefit of this model is that it discovers the company's weakness and points out the departments that require focus when applying changes. Secondly, the model ensures that there is proper coordination and support in every commercial aspect (process.st). In so doing, it provides the company with a strong business plan that is flexible to change.

The Role of an Executive in the McKinsey 7-S Model

The role of an executive is to implement the 7-S models and ensure that they are effective. Most importantly, the executive makes certain that these models are well-formulated in a way that they adaptable to change. The executive is also responsible for making decisions and conducting a performance appraisal on the employees to evaluate their skills, and determine their competence in the organization.

Reference

Process.st. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21st, 2019, from https://www.process.st/change-management-models/