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Part 

2

  People and Organizations

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the opinions and attitudes of employees in order to 

identify issues and problems that can be dealt with 

in an organization development programme. They 

enable those concerned with organization develop-

ment to understand what is happening and why it is 

happening so that they can do something about it. 

Diagnostics can be used to assess overall organiza-

tional effectiveness in the shape of general strategic, 

business  and  operational  issues,  or  they  can  deal 

with more specific areas of concern such as a review 

of the organization’s ideology, culture or climate, or 

a  survey  of  levels  of  engagement  or  commitment. 

Examples  of  the  approach  used  by  various  diag-

nostic instruments are given below.

Organizational ideology 

questionnaire (Harrison, 1972)

This questionnaire deals with the four orientations 

defined by Harrison (power, role, task and self). The 

questionnaire  is  completed  by  ranking  statements 

according to views on what is closest to the organ-

ization’s actual position. The following are examples 

of statements:

 

●

a good boss is strong, decisive and firm but 

fair;

 

●

a good subordinate is compliant, hard-

working and loyal;

 

●

people who do well in the organization are 

shrewd and competitive, with a strong need 

for power;

 

●

the basis of task assignment is the personal 

needs and judgements of those in authority;

 

●

decisions are made by people with the most 

knowledge and expertise about the problem.

Organizational culture inventory 

(Cooke and Lafferty, 1989)

This  instrument  assesses  organizational  culture 

under 12 headings: