Diagnosing Organizations
Methods, Models, and Processes
- Michael I. Harrison - Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, USA
Applied Social Research Methods
Click 'Additional Materials' for downloadable sample chapter
Many managers and organizational leaders face shrinking budgets, growing competition, and changing organizational alliances and missions A bewildering array of new technologies and management techniques offer help in handling these challenges. To respond effectively and avoid wasting resources, decision makers need to diagnose organizational conditions, plan changes carefully, and apply appropriate technologies and management techniques.
The Third Edition of the bestselling Diagnosing Organizations shows how consultants and applied researchers can help decision makers quickly and flexibly diagnose problems and challenges and decide how to deal with them.
Key Features
- Models for framing diagnostic problems, identifying underlying conditions, and providing feedback
- Methods for gathering and analyzing diagnostic data
- Processes for working on a diagnosis with clients and other members of an organization
This thoroughly revised edition can help practitioners of diagnosis directly address concerns that are critical to clients, rather than just provide feedback on current conditions and operations. In an authoritative, yet readable fashion author Michael I. Harrison presents updated treatments of the uses of diagnosis, evaluating organizational effectiveness, improving team performance, planning organization redesign projects, and assessing organization-environment relations and competitive strategy. Also treated are the politics of change management, professional dilemmas, and ethical issues confronting practitioners.
Professors of research methods across the social sciences will find Diagnosing Organizations, Third Edition an invaluable text for their courses. The second edition was widely adopted in departments of Management, Public Health, Nursing, Education, Public Administration, Psychology, Criminal Justice, and many others.
Conclusion
It's a great textbook for the course
'Organization Diagnosis'. It provides the necessary information, tactics, and tools to best complete an organizational diagnosis accurately.
Concise text which nicely combines theory and practice and provides guidance to applying 'diagnostic' processes in practice.
Clear, understandable writing that all levels of students could understand and use
I recommend Harrion's book on diagnosing organizations to all my master thesis students. It helps them to think more accurately on research within organizations.