The Congruence Model

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The Congruence Model
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The Congruence Model

• The critical first step to successfully lead
  large-scale organizational change is to
  understand the dynamics and the performance of
  the enterprise.
• The tried and true managerial tricks do not
  always work. The new, a unique set of problems
  watched through the old, well-worn filters might
  leave the real issues undetected.

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The Congruence Model

• The congruence model is a useful tool that helps
  leaders fully grasp the interplay of social and
  technical forces that shape the performance of
  each organization.
• It suggests that the starting point for analyzing
  organizational performance is to first understand
  the organization as a system.
• The organization consists of a basic set of
  elements input, strategy, output, and the
  transformation process.

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Basic organizational components - Input

• Three main categories of input
• The environment
• Imposes demands
• Imposes constraints
• Provides opportunities
• Resources
• History (Ex. Xerox)

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Basic organizational components - Strategy
Output

• Two levels of strategic questions
• Corporate strategy
• Business strategy
• Markets
• Offerings
• Competitive basis
• Three levels of output
• The total system
• Units within the system
• Individuals

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Basic organizational components - The
organizational transformation process

• The heart of the model
• Four key components of the organization
• Work
• People
• Formal organizational arrangements
• Informal organization

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The concept of fit

• The organizations performance rests upon the
  alignment of the components (work, people, formal
  org., informal org.)
• The tighter the fit - the greater the congruence,
  the higher the performance.
• The interaction between each set of
  organizational components is more important than
  the components themselves.
• Normally, managers only have to do the necessary
  adjustments, but some situations call for
  radical, large-scale change. (Ex. Xerox)

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Analyzing the organizations problems

• The congruence model gives a conceptual framework
  to solve the organizations problems
• Identify the symptoms
• Specify the input
• Identify the input
• Identify the problems
• Describe the organizational components
• Assess the congruence
• Generate hypotheses about problem causes
• Identify the action steps

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Using the Congruence Model

• Make sure the new strategy fits the
  organizations resources and environment!
• Be sure the strategy fits the formal structures,
  systems, and processes!
• Constantly be on the lookout for inappropriate
  fit among all the internal components of the
  organization!

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• Give practical examples of how the manager can
  follow the 8 steps mentioned above to solve the
  organizations problems!