Please give me an organizational diagnosis for the following text according to the McKinsey 7S model:
“Sequence” is a professional organization that provides technological development, supervision and professional planning services to its clients, its role is to generate relevant technical knowledge for the clients, to define long-term procurement and development plans, to define work procedures and to supervise the activities of the executive bodies among the organizations with which it works.
You were invited by the CEO of the organization who has been dissatisfied with the middle managers in the organization for some time. He claims that they are not promoting the organization as he would like and are not providing a satisfactory response to the company’s challenges.
“Sequence” has several hundred people, most of whom are engineers with bachelor’s or master’s degrees who are considered experts in their field of work. The organization’s personnel are concentrated in relatively large organizational units with thematic specialization led by several senior managers. The middle managers in the body are appointed to supervise a limited number of employees (about 10-20).
In recent years, “Sequence” has had to deal with a dynamic environment full of changes: budget cuts, environmental threats from competing organizations, many organizational changes (mergers and downsizing) and a war to keep employees in the organization. The people of the organization would sometimes joke that “you wake up every morning to a new organization”. These changes “infused” a lot of energy into the organization but were also a sure source of burnout among managers and employees. The feeling is that it is required and necessary to think long-term and deal with projects, but on the other hand, reality and the lack of time and resources force you to deal with the current.
The feeling in the company is that of “hi-tech hi-tech” - on the one hand, they are engaged in the forefront of knowledge, work long hours and are on project deadlines. On the other hand, it is expected that the individual will remain in the organization as a long-term career and develop in it, the conditions (salary and work environment) are not high-tech conditions and the general approach is conservative.
Some of the managers complain about a feeling of over-pleasing the customer, which is required of them or even about “being hurt”. As mentioned, the people of the organization work long hours.
Over the years, “Sequence” employees have demonstrated organizational commitment, pride and a strong unit spirit. There is a feeling that they manage to do above and beyond what is possible in light of the resources.
About a decade ago, “Sequence” underwent a massive organizational change. This change resulted in a transition from bodies that were organized according to professional specialization - to bodies that are organized according to the needs of the customer and provide a full response to a certain niche of customers. The change resulted in the migration of many entities from their parent departments to new departments and greatly improved the quality of “Sequence” service.
On the other hand, the structure became matrix. In order to carry out the work, it is now necessary to establish contact between bodies located in different places in “Sequence” and who jointly hold the necessary knowledge or powers. The average manager can no longer perform his job solely by relying on his people. The work now requires a lot of coordination and contact with other middle managers. In order to carry out the work, the manager cannot give orders, but must “harness” the others and treat them as “partners”, at the same time, he must maintain a professional or business relationship with external organizations, some of them abroad that provide knowledge, resources and technology to “Sequence” or even constitute Outsourcing of a service that was previously internal. The weight of responsibility of the middle managers has increased dramatically (and with it the authority has decreased). The sense of burden experienced, however, interferes with managing fruitful and frequent interfaces.
The position of middle manager in “Sequence” is considered a key position and receives appropriate evaluation and status. To the rabbi, the professional autonomy given to them is the greatest. However, the middle managers tend to see their senior managers as distant, not a source of support, less involved in their professional world and day-to-day decisions and only responsible for long-term strategic planning. Some feel comfortable with this style but others feel “lonely”.
The middle manager is the main decision maker in the organization he manages and is sometimes required to make decisions in areas over which his subordinates have power. Sometimes there is a feeling among middle managers that even decisions that in the past would have been made by a junior - have now come up to their table. They express an ambivalent feeling - on the one hand, they would like their people to take much more responsibility, and on the other hand, they hesitate to share the responsibility and give up control. The interim manager participates in most of the discussions and all decisions go through him.
The relationship between middle managers as a group is good. The interdependence forces to preserve the nature of the relationship and is therefore accompanied by dialogue, sharing and mutual understanding. We “respect” each other and many times reach the golden path with the understanding that a forceful victory over the other is short-lived “tomorrow I will need it”. This tendency also causes its own frustrations and problems.
Professionalism is a critical value at Sequence. As mentioned, the employees are considered professionals in their field. The middle managers’ relationship with their people is described as informal and with little power distance. In fact their pyramid is small, which affects their powers and their status towards their people. To the rabbi, upon entering the position, the interim manager will not make waves and will try to enter in a way that respects the cultural environment and customs of the place. Since he manages senior professionals, he must adapt his style to this group. There is a dilemma to what extent the middle manager should be only a manager and not the best professional or alternatively how involved he should be in the professional decisions. Like most of the middle managers, also in “Sequence” the middle managers are between a rock and a hard place and are expected to both convey systemicness and represent the needs of their people towards the system, not always successfully one way or the other. They themselves oscillate between a sense of meaning and importance and between economic and utilitarian motives.
As mentioned, the corporate culture at “Sequence” expects full commitment and long working hours even at the expense of family and personal life. This culture is accompanied on the one hand by an apparent openness and a demand to bring up relevant and distressing issues, but in practice, an intolerance for criticism or complaints. The complainant is in danger of being perceived as a troublemaker who should be removed.
Due to the competitiveness of the professional market and the heavy workload, the middle manager is forced to face the reality of frequent departures and a lack of staff. This affects the way in which he is required to manage his people in terms of giving meaning or conditions. These sometimes complain about poor care, a lack of feeling unity or lack of meaning.
Among the declared values that govern the organization can be found mission, professionalism, responsibility, openness (seemingly) and a sense of the importance of the occupation. The attitude towards the customer is ambiguous - on the one hand, a great willingness to please him and help him in fulfilling his mission, and on the other hand, a feeling that he does not understand much and that his angle of vision is limited and poor.