Assignment: Conducting an Organizational Assessment

The success of an organization depends heavily on its structure, strategies, and culture. In this assignment, you will develop an understanding of the importance of these elements in the success/failure of an enterprise.

Description of LASA: In this assignment, you will assess an organization's current position in the internal and external environment.

Scenario: You have been hired as a consultant to evaluate the performance of a manufacturing or service organization. As part of your function, you need to assess the organization's current position with regard to their business operations, strategy, and organizational structure, as well as identify potential ethical issues management may face. The executive management team has asked you to submit a report of your findings.

Instructions: Choose a publicly traded manufacturing or service organization to be the subject of your work for LASA 1 and LASA 2. (You should choose a different organization than you have used for previous assignments.) Select an organization about which there is an abundance of information made readily available to the public (via the corporate website, industry publications, business journals, etc.).

In preparation for your report, conduct your review of the organization using the following approach:

• Evaluate the company's business strategy and global competitiveness plan.
• Conduct an internal assessment using SWOT analysis.
• Assess the external environment via an external scenario evaluation.
• Sketch the company's organizational structure.
• Using the tools of business process design, define the organization's business process.
• Identify any potential ethical issues that may impact the traditional management functions of the company and recommend preventative measures.