McKinsey 7 S Model
McKinsey 7-S framework or model is one of those few models that have managed to persist even when others came in and went out of trend. It was developed by consultants working for McKinsey & Company in the 1980s and features seven steps or stages for managing change.
Stages
- Strategy – Strategy is the plan created to get past the competition and reach the goals. This is the first stage of change according to McKinsey’s 7-S framework and involves the development of a step-by-step procedure or plan.
- Structure – Structure is the stage or attribute of this model that relates to how the organization is divided or the structure it follows.
- Systems – To get a task done, how the day-to-day activities are performed is what this stage is related to.
- Shared values – Shared values refer to the core or main values of an organization according to which it runs or works.
- Style – How the changes and leadership are adopted or implemented is known as ‘style’.
- Staff – The staff refers to the workforce or employees and their working capabilities.
- Skills – The competencies as well as other skills possessed by the employees working in the organization.
Benefits of this model
- This model offers ways and methods to understand an organization and get a deep insight into the way it works.
- This model integrates both the emotional as well as the practical components of change that is important to create ways to enable employees to deal with transition easily.
- This model considers all parts to be important and equally worth addressing and thus does not leave out some aspects that may be of importance.
- This model also offers a directional factor to organizational change.
Disadvantages of this model
- Since all the factors are interrelated and interdependent on one another, the failure of one part means failing of all and this is the greatest disadvantage of this model.
- This model is complex as compared to the others and differences are not focused upon in it.
- Organizations that have used this model have experienced more cases of failure, and this too can be considered as one negative associated with it.