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The fit drivers and tests - The concept of fit

5 important questions on The fit drivers and tests - The concept of fit

What is meant with 'fit for purpose' and why is it important?

Fit for purpose = achievement of the objectives given the environment you operate in. Organizations will be less successful if their designs do not fit certain contingent variables.

Which 4 fit drivers are there, and describe them:

1 Product-market strategies: how the company plans to win in each product-market area it chooses to compete in

2 Corporate strategy: how the company plans to gain advantage from competing in multiple product-market areas

4 People: the skills and attitudes of the individuals who are likely to be available to work within the organization

5 Constraints; the legal, institutional, environmental, cultural and internal factors that limit the choice of design.

Corporate strategy is about what product-market areas to compete in and how to manage the portfolio of business. But how to achieve to 'add valua as manager' is often vague. The remedy is the parenting advantage test (does the design allocate sufficient attention to the intended sources of added value and strategic initiatives of the corporate parent?). Which analysis involves this test?

-List the major parenting propositions and parent-level strategic initiatives

-Check whether each proposition and initiative has sufficient attention within the design

-Where the design appears to give too little attention consider alterations (wijzigingen) to the design or other changes that will correct the flaw.

Build organization around personal preferences and desires. People problems: overlook limitations people, overestimate ease of acquiring/ teaching new skills/attitudes. This can be solved by making realisatic judgement of strengths and weaknesses of existing and 'to hire new' staff. This can be done with the people test (does the design adequately reflect the motivations, strengths and weaknesses of the available people?), which involves three steps, which 3?

1 List the senior managers, who will be part of the new organization, and assess how committed these managers will be to making the organization work.

2 List particularly talented individuals and assess whether the design uses their talents to the full

3 List the job roles that are pivotal (key to make the org. run smoothly), and judge whether these roles will be easy or difficult to fill with competent managers.