by Eric Goudie

Created on: September 20, 2011   Last Updated: September 21, 2011

Organizational assessment means different things to different organizations and their workers. Workers and managers use organizational assessment to help plan their careers, rise within their fields and ultimately determine how to make the most of their skills, experience and interests.

Companies use organizational assessment to improve efficiency within the organization itself, assist with succession planning for management positions, and find new and better ways to reach out to other businesses, organizations, and the public.

In a nutshell, organizational assessment tools exist to help organizations and their people work more efficiently towards whatever specific end goals they have in mind. When undertaking an organizational assessment there are a number of common organizational assessment tools from which to draw upon, and most assessments will include the use of two or more different tools.

Andrew Lewis’ Non-profit Organizational Assessment tool is a nine-part program designed to help non-profit organizations find ways to better meet their goals, from identifying the areas of the organization most in need of improvement to developing a plan to address each of those areas.

The Reflect and Learn website is a valuable resource for any organization looking for practical tools with which to begin its organizational assessment. It contains a wide variety information defining organizational assessment, and offers a comprehensive list of organizational assessment tools. Just as importantly, it addresses why organizational assessment is and should be of interest and value to everyone involved in the day-to-day operation of a business or other organization.

Centrepoint for Leadership has also developed a toolkit entitled Organizational Performance Management that breaks organizational assessment down into eleven different categories. It also features a leadership toolkit, a glossary of terms common to organizational assessment, and a large selection of resources for further study. There’s a lot of information for non-profit organizations, but the site has also clearly been designed with the needs of executives in mind as well.

The Management Survey is freely available from The Learning Center and is very practical tool that can be used to quickly gain a snapshot of the business approach and mindset of employees and managers within an organization.

The resources listed above are all freely available online, in whole or in part, and these should sufficiently meet the needs of most small and medium-sized businesses, small non-profits and other basic organizations. Larger organizations may wish to consider paying for a comprehensive Organizational Assessment service from organizations like the National Business Research Institute, Universalia, and Construx, all of which are equipped to offer complete Organizational Assessments to clients in businesses, healthcare, government, non-profit and other sectors.  

 

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