Competing Values Framework

Name: Deleah

BBA L4

The competing values framework was developed by Quinn and Rohrbaugh, to understand about
organizational effectiveness in a critical way. It is known to be a very useful model to understand a wide
range of organizations including its culture, competencies, development, strategies and information
management. The sturdiness of this model is considered as one of its greatest potency and is one of the
most useful models in the field of organization culture research. Based on various research and analysis,
they discovered two foremost dimensions that are responsible for the effectiveness of an organization.

The first dimension emphasizes organizational focus through an internal emphasis on the organizational
people to an external focus of the organization itself (Universiteit Twente, 2017). Whereas, the second
dimension is related to the difference between organizational performance and structure. It shows the
contrast between flexibility and change and stability and control. All together, these dimensions form
four quadrants of different models that help in defining organizational effectiveness. The four models
and along with its theories are as follows:

1. Rational Model
Rational model, also known as rational decision making model gives us an idea that an
organization needs to be well structured and well functioned in order to achieve a certain goal.
It especially focuses on logical decisions, control and external environment. It helps in decision
making by providing a structured and sequenced approach that builds consistency and discipline
as it follows cohesive management. As this theory is based on autocracy, the decisions made in
a rational organization follows hierarchy with the opinion of individuals often dominated. This
model emphasizes on maximum output/productivity and increased profit through high
efficiency. In order to get the required result in a rational way, it follows a set of sequenced
steps which are as follows:
-Problem identification
-Gathering information
-Analyzing the situation
-Developing options
-Evaluating options
-Selecting a preferred alternative
-Implementing the decision
While this model provides an organization with a well defined path to perform efficiently, it also
has some drawbacks which may sometimes make it practically challenging to adapt to. As the
theory focuses on what needs to be done, they tend to overlook how things need to be done
during decision making. According to the theory, humans make rational decisions but the factors
such as experience, knowledge, intuition, etc. that determine our decisions are not always
 rational. Therefore this model doesn't hold true in cases where decisions have to be made with
inadequate information. Despite organizations not being completely rational in the real world,
managers can use this theory in some situations if they are confident about their mission with
suitable alternatives and effective outcomes by following the official structure of the company.

1. Human Relation Model

The human relation model was developed in the early 1920's at the time of industrial revolution
when productivity was the main focus of the business. It was introduced to prove that humans
are more important than machines for an organization to perform efficiently (Perry, 2017). This
theory believes that when the employees are treated properly and given priority, they are
motivated to participate more and work competently resulting in a higher productivity of the
business. Human relation model is about flexibility and internal focus. It stresses on cohesion as
well as moral values. The human relation model has three features:
i) The individual
ii) Informal organization
iii) Participative management

According to Maslow, the factors fulfilling a worker's basic needs are physiological needs, safety, love,
self-actualization and self-esteem. When these needs are fulfilled, employees feel respected, valued and
a sense of recognition which in turn motivates them to give their best in their work. Therefore,
considering the sentiments of employees will make them feel more attached to the organization
(Mulder, 2017). Likewise, showing interest towards the workers can build and strengthen interpersonal
relations which might trigger their emotional sides that include intuition and irrational logics that are
equally important for their performance. However, these logics can also dominate and oppose rational
logics that might lead to variance and dilemma.

There are a few limitations to this model considering it to be an "anti-unionist" approach and failing to
explain the ethical assumptions of scientific work. One of the major limitations of this model was that it
only tends to pay more attention to the informal relations disregarding the formal one. Nevertheless,
Human relation model has brought a huge organizational revolution and contributed towards
interpersonal relationships to improve the productivity and performance of the workers (Scribd, 2017).

2. Open system model

An open system model is based on the relationship of an organization with its external
environment. It focuses on output over input. Like the human relation model, an open system
model also emphasizes on flexibility along with readiness, development, resource acquisition
and external support. According to this model, an organization needs to interact with its
external environment and work for the valued resources rather than function in isolation to
keep it growing. It considers an organization to be formed of interrelated sub-systems and of
one or more of them doesn't function properly; it will affect the whole system as a whole.

A business is said to be an open system structure when it interacts with its external environment
and allows regular feedback from outside as well as inside the organization. It follows more than
 one way to accomplish the mission with different alternatives which is a contradiction to closed
model that assumes that only a specific way can be followed to achieve the goal (Griffin, 2017).
Organizations rely on employees, customers, suppliers and even competitors for their research
and development. These factors also help them to get an overview of the environmental factors
affecting their business. This allows the business to see the bigger picture helping them to solve
their problems effectively as there is more communication, better understanding and a door for
constant feedback.

One of the disadvantages of this model is that the amount of resources obtained is not always
going to assure its effective usage as it assesses resource acquisition as a major factor for the
development of the organization. Moreover, it's hard to measure an ideal amount of resource
attainment between different organizations.

3. Internal process model

An internal process model mainly focuses on control and internal management of the organization.
Based on information management, it follows two way communication channels for stability and
better understanding. It defines responsibility, measurement and documentation through hierarchy.
However, hierarchy only functions at its best when the task is done in a timely manner with a proper
understanding (Quinn, 1998). Organizational effectiveness refers to the degree of measurement
between the organizational goal and the outcome and is considered to be the internal strength of
the organization. According to this model, effectiveness allows the business to get better internal
efficiency, satisfaction and coordination.

This model has been developed in contrast to the rational decision making model as it an output of
what the rational model defines. Effectiveness is described as a process rather than a result which is
similar to what the rational model follows. It evaluates effort in opposition to the obtained effect.
Internal process model follows there related factors:

i. Goal optimization – It balances goals to further optimize other goals rather than
focusing to achieve only one.
ii. System's perspective
iii. Emphasizes on behavior within organizations

However, there have been some criticisms and limitations to this model. Unlike the open system model,
an internal process model cannot overview its possible growth factors and predictions of organizational
effectiveness on its own. This model can only be viewed as an approach to evaluate its implicit
predictors as there is no room for external feedbacks. Nonetheless, it can be applicable while making
irrational decisions when there isn't enough or accurate information provided that is similar to some
cases in the open system model (Universalteacher.com, 2017).

These four models not only help to determine the organization effectiveness but also contribute in
understanding the cultures of distinct organizations. Although these are four different theories, they can
be views as an interrelated model with a common fundamental nature i.e. organizational and
managerial effectiveness. Despite the criticisms and limitations set above, the framework offers a
conceptual model to understand the correlation between organizational management and cultures.
Therefore, these models can further be applied to improve the organizational knowledge and behavior
by comparing and contrasting each one of them in a legitimate way.

References:

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2017].

Management.net, �. (2017). Summary of the Competing Values Framework. Abstract. [online]

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Scribd. (2017). Human Relations Theory | Interpersonal Relationships | Leadership & Mentoring. [online]
Available at: https://www.scribd.com/doc/37339807/Human-Relations-Theory [Accessed 17 Dec. 2017].

Universiteit Twente. (2017). Organizational Communication | Competing Values Framework. [online]

Available at: https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/communication-theories/sorted-by-
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Universalteacher.com. (2017). Approaches to Organizational Effectiveness. [online] Available at:

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