The 7 S Model of Organizational Alignment
Paul Godfrey
Marriott School of Management
Winter 2010
The 7 S Model
The 7 S model helps describe organizational reality
• A set of buckets to sort information
The 7 S’s as a balloon
• Push on one side, the other sides all move
• The 7 S’s constitute a system
Two components:
• The Hard Triangle: Strategy, Systems, Structure
• The Soft Square: Staffing, Skills, Style, Shared Values
The 7 S Model
Strategy
Structure
Systems
Shared
Values
Staffing
Skills
Style
Strategy
•Organizational Goals
•Competitive Advantages
Structure
Systems
•Division of Labor
•Reporting
responsibilities
•Coordination
•Control
Shared Values
•Common Belief
•Priorities
Staffing
Skills
•Hiring, Training,
Promoting
•Technologies
•What we do well
Style
•Interpersonal relationships
The Positives
Strategy
•Full Service
•Regional Coverage
•Focused on Core
•Long Term View
Structure
Systems
•Decentralized
•Functional Expertise
•Geographic Focus
•Tight Cost Control
•Bonus Incentives
•Merit Promotion
Shared Values
•Conservative
•Profitability
•Loyalty
•Decentralization
•Equity & Generosity
Staffing
Skills
•Hire good people
•MDP
•Promote from within
•Customer Service
•Cost Control
Style
•Informal
•Friendly
•Practical
The Negatives
Strategy
•No focus on niches
•No operating synergies
•Few strategic assets
Structure
Systems
•Management by exception
•Functional Silos with little
communication
•Excessive Internal Focus
•Little incentive pay
•Promotion on Seniority
Shared Values
•Comfortable
•Complacency
•Excessive Frugality
Staffing
Skills
•Hire by W.O.M.
•Little Training
•Hard to Fire
•“We know what customers want”
•Reliance on traditional ways
Style
•Non-confrontational
•Little Challenge & debate
•Slow to decide
Expanding the 7 S Model
• Super-ordinate goals: What is the organization trying to
accomplish?
• Situation/ Stakeholders: What is the overall environment the
organization faces?
• Self: What is the role of the change agent in the model?
The Expanded 7 S Model
Super-ordinate
Goals
Strategy
Structure
Self
Systems
Shared
Values
Staffing
Skills
Style
Situation/ Stakeholders
Advantages of the expanded model
• Adding super-ordinate goals brings out more clarity
– Strategic objectives (market share) vs. strategy tools (differentiation)
– Goals as a reflection (manifestation) of shared values
– Goals can shift, causing misalignment
• Adding the Situation/ Stakeholders “places” the organization
– In both competitive space and time
– Most misalignments begin with changes in this area and ripple through
the system
• Adding the self focuses on the role of individuals to impact the
system