What is McKinsey 7S Framework
McKinsey 7S framework is an organizational analysis tool to determine the changes within an organization and how different parts of a complex organization work together. The McKinsey 7S framework states that the 7 elements include structure, strategy, systems, skills, style, staff, and shared values must balance and reinforce each other for organizational effectiveness.
The McKinsey 7S framework represents the connections between 7 factors that are classified as “hard S” and “soft S” areas. The McKinsey hard elements are influenced by management including strategy, structure, and system. The soft elements are intangible factors that are important to the hard elements including shared values, skills, style, and staff.
Analyzing an organization with the McKinsey 7s indicates what needs a change to improve performance, adjust to be successful, or maintain performance. The McKinsey 7S framework helps the manager to use it in a variety of situations that needs to understand the company’s structure and the connection between each factor.
The 7S McKinsey Framework
The 7S of interdependent elements in the 7S McKinsey framework include:
Strategy is a set plan developed by the firm to achieve or maintain the company’s competitive advantage in its industry and market.
Structure is how the company organized its departments and teams: hierarchical or flat, centralized or decentralized, and autonomous or outsourced. The company’s structure also shows the information of who is accountable to whom.
System is about the company’s activities, processes, and procedures to get the job done. Furthermore, the system also refers to how the company tracks and evaluates these tasks.
Skills refer to the abilities of the company’s human resources.
Shared values define the company’s key beliefs, aspirations, standards, and norms that form the core of its corporate culture.
Staff is related to the company’s human resources that the company needs (who, how many, how to develop, and how to reward them).
Style refers to the management style of the company’s top-level managers such as the CEO, CIO, and board of directors.
Frequently Asked Questions
The McKinsey 7S framework represents the connections between 7 factors including shared values, skills, style, and staff.
McKinsey & Company is a management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that advises on strategic management to corporations, governments, and other organizations. The 7S framework of McKinsey was developed by former McKinsey consultants Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman in the 1980s.
References: Enduring Ideas: The 7-S Framework, Enduring Ideas: Classic McKinsey frameworks that continue to inform management thinking, Wikipedia
