Figure C7i.1 A complex view on the strengthening of evaluation of things around us

Diamonds (Grading System)

Diamonds are not the same. They come in different sizes and shapes, but we know that one diamond has a higher value than the other. We find this out using diamond grading, and 4 C. 4 C’s were created in the mid-20th century by the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) as a universal language for the quality of diamonds.

It allows consumers (clients) to believe in any diamond they buy. Each diamond is as unique as each snowflake. No two are the same. The sustainability of the quality of the whole spectrum of diamonds is ensured by the Diamond Grading System, The 4Cs:

Kimberley Process

The Kimberley Process (KP) is an international initiative created to increase transparency and oversight in the diamond industry to ensure “conflict diamonds” or “blood diamonds” are not being exchanged and sold in the global market.

Eighty-two governments have enshrined the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) into law. Today, 99,8% of the world’s diamonds come from conflict-free sources. However, as even a single conflict diamond is one too many, the international diamond industry continues to work with governments, NGOs, and the UN to strengthen the Kimberley Process and its system of warranties.

During the 1990s, many people became aware that diamonds mined in war zones played a significant role in financing conflicts in many African countries. Rebels illegally sold rough diamonds, conflict diamonds, or blood diamonds to finance their war efforts.

Because of this illegal activity, the Kimberley process, an international certification scheme, was founded in May 2000 (according to Kimberley, city, diamond-mining historical center, and capital of Northern Cape province, South Africa).

KP supports conflict-free trading by only trading with suppliers who obtain their diamonds from legitimate sources. Therefore, the KPCS imposes extensive regulations from its members so that only fair and “conflict-free” diamonds enter the trade. These gemstones are given a certificate and are considered “clean” if they are accurately tracked from their origin to the point of import/export.

Corruption and smuggling are still a part of the diamond trade. Put, while the Kimberley Process has successfully slowed down the conflict-diamond business, it's not perfect. There's still no way to know with 100% assurance whether a Kimberley Process diamond is genuinely conflict-free. 

All is still a story of life (e.g., a separate subgroup on digitalization of rough diamonds certificates to be established under the Kimberley Process).

M1 (McKinsey 7S Framework)

McKinsey 7S Framework came into practice in the 1980s. It is a management evaluation model assisting a strategic vision for groups, including businesses, business units, and teams. The model has seven key internal elements. Analysis of these elements support to achieve its goals, based on three hard elements and four soft elements (see table below):

1. Strategy: Strategy is the organization's long-term plan for achieving a competitive advantage over its competitors.

2. Structure: Structure how a company is organized its authority and responsibility (who is reports to whom) and the levels of management (top-level, middle level, and low level) functional departments (Production, HR, Finance, Marketing, Research, and development). 

3. Systems:  Systems means the procedures practiced and the daily activities and staff use to get the job done to achieve the organization's goals.

4. Shared values: organization creates its norms, Principles, and values which every individual of the organization will follow. These principles are called shared values and will cultivate corporate culture and general work ethic. It will be considered as the core value of the organization.

5. Style: Style will be considered the technique in which the company is controlled. Such as the style of leadership adopted by the leaders to handle the organization.

6. Staff:  The staffs play an essential role in the working system of the organization to achieve its goals. The team includes the number of employees, type of employees, their general capabilities, etc.

7. Skills: Skills indicate the employee's ability and attributes to work the task. It determines the work quality and quantity of individuals in the organization. 

The McKinsey 7S Model is an organizational tool that assesses the well-being and future success of a company. It looks at seven internal factors of an organization as a means of determining whether a company has the structural support to be successful. The model, made famous by the McKinsey consulting company, is suitable for a thorough discussion around an organization's activities, infrastructure, and interactions.

M2 (Leavitt’s Diamond)

Leavitt's Diamond (Leavitt Business Diamond) is a model applied to and used for change management. It gave insight into a company's critical success factors and was developed in the early 1970s by the American professor and organizational psychologist Harold Leavitt.

The author outlined four independent components of the connection between the key fact organization: tasks, people, structure, and technology. This model helps do the early analysis of change in an organization. It provides the initial path to understanding the organization implementing a change.

According to the Leavitt Diamond Model, the success factors required to accomplish change are Structure, Tasks, People, and Technology.

These four factors are placed in a square shape and interconnected in the model, thus creating a diamond shape. Two dimensions of evaluation are distinguished:

1. Understanding the connection between the key factors in an organization.

2. Building an integrated Change Strategy.

The first figure distinguishes the form (relation to the diamond character), and the second shows the internal connections of the elements of Leavitt's model.

1. have to take on the new task of conducting skill-based assessments. So, what is the impact of this primary change on the other three components of Leavitt's diamond?

2. People: Engineers may be uneasy about the new system. They may think, "Am I good enough?" "Won't it involve a lot of work?" "Will I have time to track new developments?" "How do I rate my peers?" These concerns will need to be addressed if the change is successful.

3. Structure: Old career advancement patterns might not align with the new assessment procedure. The new system might create a more skilled pool of people. These people, in turn, might demand higher pay and better positions.

4. Technology: This change may need changes to be made to computer systems: Once established, the new procedure may require a database to store and track the skill-based assessments on an ongoing basis. The organization might also need technology and training seminars to help with continuous learning for engineers.

M3 (Schein’s Model of Organizational Culture)

The model of Organizational Culture of Edgar Schein was developed in 1980.  Schein’s model is a framework explaining the impact of company culture on an organization focusing on learning and group dynamics.

It shows that organizations develop a culture over time as employees experience various changes, adapt to the external environment, and solve organizational problems. What’s more, company culture affected how employees felt and acted in the organization.

Based on these observations, Schein developed his organizational culture model to define a series of basic assumptions. Employees use these assumptions to solve external adaptation and internal integration problems.

In theory, successful assumptions are then passed on to new employees as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel when faced with organizational issues. Schein’s original model is based on three different levels:

In the context of Schein’s model, a level describes the degree to which cultural phenomena are visible to the observer. From most visible to least visible:

1. Artifacts: Are the characteristics of an organization easily viewed, heard, and felt by individuals. Artifacts may encompass office furniture, facilities, employee behavior, and dress code. Schein suggested artifacts yielded little insight into the company culture. As a result, altering them would not achieve significant cultural change.

2. Espoused values: Means values that an organization says about its culture and way of operating. Espoused values are more profound, less visible indicators of company culture than artifacts. They may include organizational values, company or employee charters, team contracts, and mission or vision statements. Espoused values provide more insight into the corporate culture than artifacts and can be altered to affect a reasonable degree of cultural change.

3. Underlying assumptions: The deepest indicators of organizational culture because they reflect how it operates internally and perceives the world. Underlying beliefs are held by employees, including assumptions regarding how they should work with colleagues and the sort of behavior that leads to success or failure. These beliefs typically constitute subconscious and highly integrated behaviors that are not written down, recorded, or even spoken about. As a result, they significantly impact organizational culture but are extremely difficult to change or relearn.

M4 (Burke-Litwin organizational change framework)

The Burke-Litwin organizational change framework is a causal change model that seeks to show where change arises and flows between different parts of organizations.

The Performance and Change Model, developed in 1992 by two organizational change consultants, is a tool used to understand an organization's functions and relate to each other in a time of change.

The model shows links between 12 strategic, operational, and individual factors.

1. External Environment: According to the model, external influences are necessary for organizational changes. Think of the economy, competition, customer behavior and politics, and legislation. When the effects from the external environment are identified, this helps organizations better understand the direct or indirect impact and act accordingly. An organization has no control over external influences.

2. Mission and Strategy: This describes the organization’s goal and the processes to realize the plan and course. The highest management level defines the vision, mission, and accompanying strategy. It is recommended that the organization continuously checks whether these suit the position of the employees.

3. Leadership: This concerns the responsible positions that give direction to the rest of the organization. Managers are responsible for developing a vision and motivating employees. Having insight into critical situations can be addressed in a change.

4. Organizational Culture: Every organization has its values. It is less formal than the Mission and Strategy element but is present across the entire organization. An organization’s culture includes explicit and implicit rules, including regulations, practices, principles, and manners.

5. Structure: This concerns the hierarchical structure of the organization, recognizable departments, and formal communication channels. It also includes the position-oriented design, such as responsibilities, authority, communication, decision-making, and control.

6. Systems: This is about policy and procedures; mechanisms that are in place to help and support employees. Think of IT services, facility departments, and internal customer support. It covers both employees and the organization’s activities.

7. Management Practice: This is about the behavior and activities of managers, which are generally aimed at implementing the overall strategy. How well do managers comply with the design, and how do they deal with the resources at their disposal? How is their relationship with the employees? These are all questions that arise when discussing management practice. 

8. Working Climate: This relates to employees’ experiences regarding the work environment. How do they experience cooperation, how comfortable they feel, and feel sufficiently rewarded for their effort? The mutual relationship with colleagues and how an organization makes employees happy is essential when discussing the working climate.

9. Tasks and skills: This is about the (individual) task requirements and the alignment of the job description with employees’ expertise. What are the needs of a specific job? What does this fit with the skills and knowledge of an individual employee? It is all about linking the correct positions to the right employees.

10. Individual values and needs: This relates to the demands and expectations that employees have, including their remuneration, work-life balance, their role within the organization, and their responsibilities. It is about the opinion employees have about the quality of their work and aims to discover their needs. In some cases, this may result in task expansion or even job enrichment, meaning the employee is given more responsibility.

11. Motivational Level: Motivation is about setting goals and inspiring and stimulating employees. The more motivated employees are, the more willing they dedicate themselves to the organization.

12. Individual and General Performance: This dimension considers the individual employee's performance level and on a departmental and organizational level. As mentioned earlier, this can be measured based on turnover, productivity, quality requirements, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

M5 (Logframe)

Logframes originated from a planning approach used by the US military. USAID later adopted them in the 1960s for development projects.

Now it is adapted for the EU Programs of Structural Financial Interventions. It is a standard approach required by donors for any grant applications.

The simplest form of a logframe is a 4x4 table with 16 cells, although this isn’t a strict format. In the table, a responsible person (for a complex or a segment of the project life cycle) notes down what you want to achieve and how you’ll get there.

In theory, writing a log frame should make it easier to plan and manage a project as you can see the sequence in which the actions lead to your overall goal. A standard logframe template looks like this. Photograph: Piroska Bisits Bullen/Tools4dev, Internet.

A standard logframe is divided into four rows, which are your long- to short  term objectives ranging from top to bottom. The lograme is built via nine  items:

1. Goal: Overall aim.

2. Outcome/Purpose: What will be achieved, who will benefit, and by when.

3. Outputs: Specific results the project will generate.

4. Activities: What tasks need to be done for the output to be achieved.

5. These are achieved and measured by the headings from left to right:

6. Project summary: Explaining the objectives.

7. Indicator: Objectively verifiable indicators: how you’ll measure the achievements.

8. Means of verification: How you’ll collect the information for the indicators.

9. Risks and assumptions: External conditions needed to get results.

Logframe model below was introduced by a Co-Created publication funded with the support from the European Commission in the framework of the Erasmus + Programme. This publication and its content reflect the views only of the project partners, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.