Poor reputation among consumers is a significant issue for any business because it can impact financial performance. Roche Diagnostics Middle East, located in Oman, has been experiencing a growth in consumer complaints and negative oral feedback from customers. The project will seek to analyse the issue from an integrated systems viewpoint to propose possible solutions. The present paper will serve as a proposal for the project, identifying the problem and linking it to relevant theories, tools and techniques.
The key issue faced by Roche Diagnostics Middle East is consumer dissatisfaction with services provided. In particular, customers complain about long waiting times and poor attitudes of the staff. Both of these problems are rather complex and linked to other areas of the business. For example, long waiting times could be associated with the company’s competitive strategy if Roche Diagnostics have been trying to sign more patients in for appointments. It could also be linked to operations management if certain activities took longer than they should because of internal processes.
Similarly, poor staff attitudes can be linked to many organisational areas. The staff could be experiencing job dissatisfaction due to management issues, leading to a lack of motivation and morale. The problem could also be associated with the company’s competitive strategy and internal operations since these areas influence workload. If the workload is too high, workers might suffer from fatigue and burnout. Both of these factors have an adverse impact on their motivation and mood. Finally, organisational culture is also an essential factor to be considered in this case because it impacts many aspects of the workforce and its performance.
The application of McKinsey’s 7S models shows that the issue of poor consumer satisfaction in Roche Diagnostics Middle East is connected to strategy and systems, as well as to skills, staff, style and shared values. Since most of these elements are linked to people in the organisation and their activities, it would be beneficial to apply the soft systems approach to analysis and problem-solving. This approach posits that people are integral to problems and that all issues and solutions are perceptual, relative and subjective.
The soft systems approach makes it difficult to define the key problem since it assumes that problems are messy and complex. As a result, the tools used by analysts utilising this method are based on the subjective evaluation and understanding of the issue rather than on financials and performance metrics. However, as the problem in Roche Diagnostics is integrated into most aspects of the organisation, the soft systems approach will enable the analyst to determine root causes and implement necessary changes.
Successful analysis of the company’s leadership styles, operations, strategy and management will help the analyst to provide a rich picture of the issue. The project will also consider the organisation’s marketing, as it plays a critical role in improving the reputation of a business. Fulfilling this analysis plan will allow generating effective solutions to decreasing waiting times and improving staff attitudes, thus achieving better satisfaction with services.