The 7 "S"

The book In Search of Excellence is the result of an extensive study by Peters and Waterman (1982) of what they labeled America’s most “excellent” organizations. Over a period of several months in 1979 and 1980, Peters and Waterman studied seventy-five organizations and interviewed members of about half of these organizations. The other companies were studied by examining media reports and annual reports. As they looked at the concept of “organization,” Peters and Waterman discovered that there were several aspects of organizational structure that were common to the organizations studied. They then developed criteria for organizational success, which were originally defined as the following seven variables: “structure, strategy, people, management style, systems and procedures, guiding concepts and shared values (i.e., culture), and the present and hoped-for corporate strengths or skills” (Peters & Waterman, 1982, p. 9).

Peters and Waterman then assembled these seven variables into a framework and, to make the model easier to remember, changed the names of the variables so that each one started with the letter “S.”

Structure

Systems

Style

Staff

Skills

Strategy

Shared Values

The seven-S model was considered eye-opening because it focused attention on the fact that managers and corporate leaders have not one, not two, but seven factors that must be correctly and carefully managed in order for an organization to excel, to produce goods and services of high quality, to satisfy its customers, to fulfill its employees, and to make a profit. Of course, the larger the organization, the more difficult it becomes to institute sweeping reforms in order to achieve these goals.

Greetings,

Kirilka