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McKinsey 7S Framework Model

• satyendra
• February 13, 2024
• 13 Comments
• Hard elements, McKinsey 7S framework model, Shared values, skills, Soft elements, Staff, strategy, Structure, Style, systems,

McKinsey 7S Framework Model

McKinsey 7S framework model is a strategic planning tool designed to help an organization to understand whether it is set-up in a way which allows it to achieve its objectives. Before the arrival of the McKinsey 7S framework model, when the managements have thought about organizational design, they have tended to focus on structure and strategy. They have thought about who is responsible for what, who reports to whom, how many layers of management there are to be, and how to beat the competition. However, as organizations have become larger and more complex, coordination became just as important, if not more important, than structure.

While some models of organizational effectiveness go in and out of fashion, one which has persisted is the McKinsey 7S framework model. This model has been created by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman while they have been working for McKinsey and Company and by Richard Pascale and Anthony Athos at a meeting in 1978. They had been looking at how the Japanese industry had been so successful, at around the same time that Peters and Waterman have been exploring what made an organization excellent. The ‘7S’ model has been created at a meeting of the four authors in 1978. The model is a product of excellent approach which Peters and Waterman explained in their book ‘In Search of Excellence’, and has been taken up as a basic tool by the management of the consultancy organization McKinsey and Company.

Since it was proposed in the 1980s, McKinsey 7S framework model of strategy and change has become an influential approach for analyzing strategic change in any type of organization. The McKinsey 7S framework model offers a seemingly comprehensive model of the key strategic resources of the organization which need to be aligned, being notable for its early acknowledgement of soft elements, influenced by the culture of the organization. The McKinsey 7S framework model is a management model can be used to analyze the effectiveness of teams within the organization as well as the impact of change. The McKinsey 7S framework model takes a holistic look at what makes the organizations tick and how each element of the organization needs to be in harmony for the organization to operate competitively and to manage change successfully.

The concept of strategy – A strategy refers to a method or plan chosen to bring about a desired future. It is described as the direction and scope of the organization over the long term, which achieves advantages in an ever-changing environment through its configuration of resources and competencies with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations. Strategy which is a fundamental management tool in any organization is a multi-dimensional concept which has been defined in different ways. It is the match between resources of the organization and skills and the environmental opportunities as well as the risks it faces and the purposes it desires to accomplish.

For an organization to survive and prosper, a strategy is important. Strategy helps the organization create a fit between the organization and its environment in an effort to enable the organization adapt to its turbulent environment. How the strategy is planned, formulated, and implemented is hence important. Strategy formulation and implementation is a continuous and systematic process for making decisions about the organization future, developing the necessary procedures, and operations to achieve that future as well as determine how success is to be measured. It is a systematic process through which the organization argues on and builds on commitment among stakeholders to priorities which are necessary  to its vision and mission and to be responsive to the ever-changing operating environment.

Strategy implementation – Strategy implementation is defined as the manner in which the organization develops, utilizes, and amalgamates organizational structure, control systems, and culture to follow strategies which lead to competitive advantage and a better performance. It is the process which turns strategies and plans into actions in order to accomplish strategic objectives. The concept of successful strategy implementation needs the input and cooperation of all the employees of the organization. Pearce and Robinson have described five critical variables which are normally considered for the successful implementation of strategy. These are (i) tasks, (ii) people, (iii) structures, (iv) technologies, and (v) reward systems. Successful strategy implementation calls for effective design and management so that these factors can be integrated.

Strategy implementation has also been defined as a stage of strategic management which involves the use of organizational tools as well as direct resources towards achieving strategic outcomes. Successful strategy implementation involves clarifying of the strategy by breaking it down into goals and objectives, communicating the strategy to the employees at all levels of the organization, and cascading strategy to the practical and tactical components of employees’ jobs. Effective strategy implementation using this process can be a source of competitive advantage.

Strategy implementation is considered to be a process revolving around ensuring that strategies are working in practice. It involves different activities including structuring the organization to achieve successful performance, enabling success through the way in which the separate resources of people, information, finance, and technology support strategy and manage change. Whereas enabling success is important, the extent to which new strategies are built on and given resources is also crucial. For effectively managing of change, there is the need to understand how the context of the organization influences the approach to change, different roles of people managing change, styles which can be adopted to manage change and the levers by which change can be managed.

For operationalizing strategy, the organization needs to identify short term objectives, initiate specific functional tactics, and communicate policies which empower people in the organization and design effective rewards. Short term objectives are necessary for translating long range plans into yearly targets. Functional tactics on the other hand translate operational strategy into daily activities for the employees to execute. Policies are empowerment tools which simplify decision making by empowering operating personnel. Effective rewards for the desired action and results are a powerful way of getting things done in the organization.

For realizing strategy, people in the organization who actually do the work of the organization need guidance on exactly what needs to be done today and tomorrow to make the strategies realistic. This is achieved by action plans and short-term objectives, providing much more specific guidance for what is to be done, and a clear delineation of impending actions needed, which translate vision into action. Another important aspect to be considered is who is responsible for each action in the plan. Accountability is necessary in order to ensure that plans are acted upon.

Strategy implementation involves working with people and the structure of the organization to make the visionary ideas which have been developed earlier to come true. It has been observed that the objective of the strategic management process pertains to the formulation and implementation of strategies which result in the long-term achievement of the mission of the organization.

The McKinsey 7S framework model – Nowadays, it is seen that in several organizations, organizational structures are used to evaluate the existing performance and increase productivity and as a result positive results are reached. One of the approaches which make an organizational structure consistent is the McKinsey 7S framework model. This model is widely used and remains one of the most popular strategic planning tools. This model is a dynamic application which plays an active role in structuring of organizations.

The McKinsey 7S framework model is a model of the organizational effectiveness which is used in organizations to analyze the environment for finding out whether it is achieving its intended objectives. The McKinsey 7S framework model is a holistic approach for the managing of the organization, which collectively determines how the organization is going to operate.

The basic premise of the McKinsey 7S framework model is that there are seven internal elements of the organization which need to be aligned if the organization is to be successful. The model offers a resource-based view of the strategic assets available to the organization, specifically identifying seven elements namely (i) strategy, (ii) structure, (iii) systems, (iv) style (management style), (v) staff, (vi) skills, and (vii) shared values (culture). As per the model, organizational management is required to take into account these seven basic elements to be sure of successful implementation of a strategy. These elements are all inter-dependent, hence failure to pay proper attention to one, marks the beginning of failure.

The McKinsey 7S framework model has been designed to summarize the main elements within the organization which contribute to it achieving its strategic objectives particularly in relation to change. It suggests that organizations are successful when they achieve an integrated harmony of all these elements. The first three elements (strategy, structure, and systems) are frequently regarded as ‘hard’ elements. These elements are normally feasible and easy to identify in the organization as they are normally well documented and seen in the form of tangible objects or reports such as strategy statements, corporate plans, organizational charts, and other documents. They are more concrete and measurable and easier for the management to control. The others four elements are seen as ‘soft’ elements since they are more intangible and harder to manage directly. The soft elements are more difficult to realize Leadership rather than management is needed to shape them.

As originally visualized (Fig 1) the McKinsey 7S framework model gives emphasis to the inter-connection of the seven elements to show how changing one needs changes in the others, and resists placing emphasis on one as more important, though ‘shared values’ are normally presented at the centre of the diagram.

Fig 1 McKinsey 7S framework model

There are several things to note from the above diagram. These are (i) all the areas are inter-connected which means that a change to one area has implications for all other areas, (ii) there is no hierarchy and all areas are of the same size which indicates that all areas are considered to be equally important, (iii) the areas are divided into hard and soft areas in which hard areas are easy for management to influence and change while the soft areas are more knitted and influenced by the culture of the organization, and (iv) positioning shared values in the centre of the 7Ss indicates that the values of the organization are central to all elements.

The main argument of the McKinsey 7S framework model is that the success of the organization depends on inter-related seven elements. The other distinctive argument of this model is that the process of strategic management is not only made up of creating strategies but is also to consider the other elements expressed in the model. Hence, it is claimed that the organization succeeds with the coherent cooperation of the strategy element and other elements.

The relationship, which is qualified as strategic alignment, is assessed in two forms. While the first one is the alignment between the near and far environment, the other one is categorized as the alignment between the different units and components. The McKinsey 7S framework model enables systems, which determines facilitation of the effective appliance of the strategy, to be created. In addition to the functions and features of this model, the model is also used as an approach in the assessment of the organizational performance. Each variable in the model is compared with the benchmark performance. The strong and weak sides of each variable is to be detected.

Elements of McKinsey 7S framework model – The seven elements of the McKinsey 7S framework model is described below. 

Strategy – Strategy entails a well-formulated operational plan which allows the organization to create an action plan to realize sustainability supported by the mission and values of the organization. The term ‘strategy’ defines the actions which the organization plans and intends to respond to or anticipates changes in its external environment, customers, and competitors. Strategy is how the organization aims to improve its position in comparison with the competition, perhaps through low-cost service, production or delivery, perhaps by adding better value to the customer, perhaps by achieving sales and service dominance. It is, or ought to be, the way the organization operates. In modern-day, the relationship between the organizational operational strategy and the strategic human resource management has been well established.

As the chosen route of the organization to the competitive journey, strategy is predominantly a central focus in several situations, significantly in highly competitive industry sectors, where the battle is gained or lost in marketing. Organizations have to make use of the attention to the interplay between strategy and structure more relatively for achieving higher organizational performance.

Strategy is the plan of action which the organization prepares in response to the changes in its external environment. It is the plan of the organization to win in the market-place, and how it is going to gain a comparative advantage over the competition. Strategy is differentiated by tactics or operational actions by its nature of being pre-meditated, well thought through and frequently practically rehearsed. It deals with essentially three questions namely (i) where the organization is at present, (ii) where the organization wants to be in the future (a particular length of time), and (ii) how to get there. Hence, strategy is designed to transform the organization from the present position to the new position described by the organizational objectives, subject to constraints of the capabilities or the potential.

Structure – Structure represents how the organization is structured and the hierarchical layers which are there in the organization, and the way departments and divisions are organized in the organization. This includes the information of who is accountable to whom. In other words, structure is the organizational chart of the organization. It is also one of the most visible and easy to change elements of the McKinsey 7S framework model.

Structure of the organization is considered to be very important for the organization. It is to be a dynamic people structure. Structural elements provide designations for interpreting the internal characteristics of the organization. One can mention commonly cited structural dimensions as the specialization, standardization, formalization, hierarchical levels, and span of control of the organization.

Organizational structures bring important implications, emphasizing organizations to focus on programmes such as succession planning, leadership development, and performance management. The basic theory underlying structure is simple. The system divides tasks, functions and then provides coordination. It trades off specialization and integration. It decentralizes and then recentralizes. Organizational structure and functional structure of the organization direct organizational performance, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Structure refers to (i) the way in which tasks and people are specialized and divided, and authority is distributed, (ii) how activities and reporting relationships are grouped, and (iii) the mechanisms by which activities in the organization are coordinated. Organizations are structured in a variety of ways, dependent on their objectives and culture. The structure of the organization frequently dictates the way it operates and performs. Traditionally, organizations have been structured in a hierarchical way with several divisions and departments, each responsible for a specific task. Although this is still the most widely used organizational structure, the recent trend is increasingly towards a flat structure where the work is done in teams of specialists rather than fixed departments. The idea is to make the organization more flexible and devolve the power to employees by eliminating the middle management layers.

Systems – Systems are the area of the organization which determines how operation of the organization is done and it is to be the main focus for the management during the organizational change. Systems are all formal and informal methods of operation, procedures, and communication flows. They are the operational and technical infrastructure which the employees use on a daily basis for accomplish their tasks as well as for achieving their aims and goals.

Systems are defined formal and informal procedures and techniques of the organization which help the strategy and structure. Theoretical models assert that the effective human resource system of the organization support, in turn, to create a positive impact on facilitating the performance of the organization.

Systems refer to the formal and informal procedures used to manage the organization, including management control systems, performance measurement and reward systems, planning, budgeting and resource allocation systems, and management information systems etc. Every organization has some systems or internal processes to support and implement the strategy and run day-to-day affairs. These processes are normally strictly followed and are designed to achieve maximum effectiveness. Traditionally, organizations have been following a bureaucratic-style process model where majority of the decisions are taken at the higher management level. Increasingly, organizations are simplifying and modernizing their processes by innovation and use of new organizational structure to make the decision-making process quicker. Special emphasis is on the customers with the intention to make the processes more user friendly.

Staff – Staff is a soft element which is concerned with the employees, their competences and job descriptions. It is concerned with what type of and how many employees the organization needs and how they are to be recruited, trained, motivated, and rewarded.

The organizational performance is directly linked to the performance of those who work for the organization. By the same principle, under-achievement of the employees can result into the failure of the organization. Since hiring the wrong people or failing to anticipate fluctuations in hiring needs can be costly, conscious efforts are to be put into human resource planning. Also, for the organization to build and sustain the competitive advantage, proper staffing is critical. Hence, recruitment and selection have become imperative in organizations since individuals need to be attracted on a timely basis, in sufficient numbers, and with appropriate qualifications.

Dimensions of staff are primarily considered in two ways namely hard end and soft end. At the hard end, it is the sizes, elements, appraisals systems, pay scales, formal training programmes, while at the soft end, it is about staff morale, attitude, motivation, and behaviour. Organizations which use employees in the best manner, rapidly shift their executives into positions with moral responsibility through different live support mechanisms like assigned mentors, fast-track programmes, and carefully articulated opportunities for reaching to top management are successful because of their people management approach.

Staff refers to the employees, their competencies and how the organization recruits, selects, trains, manages their careers, and promotes them. Organizations are made up of humans and it is the people who make the real difference to the success or failure of the organization in the increasingly knowledge-based society. The importance of human resource has hence got the central position in the strategy of the organization. All leading organizations put extraordinary emphasis on hiring the best staff, providing them with rigorous training and mentoring support, and pushing them to achieve professional excellence. It is also important for the organization to instill confidence among the employees about their future career growth.

Skills – Skills refer to the distinctive competencies and what it does best along dimensions such as employees, management practices, processes, systems and customer relationships. Skills is concerned with both the skills of the organization and those of the employees and the ability of the employees of the organization to perform well. They also include capabilities and competencies. During the organizational change, the question frequently arises of which skills the organization is going to need to reinforce its new strategy or new structure.

Skills development and development of assets are necessary as a sub-system within the several activities of human resource functions. It is further highlighted that human resource is the most dynamic element of all resources in the organization. Hence, adequate attention and significance are to be paid to train the employees with skills development and capabilities in the organization. Further, skills training is preparing individuals in the organization for a task, job, or occupation by getting specific skills needed. Training is normally inbuilt to the job rather than personal.

Employee development is a wider area of skills and knowledge acquisition than movement. It is more career-centred and it is focused on developing individuals’ potential rather than immediate skill. It sees personnel as flexible resources which are adjustable to situations. Training is the use of integrated and planned instruction mechanism to encourage learning. It enables formal processes to instill knowledge and help employees to get the needed skills to carry out their duties satisfactorily. The emphasis on training is drawn to practical skills, which are concerned with the adoption and utilization of techniques and processes.

Skills related to jobs of the workforce is of strategic priorities for the organization. This effort has increasingly been referred to as strategic human resource management. Human resource development is significant for the organization to compete with a changing industrial environment and it has an ultimate effect on the organizational performance.

Style – Style is the way the organization carries out its activities. One can think of this area as being the culture of the organization. It can be considered as the informal rules of the organization. It refers to the leadership style of the managers, how they spend their time, what they focus attention on, and how they make decisions. It is also considered as the organizational culture, that is, the dominant values and beliefs, the norms, the conscious and unconscious symbolic acts of the leaders. All the organizations have their own distinct culture and management style. It includes the dominant values, beliefs, and norms which develop over time have become relatively enduring features of the organizational life. It also entails the way management interacts with the employees and the way the employees spend their time.

Style entails the tone and attitude towards work set by the top management through how they interact with the other staff members and make decisions. The organization management is to show commitment to leadership to facilitate effectiveness, employee engagement, and satisfaction by establishing policies which support collective planning. Leaders are critical to any form of the organizational transformation. As highlighted by the McKinsey 7s framework model efforts to sustain any organizational changes begin with the top management taking charge and encouraging these kinds of programmes while serving as examples.

Motivation from top management is crucial as organization members tend to revert to old behaviours and processes without sustained reinforcement and support. The communication style adopted by the leaders plays a key role in ensuring that all the employees have a common mindset as the programme aims. During an organizational change programme, management is to provide the staff with individual attention to increasing optimism about change, including encouraging the employees to do away with their personal interests for the sake of teamwork and the organization in general through the spirit of transformation.

Organizations have traditionally been influenced by the military style of management with strict adherence to the upper management and procedure expected from the lower-rank employees. However, there have been extensive efforts to change the culture to a more open, innovative and friendly environment with fewer hierarchies and smaller chains of command.

Shared values – Shared values are defined as the core or fundamental set of values which are widely shared in the organization and serve as guiding principles of what is important such as vision, mission, and values statements which provide a broad sense of purpose for all the employees. All members of the organization share some common fundamental ideas or guiding concepts around which the organization operation is built. This can be to make money or to achieve excellence in a particular field.

Shared values and common goals keep the employees working towards a common goal as a coherent team and are important to keep the team spirit alive. The organization with weak values and common goals frequently finds the employees following their own personal goals which can be different or even in conflict with those of the organization or their fellow colleagues.

The McKinsey 7S framework model can be explained using the resource-based view theory of the organization and strategy. The central proposition of this theory is that if an organization is to achieve a state of sustained competitive advantage it is required to acquire and control valuable, rare, unique, and non-substitutable resources and capabilities. The principles of the resource-based view theory are (i) that the building blocks of strategy are operational processes, (ii) the transformation of processes into valuable strategic capabilities is a key to success, (iii) capabilities are created by making strategic investments, and (iv) the management is to be responsible, since competing on capabilities involves cross-functionality. The open system theory explains how the organization depends on its environment for input and transforms these inputs into the output. The elements in the organization are what is used to control the transformation process for ensuring success.

The question ‘how do the management go about analyzing how well the organization is positioned to achieve its intended objective’ has been asked for several years. It has several different answers. Some approaches look at internal factors, others look at external ones, some combine these perspectives, and others look for similarity between different aspects of the organization which need to be studied. Ultimately, the issue comes down to which factors are needed to be studied.

The McKinsey 7S framework model can be used in a wide variety of situations where an alignment perspective is useful, for example it can help to (i) improve the performance of the organization, (ii) examine the likely effects of future changes within the organization, (iii) align departments and processes during a merger or acquisition, and (iv) determine how best to implement a proposed strategy. The McKinsey 7S framework model can also be applied to elements of a team or a project as well. The alignment issues apply, regardless of how the management decides to define the scope of the areas of study.

The advantage of the McKinsey 7S framework model is that internal variables are used to measure organizational performance and strategy, applicable in all sectors, both the public and private sectors. However, this theory can only use internal factors from the organization, so there are no external factors which can measure organizational performance or strategy, so this is a shortcoming of McKinsey 7s framework model theory. The successful use of McKinsey 7s framework model is determined by the consistency of each indicator which reinforces the other indicators.

The use of McKinsey 7S framework model in a study shows that there is a link between leaders, organizational culture, and strategy. The relationship starts from the existence of a strategy which has been agreed upon by the leader, then supported by the organizational structure and systems implemented in the organization. Also, the structure and system are implemented in accordance with the leadership style (style), since the leader determines the parties (staff) with the skills needed to realize the strategy. In summary, it can be explained that the overall indicators of the McKinsey 7S framework model has contributed to the success of a strategy. The contribution is converged in one variable which is then referred to as shared values.

The strength of the McKinsey 7S framework model is the weight it gives to alignment of a number of factors underlying organizational performance. Fundamentally, the McKinsey 7S framework model makes the point that effective strategy is more than individual subjects such as strategy development or organizational change. It is the relationship between strategy, structure and systems, coupled with skills, style, staff and subordinate goals. Organizational management finds the McKinsey 7S framework model a useful way to analyze the position of the organization and to change it. By examining the seven elements and searching for mis-alignments, they are enabled to determine optimal organizational design, and manage a process organizational change in that direction. It can also be used as a framework model for appraising the organization.

Since it has been first proposed, the McKinsey 7S framework model has also been widely used in a number of research contexts, including ‘information systems’ alignment, for example. It has been combined with other models, e.g., Kaplan integrates it with the ‘balanced scorecard’. Inevitably also, there have been several adaptions of the model, for example, a study proposes that ‘skills’ be replaced by the broader category of resources, which includes staff skills, but also technology and money. Actually, it can be considered that ‘staff’ already encompasses skills, and the category of resources overlaps with this too, however it does draw attention to an important apparently missing element of resources within the organization. The study also proposes that a derivative outcome of the 7Ss is an eighth ‘S’, ‘strategic performance’. The study has argued that the key contributor to the ‘strategic performance’ is aligning the different 7Ss, showing how in a number of case studies in the corporate sector that the management’s successful alignment of the seven elements has been the key to organizational success. To represent this visually the study pictures each ‘S’ as a circle with an arrow inside. If the arrows point in the same direction, it indicates alignment with each other.

The goal of the McKinsey 7S framework model is to show how the seven elements can be aligned together to achieve effectiveness in the organization. The key point of the McKinsey 7S framework model is that all the seven areas are inter-connected and a change in one area needs change in the rest of the organization for it to function effectively.

Using the McKinsey 7S framework model – The most common way to use the McKinsey 7S framework model is to analyze where the organization is now, and see how that differs from where the organization want to be. Where the organization want to be can mean simply executing the organizational present strategy, or it can help the organization analyze the challenges of a proposed merger. The following five-step process is used by the organizational management to make use of the McKinsey 7S framework model.

Before discussing the five-step process, the management is to be aware that (i) using the model is going to take time and effort and the management need to perform study as well as benchmark the organizational present and future competitors, and (ii) the model spans the entire organization so the organization is going to need the top management on board and bought-in to make it happen.

Step 1 – Step 1 to understand the present situation. In this step, the management assesses (i) where the organization is at present, (ii) what the strengths and weaknesses of the organization are, (iii) what is holding the organization back, (iv) whether there are any other gaps, and (v) whether the area is in alignment with all other areas.

The checklist which can help the management to determine where the organization is at present. It is to be noted that these points are based on the strategy diamond framework. The present situation checklist constitutes (i) strategy – in what arena the organization is to compete, the vehicle the management uses to get to market, how the organization differentiate itself, the major steps the management is required to take, and the value the management extract from the strategy, (ii) structure – what the structure of the organization is, whether the decisions are centralized, what the formal and informal channels in the organization are, and how the structure and the employees aligned with the strategy are, (iii) systems – what the most important processes of the organization are, what the most important systems of the organization are, where the checks and controls in these systems are, and whether they fit for the purpose, (iv) style – what the leadership style is, does the organization reward, how things get done as well as what gets done, do teams collaborate or compete, and how do management and employees interact, (v) staff – where the organizational strengths are, where the gaps are, whether the management is missing staff or entire capabilities, and whether the organization outsource, (vi) skills – what the core competencies of the organization are, does there exits any skills gaps, whether the right training and development is in place, does the organization has the right employee onboarding process, and what the organization is known for doing really well, (vii) shared values – what the values of the organization are, how the values manifest themselves in everyday life, and how the management describes the culture of the organization.

Step 2 – During the second step, the desired situation is determined. This step is to determine where the organization want to be and what the corresponding organizational design looks like when it gets there. If the management understand where it wants each of the 7S elements to be then it is going to be much easier to create the organizational plan to get there.

Step 3 – During this step, the action plan is determined to reach the desired situation. In this step, the management details the organizational plans for changing each of the seven elements.

Step 4 – During the step 4, the action plan is executed. Here the management implements the action plan. As the changes are critical to the future success of the organization. It is important to make sure the organization has the right people both executing and sponsoring the plan.

Step 5 – During this step, a periodic review of the situation is performed. The seven elements are not static. They are dynamic and constantly changing. Since a change in one area always impacts all of the other areas, it is important to regularly review the situation and take remedial action to recalibrate the plans if necessary.

The McKinsey 7S framework model is mainly used to trace performance problems in the organization to subsequently change and / or improve these. It is important in this process to compare the present situation with the desired future situation. It constitutes a good framework in which gaps between present and desired future situations can be traced and adjusted. The model can be applied to several situations and is a valuable tool when organizational design is in question.

Despite the interesting quality of the solutions of the McKinsey 7S framework model for the strategic problems, it has been understood that it does not have an accumulation of knowledge for its functionality in the context of organization assessment. The first question to be answered in the process of using the McKinsey 7S framework model on an organization as an excellence approach is the problem of measurement of the structure, strategy, style, systems and procedures, skills, shared values, and staffs which are included in the model. A second problem is an assessment problem resulted from that each element in the model cannot consist of one element, they have a structure which consists of more than one sub-element. One of the problems in the process of implementing the model is the difficulty of measurement because of the qualitative variables in the model.

Another problem is the need of a measurement approach which allows assessing the 7S elements as a whole, since the meaningfulness of the McKinsey 7S framework model can only be expressed by assessing seven elements together which the model involves. For this reason, the assessment approach needs to be integrated which can assess all factors the model covers. Another problem which is needed to be paid attention is the considering of interaction between the seven elements with each other and especially with the shared values. Along with the importance of each element’s role and level, there is a possibility of change in the elements as a consequence of their interaction.

Common uses of the McKinsey 7S framework model includes (i) facilitate organizational change, (ii) help implement new strategy, and (iii) identify how each area can need to change in future. The model is most widely used to assist with (i) organizational change, (ii) mergers and acquisitions, (iii) implementation of a new strategy, and (iv) understanding the weaknesses (blind spots) of the organization.