Organization Design: Frameworks, Principles, and Approaches

Preface

The preface will focus on the inspiration and origin of the book, the context in which it was written and its intended audience. In addition, it will supply a chapter outline and a guide for navigating and using the book and its features (for both lecturers/students and practitioners).

PART 1: THE WHAT OF ORGANIZATION DESIGN

Chapter 1: What is organization design?

In this first chapter of the main text, we will give a brief overview of the history of organization design, both as a managerial activity and as a field of academic inquiry. At the outset, we will make the distinction between organization design and organization development. The chapter will then go on to define what it is we are talking about when we talk about organization design. Several frameworks will be introduced that aim to answer this question, chief among them Jay Galbraith’s Star model and Phanish Puranam’s ’fundamental problems of organizing’. We will look at how the Star model has been used and adapted by academics and practitioners and we will compare and contrast the model with similar models such as the 7-S model and Nadler & Tushman’s congruence model. We will then look at how Puranam’s framework (with a foundation in scholarly work) relates to Galbraith’s model. Finally, we will pay attention to the terms Operating Model and Business Model - popular among consultants and practitioners - and relate those to organization design and to the frameworks covered in this chapter.

Chapter 2: What are the triggers for organization design?

In this chapter, we will cover the reasons and triggers for organizations to re-consider their design. The foundation for the rationale in this chapter lies with contingency theory (Lawrence & Lorsch, Donaldson), the idea that organizations adapt their design to fit their context. We will cover in some depth some of the main triggers for re-design that flow from contingency thinking, such as growth, a new strategy, a new competitive landscape, and technological change. In addition, we will look at some common symptoms of a design that no longer fits the context, such as poor decision making, miscommunication and demotivation. We will also cover some of the inertial forces (Hannan & Freeman) that tend to hold back organizations from going through the necessary re-design, such as sunk costs, organizational politics, and regulatory barriers. Finally, we will pay attention to the phenomenon of isomorphism (DiMaggio & Powell), which describes how firms not so much design their organization, but rather ’borrow’ models/designs from other organizations. We will relate this behavior to how organizations deal with management fashions (Birkinshaw), such as Agile.

Chapter 3: What makes for a well-designed organization?

This chapter explores the question of whether there are any universal principles that should be applied to the design of any organization. We will start by covering the concept of design criteria (Worren, Nadler & Tushman, Stanford), which is generally considered to be an important starting point for an organization design: a translation of the corporate strategy and other contextual factors into a limited number of statements about what the design should achieve. Where design criteria are tied to a specific organization, we will go on to look at more general principles of good design. Among others, we will look at Goold & Campbell’s oft-quoted ’9 tests of organization design’ as well as Cherns’ ’principles of sociotechnical design’. With regards to the latter, we will look more broadly at the sociotechnical systems design school. Finally, we will briefly look at Stratified Systems Theory (Jacques), a somewhat controversial school of thought which covers specific prescriptions about how to design the hierarchical structure of organizations.

Chapter 4: What’s new about new

Jeroen van Bree is a managing consultant at the organization design group of Berenschot, a management consulting firm based in The Netherlands. In addition, he is a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam Business School, where he teaches in the Master’s Executive Program in Management Studies. Jeroen is a board member and the former chair of the European Organisation Design Forum. He has a PhD from Nyenrode Business Universiteit, The Netherlands, an MSc in Information Management from Tilburg University, The Netherlands, and an MSc in Technology and Human Affairs from Washington University in Saint Louis, USA. His book Game Based Organization Design was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014.