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Mgmt 371Chapter Twelve

Managing Organizational Design

Much of the slide content was created by Dr, Charlie Cook, Houghton Mifflin, Co.©

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The Nature of Organization Design Organization Design

The overall set of structural elements and the relationships among those elements used to manage the total organization.

A means to implement strategies and plans to achieve organizational goals.

Organization Design Concepts Organizations are not designed and then left intact. Organizations are in a continuous state of change. Designs for larger organizations are extremely complex

and have many nuances and variations.

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Universal Perspectives on Organization Design

Bureaucratic Model (Max Weber) A logical, rational, and efficient organization

design based on a legitimate and formal system of authority.

Modeled on Helmuth von Moltke's development of the General Staff.

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Universal Perspectives on Organization Design

Bureaucratic Model (Max Weber) Characteristics

A division of labor with each position filled by an expert.

A consistent set of rules that ensure uniformity in task performance.

A hierarchy of positions which creates a chain of command.

Impersonal management; with the appropriate social distance between superiors and subordinates.

Employment and advancement is based on technical expertise, and employees are protected from arbitrary dismissal.

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Bureaucratic Model

Advantages Efficiency in function due to well-defined

practices and procedures. Organizational rules prevent favoritism. Recognition of and requirement for

expertise stresses the value of an organization’s employees.

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Bureaucratic Model

Disadvantages Organizational inflexibility and rigidity due

to rules and procedures. Neglects the social and human processes

within the organization. Belief in “one best way” to design an

organization does not apply to all organizations and their environments.

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Rensis Likert:System 1 and System 4 Organizations

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Situational Influences on Organization Design Core Technology

Is the conversion processes used to transform inputs into outputs.

Is an organization’s most important technology. Joan Woodward

Initially sought a correlation between organization size and design; instead, she found a potential relationship between technology and design:

As the complexity of technology increases, so do the number of levels of management.

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Situational Influences on Organization Design (Woodward) Woodward’s Basic Forms of Technology

Unit or small-batch technology Produces custom-made products to customer

specifications, or else produces in small quantities, similar to Likert’s System 4 organization and organic organizations.

Large batch/mass production Uses assembly-line production methods to

manufacture large quantities of products; resembles Likert’s System 1 and mechanistic organizations.

Continuous process Uses continuous-flow processes to convert raw

materials by process or machine into finished products; resembles Likert’s System 4 and organic organizations.

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Situational Influences on Organization Design (Burns & Stalker) Burns and Stalker

Forms of the organizational environment Stable environments that remain constant over time. Unstable environments subject to uncertainty and

rapid change. Organization Designs

Mechanistic organizations that are similar to bureaucratic or System 1 models and ; found most frequently in stable environments.

Organic organizations that are flexible and informal models; usually found in unstable and unpredictable environments.

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Situational Influences on Organization Design (Lawrence & Lorsch)

Lawrence and Lorsch Differentiation

The extent to which the organization is broken down into subunits.

Integration The degree to which the various subunits must

work together in a coordinated fashion.

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Situational Influences on Organization Design (cont’d) Organizational Size

Defined as the total number of full-time or full-time equivalent employees

Research findings: Small firms tend to focus on their core

technology. Large firms have more job specialization,

standard operating procedures, more rules and regulations, and are more decentralized.

Organizational Life Cycle A progression through which organizations evolve as

they grow and mature—birth, youth, midlife, maturity and decline.

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The Organizational Life Cycle

Birth Youth Maturity Decline

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Strategy and Organization Design Structure follows strategy. Corporate-Level Strategy

Single-product strategy Related or unrelated diversification Portfolio approach to managing strategic

business units

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Strategy and Organization Design (cont’d) Business-Level Strategy

Defender Prospecting Analyzer

Generic Competitive Strategies Differentiation Cost leadership Focus

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Strategy and Organization Design (cont’d) Organizational Functions

Major functions of the organization influence an organization’s design.

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Basic Forms of Organization Design (Functional Design) Functional or U-form (Unitary) Design

Organizational members and units are grouped into functional departments such as marketing and production.

Coordination is required across all departments.

Design approach resembles functional departmentalization in its advantages and disadvantages.

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Functional Design for a Small Manufacturing Company

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Basic Forms of Organization Design (Holding Design) Conglomerate or H-form (Holding) Design

Organization consists of a set of unrelated businesses with a general manager for each business.

Holding-company design is similar to product departmentalization.

Coordination is based on the allocation of resources across companies in the portfolio.

Design has produced only average to weak financial performance; has been abandoned for other approaches.

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Conglomerate (H-form) Design at Samsung

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Basic Forms of Organization Design (Divisional Design) Divisional or M-form (Multidivisional)

Design Multiple businesses in related areas operating

within a larger organizational framework. Results from a strategy of related diversification. Some activities are decentralized down to the

divisional level; others are centralized at the corporate level.

M-form design advantages are the opportunities for coordination and sharing of resources.

Successful M-form organizations can out perform U-form and H-form organizations.

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Multidivisional (M-form) Design at Limited Brands

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Basic Forms of Organization Design (Matrix Design) Matrix Design

Two overlapping bases of departmentalization: A set of product groups or temporary departments are

superimposed across the functional departments. Employees in the matrix belong to their departments

and the project team: A multiple command structure in which an employee

reports to both departmental and project managers. A matrix design is useful when:

There is strong environmental pressure. There are large amounts of information to be

processed. There is pressure for shared resources.

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Basic Forms of Organization Design (Matrix Design) Matrix Design Advantages

Enhances organizational flexibility. Creates high motivation and increased

organizational commitment for team members. Gives team members opportunity to learn new

skills. Provides an efficient way for the organization to

use its human resources. Uses team members as bridges to their

departments for the team. Useful as a vehicle for decentralization.

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Basic Forms of Organization Design (Matrix Design) Matrix Design Disadvantages

Employees are uncertain about reporting relationships.

Managers may view design as an anarchy in which they have unlimited freedom.

The dynamics of group behavior may lead to slower decision making, one-person domination, compromise decisions, or a loss of focus.

More time may be required for coordinating task-related activities.

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A Matrix Organization

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Basic Forms of Organization Design (Hybrid Designs) Hybrid Designs

Based on two or more common forms of organization design—may have a mixture of related divisions and a single unrelated division.

Most organizations use a modified form of organization design that permits them to have sufficient flexibility to make adjustments for strategic purposes.

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Emerging Issues in Organization Design The Team Organization

Relies almost exclusively on project-type teams, with little or no underlying functional hierarchy.

The Virtual Organization Has little or no format structure with few

permanent employees, leased facilities, and outsourced basic support services.

May conduct its business entirely on-line and exists only to meet for a specific and present need.

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Emerging Issues in Organization Design

The Learning Organization (Peter Senge) Works to facilitate the lifelong learning and

development of its employees while transforming itself to respond to changing demands and needs.

According to Peter Senge, the basic rationale for such organizations is that in situations of rapid change only those that are flexible, adaptive and productive will excel.

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Issues in International Organization Design The trend toward internationalization of

business How to design a firm to deal most effectively

with international forces and to compete in global markets:

Create an international division? Establish an international operating group? Make international operations an autonomous

subunit?

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Common Organization Designs for International Organizations