Designing Organization Design

Abstract

Abstract As a topic, organization design is poorly understood. While it is featured in most management textbooks as a chapter dedicated to organizational structures, it is unclear whether organization design is a one-off event or an ongoing process. Thus, it has traditionally been understood to be the same as an organizational configuration, with neat lines of communication and distribution of responsibilities, following pre-set typologies. However, what can be said to constitute organizational structure in this first half of the 21st century? The extraordinary growth of digital communications, the decreasing relevance of hierarchical bureaucracies, and the general demise of command-and-control have all but decimated the traditional notion of organizational structure. In this book it is argued that organization design needs a theoretical revamping. Using a mix of design and social sciences theories and concepts, the new approach is divided into three parts: design logics, design processes, and design leadership. A generic definition of organization design logics is offered, as a set of beliefs shared by managers and entrepreneurs in given sectors of the economy about the way organizations should be designed. Five logics and three types of designing processes are put forward. Logics: (1) the identity logic, (2) the normative logic, (3) the service logic, (4) the logic of effectual reasoning, (5) the logic of interactive structure. Processes: (1) intended design, (2) emergent design, (3) perceived design. For the leadership part, a model of leaderful organization design(ing) is proposed, with the following distinguishing features: (a) practice-based, (b) guided by values of democratic participation, (c) places meaning-making and meaning-taking at the centre of organizational life, (d) driven by design logics, which can be adopted and adapted to suit different internal and external environments.