Organizational Design: A Step-by-Step Approach

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Preface to first edition
In writing this book, we had specific readers in mind. We dedicate this book to
our executive students at The Fuqua School of Business and at the Aarhus
School of Business, Denmark. Executive students are very special professionals
who come from around the world and bring their varied experience. They have
a goal to acquire new knowledge to act and take decisions that will make a
difference in their world. In particular, they want to improve the performance
of their firm, unit, or organization. From our first detailed outline to the final
editing from Cary, Durham, and Aarhus – whether in person, video conference
or elaborate email – they were ever with us.
Experience and science are two great teachers. Most of us spend most of our
time in organizations at work, home, worship and leisure. Over time, we amass
a wealth of experience through observation and action to apply in the design of
organizations; simply, we use our experience to design. But this experience is
limited and we can enhance it by blending it with the science of organization
design. The science of organization design is an accumulation of knowledge by
many individuals who, over many years, have conducted research on the
performance of organizations under many conditions. It informs us about
how to take action to design an organization. The scientific foundation of this
book comes from almost a century of research we call the multi-contingency
approach of Organizational Design.
The executive wants to understand, to diagnose, and take action. Experience
and science are complementary and mutually supportive. In our classes we try to
build upon our executive students’ varied experiences with the science of
organization design to enhance their ability as executives to take informed
decisions and actions. As leaders in their firms they want to know what is wrong,
why it is wrong, and what can be done. In this book we approach their questions
systematically. We begin with the goals of the organization; then we develop an
understanding of the environment; examine the strategies; tease out the structure and the IT infrastructure; examine the leadership style; observe the climate;
and scrutinize the incentives. Using our experience and the science of good
design, we analyze what works well and what does not work well, or not at all.
Good design fits together; poor design has misfits and the organizational performance suffers. Design is the diagnosis of misfits and the action to fix them.

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