Well-designed organization reading outline and summary

¶ … organization? (reading outline - summary of the reading)

Do you have a well-designed organization?

Organizational design

Rarely the result of planning

When things go wrong very difficult to change

Better to start with a good organizational design

A practical framework is needed for organizational design and redesign

Nine separate tests

Fit tests

Good design tests

Fit tests

Market advantage

Does it fit your marketing strategy and segmentation approach?

Also must support key sources of market advantages

Parenting advantage: Does it help add value to the parent organization and stem from core competencies?

People: Does it reflect the strengths (and weaknesses) and motivations of the organization's people?

Look at key players

Look at key job descriptions

D. Feasibility: What external and internal constraints could affect the organizational design?

Government regulations

Interests of shareholders

State of information systems

4. Corporate culture

III. Refining the design tests

A. Specialist cultures: If the organization had distinct cultures, does it reflect them and allow them to be maintained as a source of strength?

B. Difficult links: To what extent does the design protect the organization by coordinating difficult (self-managed) units?

C. Redundancy hierarchy: To what extent does the design eliminate too many levels and units which can result in needless bureaucracy? Extra layers translate into additional costs

1. Ask yourself -- to what extent does each level add value and is unique to its parent unit?

2. Ask yourself -- does each unit have access to the resource sit has to function well?

D. Accountability: Does the design allow for effective controls and monitoring?