ABSTRACT
According to John Roberts, a writer whose work won The Economist Book of the Year prize in 2004, ‘the most fundamental responsibility of general managers is setting strategy and designing the organization to
implement it’ (Roberts, 2004, p. ix). Designing organizations and managing in the organizational context refers to the tasks of understanding, analysing and designing structures, systems and processes to coordinate and motivate large numbers of people undertaking interconnected activities, often in different locations. At this level, managers have to take more macro-level decisions than those affecting only individuals and teams. These decisions can have significant consequences for the strategic aims of the organization, because it is through organizational structure that strategy becomes realized. Consequently, it is extremely important that you understand some of the basic design principles of organization and the potential advantages and drawbacks of adopting different organizational forms, including some of the newly emerging ones that have captured the imagination of the business press. So, in this chapter we shall attempt to address the practical problems of organizational design, first by examining a case study and, second, by introducing you to some concepts and models that will help you understand the problems faced by senior managers in designing organizations and the solutions available to them.
