Transcript Slide 1

What Does Organisational Design
Mean for Me and My Work?
Frances Abraham & Jean Neumann
www.tavinstitute.org
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For European Organizational Development
Network: EODF Stream
7th May 2014
What is Organisational Design?
How we plan to work with you today
Coming up:
• Reflections on Literature (small selection of definitions)
• Some Case Study Illustrations
• Our Assertions about what needs to be involved in organizational
design
Followed by us all working together on
• What is important to each of us in working with organizational
design, what we think makes for good organizational design and
• See if we can identify any underlying principles of our approaches
But first …
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Organization Design Definitions
with Reference to Design Process
• ‘Organization design is the deliberate process of configuring
structures, processes, reward systems, and people practices to
create an effective organization capable of achieving the business
strategy... ’ Using top-down versus bottom-up design processes.
[Quote retrieved 21 April 2014, from www.jaygalbraith.com]
• ‘Organization Design is a formal, guided process for integrating the
people, information and technology of an organization. It is used to
match the form of the organization as closely as possible to the
purpose(s) the organization seeks to achieve. Through the design
process, organizations act to improve the probability that the
collective efforts of members will be successful.’ [Quote retrieved 21
April 2014, from www.inovus.com]
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Organisation Design Definitions
with Reference to Values
• ‘The manner in which a management achieves the right
combination of differentiation and integration of the organisation’s
operations, in response to the level of uncertainty in its external
environment.’ [Quote retrieved on 21 April 2014, from
www.businessdictionary.com]
• ‘Organizational design is a step-by-step methodology which
identifies dysfunctional aspects of work flow, procedures, structures
and systems, realigns them to fit current business realities/goals and
then develops plans to implement the new changes. The process
focuses on improving both the technical and people side of the
business.’ [Retrieved on 21 April 2014, from www.centerod.com]
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Different Ideas in the EODF Community
about ‘What is Organizational Design?’
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Ways of seeing org design:
Contrasting two aspects: First,
• Form: structure and
processes Or
• Form and culture
Second,
• Intentional change towards
agreed, rational strategic
objectives Or
• Reflection on the current,
emergent and adaptive or
incipient design related to
strategic interests
Approaches to org design:
• E.g. the star model (topdown)
• E.g. socio-technical systems
design (bottom up)
• Holographic metaphors for
remote and network
configurations
• Whole systems, step-wise
methodologies using eg
future search
• Discursive, conversational,
sometimes off-line
An Illustration of TIHR ‘School of
Thought’ and Organisational Design
• Differentiated boundaries for
individual roles & departments
• Primary task
• Semi-autonomous work groups
• Role to role clarity
TIHR SocioPsychological
TIHR SocioEcological
• Organisational environment
• Inter-organisational design
• Representational groups
• Cross-boundary collaboration
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• Socio-technical systems
• Job design & control of
deviations to standard
• Work flows
• Spans of control – requisite
variety
TIHR SocioTechnical
Plus
Contemporary
Interpretations
• Discursive practices (e.g.
Mutual adjustment)
• Conversational enquiry
• Improvised transitional
arrangements
• Aesthetics as design
Bert Painter’s Web-site: www.moderntimesworkplace.com – go to archives
Two Case Examples of TIHR Influenced
Organisational Design
One Primarily Internal Reference to Roles
and Groups
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Jean
Training & Development Firm in service
sector
Presenting Problem: External pressures
decreasing value of internal work & seniors
pulled outwards, internals insufficiently
prepared to handle; succession planning
Organisational design solution:
– Multiple outcomes from one main
approach
– Action research over 5 years
One Substantially External Reference to
Environment
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Fiddy
Local Government-led cross-sector agency
collaboration (with health, police, voluntary
and community agencies etc)
Presenting Problem: Developing an
architecture for collaboration which:
provided for different models of
authorisation in different constituencies
- Addressed power differentials
- built on strengths of different types of
organization
Organizational design response:
- Improvising new settings and
conversational routines over 6-9 months
TIHR Case Example: Organizational Design
for Roles & Groups
 Training & Development Provider
 External reputation becoming
increasingly important for purposes of
attracting younger staff
 Problem: How to respond to external
demand for well-known, senior trainers
without undermining self-esteem of
internal workload for modest trainers and
junior staff (mostly administration and
facilities management)?
 Organisational design solutions:
1. Bottom-up redesign of work into
‘portfolios’ & ‘clusters’ based on STS
principles
2. Separation of external facing leadership
from internal facing leadership
3. Leadership team combining cluster
heads (rotating) with external and
internal leaders
4. HRM via thematic working groups
Abraham & Neumann, 07.05.14, www.tavinstitute.org
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TIHR Case Example: Organizational Design
for Inter-Organisational Collaboration
 Local government-led crosssectoral agencies meeting new
requirements , progress towards
shared local objectives through
joint action
 9 month time-scale to meet
nationally set targets
 Organizational design strategies
employed:
- Work in existing settings to
identify issues and triggers
- Work in cross-cutting settings
to generate new relationships
and communication channels
- Support for conversations in
improvised cross-cutting
groupings
- Modelling productive dialogue
at whole system events on
shared objectives
Abraham & Neumann, 07.05.14, www.tavinstitute.org
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Our Own Assertions about
‘What Organizational Design Means’
Fiddy:
Jean:
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s not
organizational design unless it
addresses both structure and
culture.”
“ As far as I’m concerned, it’s not
organizational design unless it
addresses operations
positively (meaning both the
social and the technical).”
“A good organizational design in
my opinion needs to involve
participation from all parts of
the system.”
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“A good organizational design in
my opinion needs to involve
multiple, simultaneous changes
over time, that is action
research.”
Your Experiences with
Organisational Design PLUS
Drafting 1-2 Principles
Complete these sentences based on your experience in
offering or receiving organizational design:
 “As far as I’m concerned, it’s not organizational design
unless ……………………………………”
 “A good organizational design, in my opinion, needs
to …………………………………………”
Work with others to discuss and craft one or two
principles of organizational design (suggested by your
sentence completion).
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Ending Comments
• Please clearly write out your sentence
completion examples onto one A4 sheet of
paper, along with any organisation design
principles that emerged in your discussions.
• Add your full names plus clearly written email
addresses onto the same sheet of paper.
• Jean and Fiddy will type up the principles & send
them to those of you who have participated
today.
Abraham & Neumann, 7.05.14, www.tavinstitute.org
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