Getting the organization right is increasingly recognized as the key to business success, for both line executives and HR leaders. Designing the organization, however, means a lot more than just creating or fine-tuning the structure. These books provide concepts and step-by-step guidance on the many facets of effective organization design: the vertical and horizontal structure, processes and relationships, policies, practices and cultural attributes — all aligned with the overall strategy.
Designing Dynamic Organizations
By Jay Galbraith, Diane Downey and Amy Kates
286 pages, Amacom (2002)
ISBN 0-8144-70-7119-6
At bookstores or 1-800-565-5758, www.mcgrawhill.ca
A comprehensive manual for reviewing and developing the way an organization, or any part of it, needs to change when there’s a new strategic direction, change in the external environment, significant growth is anticipated or performance is falling short. The book features five components of organization design, with detailed how-to steps for addressing each:
•strategy: vision, direction, competitive advantage;
•structure: power and authority, reporting relationships, roles;
•processes and lateral capability: networks, teams, matrix structures;
•reward systems: goals, scorecards, metrics, compensation; and
•people practices: staffing, performance feedback, learning and development.
This book is subtitled “A hands-on guide for leaders at all levels,” emphasizing the responsibility of executives and managers for organization design. The book is also aimed at HR professionals who provide input on issues and strategy, and act as facilitator and coach of the overall design process.
The format offers a practical, step-by-step approach to organization design work, with case studies and checklists to guide readers, as well as suggestions for who should lead the effort, who should participate and how to get the right people involved:
•determining the design framework (including current state assessment);
•designing the organizational structure, processes, rewards and people practices;
•developing the details; and
•implementing the new design — planning, pacing of change, piloting, communicating, sustaining momentum and managing skepticism.
Beyond Teams: Building the Collaborative Organization
By Michael Beyerlein, Sue Freedman, Craig McGee and Linda Moran
247 pages, Jossey Bass Pfeiffer (2003)
ISBN 0-7879-6373-9
Available from Wiley Canada,
1-800-567-4797, www.wiley.com
This book deals with broad themes of effective teamwork behaviours, values and practices which have to be embedded at the organizational level, and with building collaborative competencies and culture through a disciplined, rather than ad hoc, approach.
Three levels of collaboration are compared:
•traditional teams, with a focus on cohesive groups that set goals and conduct work;
•team-based organizations, fully employing teams for project management, problem-solving, planning and co-ordination; and
•collaborative organizations featuring individual, team and unit accountabilities and multiple sets of temporary and permanent teams.
There are numerous examples, vignettes and profiles of what works and what doesn’t.
Intended readers are executives, managers and professionals in HR, learning and development, and organizational effectiveness. The book answers three questions:
•How do we develop organizations capable of thriving in a world of rapid, unpredictable change?
•How do we apply team-related learnings and experience?
•How can we create organizations that support collaboration in varied forms?
This book will meet the needs of readers looking for applications in manufacturing, new product development, service and virtual settings. For each, the authors outline common ways work is organized, trends and challenges related to collaboration, and when and how to build collaborative approaches.
Designing Organizations to Create Value
By James Brickley, Clifford Smith and Jerold Zimmerman
308 pages, McGraw Hill (2003) ISBN 0-07-139392-7
At bookstores or 1-800-565-5758, www.mcgrawhill.ca
Readers will find a multi-faceted view of structure and design, encompassing business environment, strategy, organizational architecture, and corporate policies in finance, IS, HR and operations. Organizational architecture is described as a three-legged stool:
•decision authority, empowerment, centralization, configuring jobs and units in the organization;
•performance evaluation, measures at the individual, team and divisional level; and
•compensation, internal labour markets, career paths, incentives and risk-sharing.
This is a book for readers interested in value creation, knowledge management, leadership, innovative practices and incentive theory — all in relation to human performance. The intention is to broaden the expertise of managers from a narrow functional base toward a multi-disciplinary understanding of business and organization design. There is also the message that one size does not fit all: the design that works for one firm can cause another to fail.
The authors provide case studies and examples across a wide range of companies such as Sears Roebuck, Merrill Lynch, several automakers, DuPont, Kodak and IBM.
Rewiring Organizations for the Networked Economy
Ed. By Stan Herman
202 pages, Jossey Bass Pfeiffer (2002)
ISBN 0-7879-6065-9
Available from Wiley Canada,
1-800-567-4797, www.wiley.com
Chapters explore maintaining viability in a world wired for speed, whole system transformation models and redefining HR based on IT developments such as telecommuting, e-learning, knowledge management, e-cruiting, and questions about the future shape and role of both HR and IT.
Consideration of IT’s direct and indirect impacts on organizing, managing and leading people include in-depth case studies at AOL and the U.S. Department of Energy.
OD and HR practitioners are challenged to become tech savvy — not technologists, but technophiles; to be familiar with, and effective users of, appropriate electronic tools and systems; and to learn how to facilitate technology-mediated conversations and processes. A chapter on basic info-tech for consultants explains e-mail, Internet, online conferences, a presence on the Web and tips for getting up to speed on new developments.
Remaking Teams
By Theresa Kline
152 pages, Jossey Bass Pfeiffer (1999)
ISBN 0-7879-4648-6
Available from Wiley Canada,
1-800-567-4797, www.wiley.com
This research-based guide to teams, work processes and organization design covers:
•team outcomes and evaluation;
•technology and virtual teams;
•meetings, decision-making and conflict management; or
•supervisory and leadership roles and effectiveness.
An accompanying diskette contains team exercises for resource planning, leadership, goal-setting, and assessing member and team satisfaction, role clarity, meetings and other aspects of effectiveness.
University of Calgary author Theresa Kline defines her audience as those wanting: improved team performance, the effective startup of a team-based organization, sustained success of an existing team or up-to-date research on teamwork. Readers are advised, “Successful teams are not built overnight. They are not achieved in a weekend retreat. They are achieved when the context is one that supports them, when the tasks are ones that team members can and do accomplish, when success is clearly articulated and celebrated...These processes take a lot of work on the part of the organization as well as on the part of the team members.”
The Nature of Management & Organizations
By Len Karakowsky
433 pages, Captus (2002),
ISBN 1-55322-035-8
(416) 736-5537, www.captus.com
This university textbook “describes and examines the fundamental challenges faced by organizations within the Canadian business context.” It contains cases, readings, conceptual frameworks and approaches on management philosophies and practices, as well as insights on:
•organizational anatomy and landscape;
•changing structures, re-engineering, downsizing;
•the virtual organization;
•non-profits: governance, leadership, agendas; and
•government-business relationships.
Written primarily for students in business, management, HR, strategy and ethics, this book may also be a useful resource in organization design work. It may help the practitioner to stand back and consider the big-picture context in which organizations exist and operate. Another audience could be managers and executives with new responsibilities in organizational change, design or human resources. A 15-page glossary defines terms, provides the language of organizational issues and gives a quick overview of many of the theories and developments in organization design.
Ray Brillinger is a senior consultant with IBM Business Consulting Services. He provides change management, business transformation and organization effectiveness strategy and implementation support to clients. He can be reached at (905) 316-8733 or [email protected].
Designing Dynamic Organizations
By Jay Galbraith, Diane Downey and Amy Kates
286 pages, Amacom (2002)
ISBN 0-8144-70-7119-6
At bookstores or 1-800-565-5758, www.mcgrawhill.ca
A comprehensive manual for reviewing and developing the way an organization, or any part of it, needs to change when there’s a new strategic direction, change in the external environment, significant growth is anticipated or performance is falling short. The book features five components of organization design, with detailed how-to steps for addressing each:
•strategy: vision, direction, competitive advantage;
•structure: power and authority, reporting relationships, roles;
•processes and lateral capability: networks, teams, matrix structures;
•reward systems: goals, scorecards, metrics, compensation; and
•people practices: staffing, performance feedback, learning and development.
This book is subtitled “A hands-on guide for leaders at all levels,” emphasizing the responsibility of executives and managers for organization design. The book is also aimed at HR professionals who provide input on issues and strategy, and act as facilitator and coach of the overall design process.
The format offers a practical, step-by-step approach to organization design work, with case studies and checklists to guide readers, as well as suggestions for who should lead the effort, who should participate and how to get the right people involved:
•determining the design framework (including current state assessment);
•designing the organizational structure, processes, rewards and people practices;
•developing the details; and
•implementing the new design — planning, pacing of change, piloting, communicating, sustaining momentum and managing skepticism.
Beyond Teams: Building the Collaborative Organization
By Michael Beyerlein, Sue Freedman, Craig McGee and Linda Moran
247 pages, Jossey Bass Pfeiffer (2003)
ISBN 0-7879-6373-9
Available from Wiley Canada,
1-800-567-4797, www.wiley.com
This book deals with broad themes of effective teamwork behaviours, values and practices which have to be embedded at the organizational level, and with building collaborative competencies and culture through a disciplined, rather than ad hoc, approach.
Three levels of collaboration are compared:
•traditional teams, with a focus on cohesive groups that set goals and conduct work;
•team-based organizations, fully employing teams for project management, problem-solving, planning and co-ordination; and
•collaborative organizations featuring individual, team and unit accountabilities and multiple sets of temporary and permanent teams.
There are numerous examples, vignettes and profiles of what works and what doesn’t.
Intended readers are executives, managers and professionals in HR, learning and development, and organizational effectiveness. The book answers three questions:
•How do we develop organizations capable of thriving in a world of rapid, unpredictable change?
•How do we apply team-related learnings and experience?
•How can we create organizations that support collaboration in varied forms?
This book will meet the needs of readers looking for applications in manufacturing, new product development, service and virtual settings. For each, the authors outline common ways work is organized, trends and challenges related to collaboration, and when and how to build collaborative approaches.
Designing Organizations to Create Value
By James Brickley, Clifford Smith and Jerold Zimmerman
308 pages, McGraw Hill (2003) ISBN 0-07-139392-7
At bookstores or 1-800-565-5758, www.mcgrawhill.ca
Readers will find a multi-faceted view of structure and design, encompassing business environment, strategy, organizational architecture, and corporate policies in finance, IS, HR and operations. Organizational architecture is described as a three-legged stool:
•decision authority, empowerment, centralization, configuring jobs and units in the organization;
•performance evaluation, measures at the individual, team and divisional level; and
•compensation, internal labour markets, career paths, incentives and risk-sharing.
This is a book for readers interested in value creation, knowledge management, leadership, innovative practices and incentive theory — all in relation to human performance. The intention is to broaden the expertise of managers from a narrow functional base toward a multi-disciplinary understanding of business and organization design. There is also the message that one size does not fit all: the design that works for one firm can cause another to fail.
The authors provide case studies and examples across a wide range of companies such as Sears Roebuck, Merrill Lynch, several automakers, DuPont, Kodak and IBM.
Rewiring Organizations for the Networked Economy
Ed. By Stan Herman
202 pages, Jossey Bass Pfeiffer (2002)
ISBN 0-7879-6065-9
Available from Wiley Canada,
1-800-567-4797, www.wiley.com
Chapters explore maintaining viability in a world wired for speed, whole system transformation models and redefining HR based on IT developments such as telecommuting, e-learning, knowledge management, e-cruiting, and questions about the future shape and role of both HR and IT.
Consideration of IT’s direct and indirect impacts on organizing, managing and leading people include in-depth case studies at AOL and the U.S. Department of Energy.
OD and HR practitioners are challenged to become tech savvy — not technologists, but technophiles; to be familiar with, and effective users of, appropriate electronic tools and systems; and to learn how to facilitate technology-mediated conversations and processes. A chapter on basic info-tech for consultants explains e-mail, Internet, online conferences, a presence on the Web and tips for getting up to speed on new developments.
Remaking Teams
By Theresa Kline
152 pages, Jossey Bass Pfeiffer (1999)
ISBN 0-7879-4648-6
Available from Wiley Canada,
1-800-567-4797, www.wiley.com
This research-based guide to teams, work processes and organization design covers:
•team outcomes and evaluation;
•technology and virtual teams;
•meetings, decision-making and conflict management; or
•supervisory and leadership roles and effectiveness.
An accompanying diskette contains team exercises for resource planning, leadership, goal-setting, and assessing member and team satisfaction, role clarity, meetings and other aspects of effectiveness.
University of Calgary author Theresa Kline defines her audience as those wanting: improved team performance, the effective startup of a team-based organization, sustained success of an existing team or up-to-date research on teamwork. Readers are advised, “Successful teams are not built overnight. They are not achieved in a weekend retreat. They are achieved when the context is one that supports them, when the tasks are ones that team members can and do accomplish, when success is clearly articulated and celebrated...These processes take a lot of work on the part of the organization as well as on the part of the team members.”
The Nature of Management & Organizations
By Len Karakowsky
433 pages, Captus (2002),
ISBN 1-55322-035-8
(416) 736-5537, www.captus.com
This university textbook “describes and examines the fundamental challenges faced by organizations within the Canadian business context.” It contains cases, readings, conceptual frameworks and approaches on management philosophies and practices, as well as insights on:
•organizational anatomy and landscape;
•changing structures, re-engineering, downsizing;
•the virtual organization;
•non-profits: governance, leadership, agendas; and
•government-business relationships.
Written primarily for students in business, management, HR, strategy and ethics, this book may also be a useful resource in organization design work. It may help the practitioner to stand back and consider the big-picture context in which organizations exist and operate. Another audience could be managers and executives with new responsibilities in organizational change, design or human resources. A 15-page glossary defines terms, provides the language of organizational issues and gives a quick overview of many of the theories and developments in organization design.
Ray Brillinger is a senior consultant with IBM Business Consulting Services. He provides change management, business transformation and organization effectiveness strategy and implementation support to clients. He can be reached at (905) 316-8733 or [email protected].
