Strategic organizational diagnosis and design - developing theory for application, second edition /
Richard M. Burton.
- 2nd ed.
- [S.l.] : Springer, 1998.
- 504 p. ; 24 cm.
- Information and organization design series. .
- Information and organization design series. .
Hardcover.
Strategic organizational design begins with the existing organization and its situation to diagnose and assess what should be done to have a more efficient and effective organization. The theoretical model is a dynamic multiple contingency theory of organization which provides the basic knowledge for the Organizational Consultant -- a knowledge base expert system which has been validated with business executives. The Organizational ConsultantC (CD attached) together with the book provide a managerial toolkit for the business person who wants to make her organization better and also for the student who wants a working knowledge of organizational design. For both, the Organizational Consultant guides you through cases or your own organization to analyze the company; it contains comments and help which tell you why and directs you to in-depth discussion on the concepts applied. Building intuition about theory through application is the approach. The book itself is also a stand alone text which develops the theory of multiple contingency organizational design in a systematic way. It is tied closely to the literature and the interested reader is guided through the vast literature on organization design. The theory covers the contingencies size, environment, and strategy, as well as management style and organizational climate. These contingencies are mapped into design parameters such as specialization, decision authority, information processing, coordination and control, and incentives. The book and the Organizational Consultant software have a number of special features: + an information processing design framework and interpretation of contingency theory, + a framework for a normative theory of organizational design, + a multiple contingency theory of organizational design, + a theory based Windows TM program which guides the user in application to learn theory, + a diagnosis of your organizational situation and a design recommendation for change, + capsules with discussions on new forms, hypercompetition, the 7C's and other timely notions. A number of case studies are discussed and analyzed in the book and with the Organizational Consultant: + SAS -- the Scandinavian Airline System from its beginning to date, + Oticon -- the spaghetti organization + Medtronic as developed solely from publicly available information, and, shorter cases on product and service organizations. This book is an up to date statement on organizational design, its theory and application with a software program, the Organizational Consultant on the included CD.