Unit 2:

Designing
Structure
Sanjay Singh, Ph.D.
What is organizational structure?

• Structure of an organization is the pattern of organizational

roles, relationships, and procedures that enables an
integrated, collective action by its members (Bernstein and
Noharia, 2016) so as to realize its goals.
What is organizational structure?

Organizational Structure refers to the formal reporting relationships,

including the number of levels in the hierarchy and the span of
control of managers and supervisors; identifies the grouping together
of individuals into departments and of departments into the total
organization; and includes the design of systems to ensure effective
communication, coordination, and integration of efforts across
departments (Daft, 2013).
 Setting &
Delegation
Division Integrated Sustaining
of Organizational
of Labour Mechanism Authority Boundaries

Tools for achieving

Functions

Functions of
Organizational
Structure (Why
structure is Coordinated Coordinated
needed?) Functions
Activities Goals

Coordinated Coordinated
Boundaries Capabilities
Designing a Structure: Building blocks (Daft, 2013)

Org. Design
Dimensions

Structural Contingency
Dimensions Dimensions

Hierarchy of Goals and

Formalization Specialization Centralization Size Technology Environment Culture
authority Strategy
 Organization Design Model (Carlos Martin
Rios & Niclas Erhardt, 2019)

Chain of Command
Centralization - Work specialization - Span of Control

Informal Functional Divisional Matrix

Boundary Spanning

Based on Bernstein and Noharia (2016)

 Types of Organizational Structure (Bernstein & Noharia, 2016)

Core Tool for Organizational Structure    

Organizational Centered Around and
Design Driven By Basis for Authority Examples of Organizational Forms
Structure Management  Formalized Functioal
(Organizational Power Divisionl
Form)/ Top Down Matrix
Approach Employee / User  Knowledge / • Network (Nohria & Eccles, 1992) [Rhetoric & Identity form the base of knowledge
Expertise networks]
• Team-Based (McChrystal, 2015; Mohrman et al, 1995),
• Project-Based (Turner, 2009),
• Holacracy (Robertson, 2015),
• Adhocracy (Mintzberg, 1983),
• Heterarchy (Hedlund, 1986) [each element is unranked as compared to other]
• Shamrock (Handy, 1989) [Each org has Core, Contract and Peripheral
(temporary) employees]
• Boundaryless Organization (Devanna and Tichy, 1990) [self-renewing
organizations harnessing the potential at boundary]
• Hypertext Organization (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995) [A synthesis of bureaucracy &
task-force type, inspired by US military]
• Edge-of-Chaos Organization (Brown and Eisenhardt, 1998) [A transition phase model
where organizations live at the edge of chaos to avoid institutionalizing bureaucracy]
Structuring • Teal Organization (Laloux, 2014) [Organizations as a self-managing whole living
(Form of organism]
Organizing)/ Crowd / Community • Task or Project • Self-Organizing (Ticoll, 2004) [organizational from as spontaneous order]
Bottom up Responsibility • The Open Organization (Whitehurst & Hamel, 2015),
Approach • Reputation in • Agile Squads (Sutherland & Sutherland, 2014), Hackathons,
Community
• Flash Mobs / Flash Teams (Retelny et al, 2014) [“leverage the scale of paid
• Values
crowdsourcing for expert work”]
Quiz: Match the following
A Start up firm

A Government Organization

A big industrial organization

Mintzberg’s 5 Organization Types
 Apple’s Organizational
Structure

Is Apple bureaucratic? Ans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=q0vvdjxfsF8
Are you Manager of Organizational Design?