Organizational Design and Structure

Organizational Structure & Design.

Course Description: This class is a study of the design and organization of organizations. We will be looking at how firms are designed, organized and managed in an effort to better understand why there are such large differences in organizational success.

This course serves as an introduction to the field of Organizational Theory. We will be focussing on understanding and explaining the design and functioning of organizations in modern society. This course is designed to provide a foundation for more advanced work in organizational studies, public administration, community development and other fields.

Topics discussed include:

The nature of work – employment relationship – employment contract – agency theory – transaction cost economics.

Introduction to organizations – organizational environment.

Theories of organization:

Max Weber - role theory (role, status & party) Max Weber - ideal type concept (rational/legal authority/traditional authority) Max Weber - bureaucracy (bureaucratization process, rationality and disenchantment) Herbert Simon - bounded rationality; Roles, rules & rationality Durkheim - division of labour.

Charles Perrow – norm deviance.

What is an organization? A firm, society or bureaucracy?

Social theory of the firm

Sociological theories: Max Weber (bureaucracy), Talcott Parsons (functionalism) and Karl Marx (capitalism) – bureaucracy. sociologists: Emil Durkheim and Max Weber – division of labour.

Organizational ecology – evolutionary perspective (Richard Nelson & Sidney Winter)

David Ricardo - division of labour (value adding process as a function of number of workers).

Types of organization

Market/profit-seeking organizations; Non-profit organizations; Public sector/government units; Bureaucracies (Jurisdictional, authority and control); Community development corporations.

Authority

Authority in for-profit organizations: Internal forms of authority - position power & personal power; External forms of authority – socialization, legitimation and expertise.

Organizational Structure

Structure and decision making - formalization; Structure and strategy; Organizational structure: pyramids, cells & networks; Bottlenecks; Decision making: authority gradient (hierarchy); Divisionalization (vertical, horizontal, functional).

Organizational design

Design process. Design essentials: size, product/service scope, geographical coverage, technology and organizational culture. Three levels of design: functional, divisional and plant; Product scope and geographical coverage - market selection.

Organizational size

Organizational size: small firms (cottage industry); Large firms (one dominant firm vs one large number small plants).

Small business development

Making the business case for small business development; Financial and economic considerations; Social and environmental contributions; Creating a business case: market selection; Business flexibility; The role of government.

Organizational design for community development

Business models (for-profit, non-profit, public sector). Networking organizations – supply chains & social networks. Collaborative networks – formalized vs informal relationships.

Organizational culture

Culture - shared assumptions, values and norms; Organizational culture: levels (national vs local), impact on performance; Cultural change.

Control systems

Approaches to control; Management by exceptions; Centralized vs decentralized control; Monitoring performance.

Leadership & Politics in Organizations

Politics - internal and external; Leadership; Political behaviour: individual & group; Personal & political power.