Organization design is a key feature of management theory and practice.
It addresses the challenges of constructing and maintaining effective
organizations. Essential to organizational design is the assumption that
it can improve organizations.
Faced with the ever-accelerating pace of technological change and the
restructuring of markets, many firms have been questioning their own
organization. Consequently, we have witnessed much organizational
experimentation and the development of new forms of organizing over the
last decade. How does organizational design inform such experimentation?
And how can organizational design help managers gain insights and
advance the prevalent understanding of how organizations can meet such
new environmental challenges and constraints?
This book is the third to emerge from a series of workshops on
organization design, featuring new empirical research and theoretical
insights. The chapters are organized around four central themes: 1)
Towards New Organizational Forms, 2) Dynamics of Adaptation and Change,
3) Theoretical and Practical issues, 4) Fit and Performance. We include
an outline for the book with authors and chapter titles. Common for all
individual contributions is a focus on the core theories of OD and
emerging perspectives. Collectively, the chapters reflect the state of
the art of OD as well as provide a further step towards the evolution of
this important field of research.