The design of organizations has been a prime characteristic of
management theory and practice over the past several decades. However,
there has been little change in the fundamental theory, principles and
concepts of Organization Design since the introduction of contingency
theory in the 1970's. Nevertheless, over the past 25 years
organizational reality has changed dramatically with the advent of all
sorts of communication systems, AI agents, information technology,
knowledge management systems, and more. Therefore leading researchers in
Organization Design - who understand the situation - have undertaken to
address the problem.
Organization Design: The Evolving State-of-the-Art will be organized in
four sections: (1) Theoretical and Practical Issues, (2) Fit,
Contingency and Configuration, (3) Design and Performance, and (4) The
Dynamics of Adaptation and Change. The book will be a broad discussion
of topics in the field, but still each individual paper will provide in
depth analysis of the topic. A common element and theme to all of the
chapters is a focus on core theories in organization design and emerging
perspectives.
The book will be a 2005-benchmark publication of organization design
theory, principles and concepts, and on the basis of this benchmark
publication, the editors will encourage researchers and students to
further develop the field. The recent development in organization design
has been sporadic; hence this book will be an important step in creating
better theoretical models and stronger empirical analyses that take
advantage of advances in estimation methods allowing for more complex
causal modeling and stimulation technologies.
