From Complex Organizations with Simple Jobs to Simple Organizations with Complex Jobs

Organization redesign has become widely acceptedas a regular task for management, recently invigoratedby the interest in Business Process Reengineering. Inspite of that, it is still a neglected area in organization science. This paper emphasizesthe importance of design theory and design-orientedresearch. The potential role of design theory isexemplified by the description of IntegralOrganizational Renewal (IOR), a design theory grounded inpractical experience in the Netherlands. This approachcan be viewed as a Dutch variant of SociotechnicalSystems Design. The essence of this approach lies in the transformation of complex organizationsoffering simple jobs into simple organizations offeringcomplex jobs. IOR can both be regarded as an expertapproach and as a route for self-design. The approach enables the members of the organization todevelop and use their own design expertise. IOR istherefore not only a strategy for organization design,but for organization development as well. The paperpoints to opportunities to make organization researchmore relevant to organization practice.

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