Organisational Design: A Step by Step Approach

Designing organisations has been a challenging process for both classic and modern organisations given the multi-dimensional context in which they operate. In early 70s & 80s, the organisational behaviour scientists largely focused on ‘structure’ as predominant part of the design. However, the enhanced complexity of modern organisations demand an organising principle that is not solely reliant on structure but a host of tangible and intangible features and factors. Eminent scholar Pradeep Khandwala expanded the myopic view by coining a formula which looked at “design” as summation of factors like structure, systems, style, process, values, etc. The Organisational Design: A Step by Step Approach examines the same idea in greater detail to develop a comprehensive view. The authors systematically deconstruct the complex task into five simple steps namely i) Goals, ii) Strategy, iii) Structure, iv) Process & People, and v) Coordination and Control. The topdown approach recommended by authors starts with structural components like goals, strategy, and structure; followed by human components like work processes, people, coordination and control, and incentive mechanisms. The book introduces a unique, universally applicable two-dimensional model (X&Y axes) to locate all the design components in one of the four quadrants i.e. A, B, C, and D depending upon the values of parameters representing X-axis and Y-axis (Refer Figure 1). The model along with step-wise approach facilitates alignment and identification of the misfits among components. Every stage of the design process provides an opportunity to adjust the components and move them in the same quadrant as departure from alignment leads to costly misfits in the long run.