Organizational design is perhaps a misunderstood topic in organization studies. Popular books on organizational design are quick to hone in on structures. Do we want our organizations to be built around divisions, so that each subunit manages a specific good or service in a self-contained fashion? Do we want a functional organizational structure with subunits centrally managing a critical function and providing support across the whole organization? But in the organizational design field, these are not necessarily the questions that researchers are interested in. To them, design is about creating organizations to provide better outcomes and serve the organization’s purpose and strategy.
So explains Jay Galbraith in the opening paragraph of the 3rd Edition of his book Designing Organizations, published months after his passing in 2014. Galbraith devoted over four decades to the subject of organizational design, both as a theorist and as a business consultant. Through his consulting work, he developed what he calls the ‘Star Model,’ a tool that helps managers harmonize the organization’s structures, people, processes, and rewards/incentive systems with the organization’s strategy. Thus, the structures – functional, divisional, matrix, and many other contemporary ones – are only a small part of the puzzle.
This episode begins with a focus on one of Jay Galbraith’s earlier publications, an article in the journal Interfaces titled, “Organizational Design: An Information Processing View,” which focuses on designing organizations to make better decisions in times of high uncertainty. It also provides the intellectual basis that would evolve into the Star Model. Unlike other episodes where we focused on a single reading from an author, we (somewhat unintentionally) divided and conquered with our cast members reading different works of Jay Galbraith. The result is a satisfying and rich conversation about Galbraith’s full professional career.
Read with us:
Galbraith, J. R. (1973). Designing complex organizations. Boston: Addison-Wesley.
Galbraith, J. R. (1974). Organization design: An information processing view. Interfaces, 4(3), 28-36.
Galbraith, J. R. (1977). Organization design. Boston: Addison-Wesley.
Galbraith, J. R. (2014). Designing organizations: Strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels, 3rd ed. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Galbraith, J. R. (2016, January 6). The star model. Galbraith Management Consultants. https://www.jaygalbraith.com/component/rsfiles/download?path=StarModel.pdf
Other Talking About Organizations Podcast episodes referenced:
Episode 5. The Law of the Situation — Mary Parker Follett
Episode 27. Context and Action in the Transformation of the Firm — Andrew Pettigrew
Episode 72. Organizational Diagnosis — Marvin Weisbord
