Abstract
In recent years, the design of the organization has increasingly become a crucial factor in an enterprise’s performance. As a result, the skill of assessing one’s own organization and of developing it further in a professional manner has become a new challenge for HR management.
In this chapter, the organizational design is conceptualized against a system-theoretical backdrop. In this theoretical understanding, which is based on Niklas Luhmann, organizations consist not of their members and not of buildings, production facilities, or similar elements, but of specific communicative events that we refer to as decisions. The basic elements of organizations, then, are decisions rather than people. If we take this system-theoretical approach, we understand organizational design as a set of premises that determine the day-to-day decisions and communication channels in an enterprise. The interplay of these premises is illustrated and explained in an integrated depiction of the organizational design. For us, these elements of the organizational design are strategy, formal organization structure, horizontal connections and communication structure, leadership structure and systems, requirements for human resources, business processes, and infrastructure and leadership practice.
This chapter also outlines the assessment and further development of an organizational design. The most important steps in such a sophisticated and demanding development process are communitizing the strategic requirements, reviewing the organization, developing options, taking a design decision, detailing the new design, developing an implementation architecture, and anchoring the design.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baecker D (1994) Experiment organisation. In: Lettre international, Frühjahr 1994, S. 22f
Chandler AD (1962) Strategy and structure. The MIT Press, Cambridge
Galbraith F (2009) Designing matrix organization. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco
Klimmer M (2011) Unternehmensorganisation, 2 Aufl., Herne
Luhmann N (2000) Organisation und Entscheidung [Organization and decision]. Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden
Nagel R (2014) Organisationsdesign – Modelle und Instrumente [Organizational design – models and tools]. Schäffer-Poeschel, Stuttgart
Nagel R, Oswald M, Wimmer R (2008) Das Mitarbeitergespräch als Führungsinstrument. Schäffer-Poeschel, Stuttgart
Ostroff F (1999) The horizontal organization. Oxford University Press, New York
Schreyögg G (2008) Organisation. Grundlagen moderner Organisationsgestaltung, 5 Aufl, Gabler, Wiesbaden
Simon F (2011) Einführung in die systemische Organisationstheorie [Introduction into systemic organizational theory]. Carl Auer, Heidelberg
Wimmer R (2012) Die neuere Systemtheorie und ihre Implikationen für das Verständnis von Organisation. Führung und Management, Bern/Stuttgart/Wien
Worren NAM (2012) Organisation design: redefining complex systems. Pearson
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this entry
Cite this entry
Nagel, R. (2015). Human Resources Strategy and Change: Essentials of Organizational Development. In: Zeuch, M. (eds) Handbook of Human Resources Management. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40933-2_108-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40933-2_108-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40933-2
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences