As the organization operates in a dynamic environment, change is inevitable. Change in technology, knowledge, and globalization brings in new concepts in order to address emerging issues in organization design. Research and repeated experiences in the 21st century have time and again proved that it is difficult to get things done with the traditional concept of organizational design. The advancement of information and communication technology and workforce diversity has forced management to innovate in terms of their structure and business process.
While many organizations are still adhering to traditional designs, they will have to adapt to new concepts sooner or later to survive in this competitive business environment. Furthermore, the global COVID-19 pandemic has once again brought to the focus light the discourse on new ways of running and managing organizations. Following are some of the emerging concepts in organization design briefly described in points.
Emerging Concepts/Issues in Organization Design
1. Re-engineering Concept:
- The fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes
- Intended to achieve dramatic improvements in performance.
- Change the orientation from vertical to horizontal.
- Change task interdependence.
- Change in structure, technology, and people.
2. Teamwork concept
- An approach to organization design that relies almost exclusively on project-type teams, with little or no underlying functional hierarchy
- People float from project to project as necessitated by their skills and the demands of those projects.
- Collective Performance: Generates synergy through coordinated efforts.
- Breaks down departmental barriers.
- Apple Computer and Xerox are moving toward it.
Types of Work Teams:
- Problem-Solving team -a temporary team assembled to solve a specific problem.
- Cross-functional team – made up of employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task.
- Virtual team- has little or no formal structure
- Self-managed team – groups of employees (typically 10 to 15 in number) who perform highly related or interdependent jobs and take on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors.
3. Network organization concept:
- Alliance of several organizations having a common purpose.
- Contract out any business function, which can be done better or more cheaply.
- Outsources business functions, harnesses volunteer labor, leverages information technology services, and adopts a minimalist model.
4. Downsizing organization concept:
- Process of bringing an organization structure to an appropriate size.
- Minimize the vertical size and maximize the horizontal size.
- Planned reduction of levels, jobs, units, and employees.
- An organization’s conscious use of permanent personnel reductions in an attempt to improve its efficiency and/or effectiveness
5. Boundaryless organization concept:
- Not bound by predetermined vertical horizontal and external boundaries, i.e. not defined or limited by boundaries or categories imposed by traditional structures.
- Also known as Barrier-free or Modular organization.
- Elimination of Chain of Command: No barrier to information flow.
- Unlimited Span of Control.
6. Virtual concept:
- A temporary network of organizations.
- Part of a network in which many companies share skills, costs, capabilities, markets, and customers with each other, i.e. Outsourcing.
- Exists within a network of alliances, using the Internet.
- Unlimited Span of Control.
7. Learning organization concept:
- An organization that has developed the capacity to continuously adapt and change
- All members take an active role in identifying and resolving work-related issues
Features:
- Organization Design
- Information Sharing
- Leadership
- Organizational culture
People at all levels, individually and collectively, are continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about.
The organization is a dynamic concept and change is the only thing that is constant about it. To meet the needs and demands of the market, it is important that the management react positively to its environment and adapt its organization timely.
