Organization Structures: Theory and Design, Analysis and Prescription

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURES: Theory and Design, Analysis and Prescription describes how to organize people to achieve a desired outcome. This is done by way of establishing sets of rules from 'real world' organization contexts. Moreover, the development of these rules within 'real world' contexts means that the rules must be true, general, operational, technically sound, and easy to use. With an understanding of rules and the processes of their use, organization structures can be identified, which in turn form the basis of a theoretical framework. From this theoretical framework, generalized design rules are identified that can be used to design structures with specific purposes. An efficient design of organization structure(s) will result when design rules—along with their use—are inextricably tied to the structural components and with what these structures propose to do. The book discusses, examines, and demonstrates the interrelationship of the design rules, their use within organization structures theoretically and along with their practical implications. Throughout the book an extended example of the Masters Brewing Corporation (MBC) is used to illustrate the conceptual material and to make the implications of the organizational analysis explicitly concrete.