Designing Organizations ^{2nd Ed.}

Since the landmark book Designing Organizations was first published in 1995, leaders have become more and more concerned with the challenges inherent in managing complexity within their organizations.

Jay Galbraith's new and revised edition of Designing Organizations is a leader's concise guide to the process of creating and managing an organization — no matter how complex — that will be positioned to respond effectively and rapidly to customer demands and have the ability to achieve unique competitive advantage. This thoroughly updated edition addresses the concerns and challenges of the new global economy. The volume includes an extensive chapter on the flexible organization and a new section that focuses on organizing around the customer. Expanding on the ideas presented in the first edition, Galbraith offers practical suggestions and information that will help practitioners select and implement an efficient design that will help them get superior results.

Galbraith uses a wealth of examples from such well-known companies as Intel, Motorola, 3M Company, and Toyota to show how various kinds of organizational designs operate differently. He presents his findings in a balanced approach and describes both the positive and negative aspects of each. Using his patented and successful star model, he outlines for any leader the basic design categories and processes that must be integrated to produce efficient systems. In this edition, you will find straightforward easy-to-follow tools that outline parameters for selecting a design structure and can help you organize your company to acclimate to the changing needs of your customers, work its way to the top, and stay there!

1. Introduction: Six Immutable Forces Shaping Today's Organizations
2. Choosing an Effective Design
3. Matching Strategy and Structure
4. Linking Processes to Coordination Needs
5. Creating and Integrating Group Processes
6. Designing a Reconfigurable Organization
7. Organizing Around the Customer
8. Customer-Focused Structures
9. Creating a Virtual Corporation
10. Organizing the Continuous Design Process

This is THE book to read to understand how to design organizations. It describes the STAR-model and have an enlightening discussion about what is important when designing an organization.

Granted, if you are looking for a blueprint or some really practical advice, this is not the book for you (he has written other books that address these audiences) . If you want to understand what you (or your organization) should be be looking into, this is definetely the book for you.