Guide to Organisation Design ^{2nd Ed.}

Organisation design is how people and work are organised to carry out an organisation's strategy and achieve its aims.

It matters. Thousand of established businesses fail every year because of the way they are organised or reorganised. Quite simply, survival can depend on whether a business has structure and reporting lines that both meet the needs of the market and are able to adapt to a rapidly changing business environment. Yet managers seldom talk coherently about structuring or restructuring their operations, let alone take a systematic approach. Too often, organisations are restructured for the wrong reasons and without taking fully into account the implications of what they are attempting to achieve.

This revised and updated Economist guide shows how leaders should think about and implement the design of a company, using six easy-to-use guiding principles for effective and reflective organisation design which is properly aligned with strategy and operating context.

1. Introducing organisation design
• Organisation design: what it is and is not
• Organisation design is driven by strategy and operating context
• Organisation design requires holistic thinking
• Designing for the future is better than designing for now
• Organisation design happens as much through social interactions as planning
• Organisation design is always resource intensive
• Organisation design is a fundamental process, not a repair job
• Summary
2. Models, approaches and designs
• Models
• Approaches
• Designs
• Reflections on the case study
• Tools for the case study
• Summary
3. Organisational structures
• Functional structure
• Divisional/product structure
• Divisional/geographic or market structure
• Divisional/process structure
• Matrix structure
• Network structure
• Cluster structure
• "Life-form" structure
• Structure decisions
• Layers and pans
• Reflections on the case study
• Tools for the case study
• Summary
4. Planning and sequencing the organisation design
• High-level design plan and sequence
• The business case for change
• The organisation design programme
• The four phases of the design process
• Reflections on case study
• Tools for the case study
• Summary
5. Measurement
• Choosing measurement tools
• Measurement principles
• Reflections on case study
• Tools for the case study
• Summary
6. Stakeholder engagement
• Five steps of the stakeholder engagement process
• Factors indicating stakeholder engagement
• Reflections on case study
• Tools for the case study
• Summary
7. Leadership and organisation design
• Formal leadership in organisation design
• Informal leadership
• Working together
• Reflections on case study
• Tools for the case study
• Summary
8. Culture and group processes
• Organisational culture
• Group processes
• Reflections on case study
• Tools for the case study
• Summary
9. Continuous design
• Why continuous design capacity is required
• Building the capability for continuous design
• Reflections on case study
• Tools for the case study
• Summary

• Appendix 1: Notes and sources
• Appendix 2: Organisation design models
• Appendix 3: Glossary

Well, the second edition has not gone bad. In fact, it is a rare breed, as it has in fact improved on the first edition!

A very well thought-out book about on how we should design organisations (and why).