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The Microstructure of Organizations
This book synthesizes a decade of research by the author into fundamental issues in organization design. The result is a novel micro-structural perspective on organizations, which aims to both expand and narrow current thinking.
The new perspective takes an expansive view on the kinds of phenomena that can be studied in terms of organization design- such as cross-functional teams, strategic partnerships, buyer-supplier relations, alliance networks, mega-projects, post-merger integration, business groups, open source communities, and crowdsourcing, besides traditional concerns with bureaucratic organizations. At the same time, this approach narrows focus by abstracting away from the variety and complexity of organizations to a few fundamental and universal problems of organizing (that relate to how they aggregate their members' efforts), as well as a few reusable building blocks - microstructures (which capture common patterns of interaction between members of an organization).
The microstructural approach to organizations will be of interest to researchers and PhD students in management, organization science, and strategy.
The new perspective takes an expansive view on the kinds of phenomena that can be studied in terms of organization design- such as cross-functional teams, strategic partnerships, buyer-supplier relations, alliance networks, mega-projects, post-merger integration, business groups, open source communities, and crowdsourcing, besides traditional concerns with bureaucratic organizations. At the same time, this approach narrows focus by abstracting away from the variety and complexity of organizations to a few fundamental and universal problems of organizing (that relate to how they aggregate their members' efforts), as well as a few reusable building blocks - microstructures (which capture common patterns of interaction between members of an organization).
The microstructural approach to organizations will be of interest to researchers and PhD students in management, organization science, and strategy.
224 pages, Paperback
Published August 20, 2018
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October 20, 2018
This is a fascinating book that provides a systematic overview of issues concerning organization design.
Puranam frames the book in terms of the what he calls the “'folk theorem' of organization design: the widely accepted principle that 'interdependence between agents must be matched by integrative influence.'" This leads to two fundamental problems of organization design: (1) The division of labor and (2) the integregation of effort. Puranam writes in the tradition of Herbert Simon with the advantage of developments concerning motivation, prosocial goals, and framing.
Some of the issues that organization designers face concerning the division of labor involve the trade-off between knowledge gains from specializing in specific task and the exploitation of synergies between different tasks completed by the same individuals or groups. This is complicated by the impact on motivation stemming from different task structures and the potential for subgroup egoism from different team divisions. Incentives play an important role in integrating effort, where designers face the issue of avoiding inventive schemes that hinder cooperation, while seeking better ways to measure tasks to allow for more high-powered incentives. As one might expect from someone writing in Simon's tradition, authority is an important topic. Within organization authority functions to design the organization, to integrate effort, and to resolve disputes. Puranam, recognizing criticisms of hierarchy, argues that "if we do not like multi-layered authority hierarchies, we must either find good substitutes for authority, find ways to increase spans of control within existing authority hierarchies, or manage the negative perceptions surrounding hierarchy more effectively."
This book is dense and well-argued but for this reason it requires substantial unpacking. As such, it could serve as a reference book for researchers or a textbook for classes on organization design.
Puranam frames the book in terms of the what he calls the “'folk theorem' of organization design: the widely accepted principle that 'interdependence between agents must be matched by integrative influence.'" This leads to two fundamental problems of organization design: (1) The division of labor and (2) the integregation of effort. Puranam writes in the tradition of Herbert Simon with the advantage of developments concerning motivation, prosocial goals, and framing.
Some of the issues that organization designers face concerning the division of labor involve the trade-off between knowledge gains from specializing in specific task and the exploitation of synergies between different tasks completed by the same individuals or groups. This is complicated by the impact on motivation stemming from different task structures and the potential for subgroup egoism from different team divisions. Incentives play an important role in integrating effort, where designers face the issue of avoiding inventive schemes that hinder cooperation, while seeking better ways to measure tasks to allow for more high-powered incentives. As one might expect from someone writing in Simon's tradition, authority is an important topic. Within organization authority functions to design the organization, to integrate effort, and to resolve disputes. Puranam, recognizing criticisms of hierarchy, argues that "if we do not like multi-layered authority hierarchies, we must either find good substitutes for authority, find ways to increase spans of control within existing authority hierarchies, or manage the negative perceptions surrounding hierarchy more effectively."
This book is dense and well-argued but for this reason it requires substantial unpacking. As such, it could serve as a reference book for researchers or a textbook for classes on organization design.
Displaying 1 of 1 review