Organization Theory & Design: An International Perspective

by Richard L. Daft, Jonathan Murphy, Hugh Willmott

The fourth edition of Organization Theory & Design provides students with an understanding of the different approaches to designing and managing an organization. Illustrated with many enlightening global examples drawn, this book combines classic ideas and contemporary theories to reflect the challenges faced by managers. Developed for students in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, it provides an up-to-date, international perspective to Richard L. Daft's landmark text.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, Textbooks, Leadership, Grad School, Reference

590 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 1982

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book (I am a business person) but my cohort peers hated it (they are educators).

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, I am feeling successful! I am ending this class with an A. Another class down, only five more to go!

[Erin M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure I’ve ever read a textbook cover to cover before, but I’m happy that I did it. Lots of great examples in this book, although some of the chapters were a bit basic. I would have loved to see a little more emphasis on decision making.

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's a dense, long and complex textbook on organizational design. The various chapters and sections deal with everything from how organizations are structured internally to achieve their strategies to overall organizational culture to inter-organizational relationships in a global environment. The author uses real-world examples, case studies and call-outs to illustrate most points and many of these are quite helpful.

My biggest complaint is that the chapters don't always link together well. I had hoped that there would be more of a cohesive sense of ideas building from chapter to chapter and section to section. Instead, each section feels like a stand-alone look at organizational design from a particular point of view. That leaves this book as an informative and relatively readable, if somewhat episodic and disjointed, textbook.

[Haytham Badawey · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's nothing in this book discussing "theory" or "design". The author discusses some random topics, some of which are closely related to organizations and some are unrelated topics.

There are good points and lessons to be learned in each chapter, but I don't think this book can be used as a 'reference'. I don't recommend it as a "theory" book either. It's just an introduction to random topics regarding organizations terminology and basic ideas, but that's it.

I think I need to read better books on the subject...

[Phoebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh boy did I nerd out on this! important to remember for you B school students that have to read it - these are PATTERNS not RULES! you don't make reality squeeze into these boxes, rather, you lay this structure over reality for a moment to get your bearings, then you take it away and deal with the reality at hand.

[Derek Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great overview of many organizational challenges and typical responses by leadership as to how to align a workforce to meet those challenges. Good balance of case studies and real-life application to further explain the theoretical principles.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

As textbooks go, this was pretty good!

[Vince · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Textbook] Read well, some interesting models especially around organizational culture and strategic contingency fit. I'll keep this one for a while.

[Rizkhanan]

fsfds

[Iliyana Dadarova]

Well-structured and very detailed book.

[Rashid Midani · Rating 4 out of 5]

best book

[Terry Fernandes]

A good read for those interested in management and what makes organizations succeed or fail.

[Jeremy Carman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was interesting. Like most of these type books it was full of relevant examples of real companies. What I liked about this one was that it had one or two self assessment tests each chapter. They helped you gauge things like whether you were a team player, or if you were a good match for working abroad.

[Aileen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got something out of this textbook and this course, but found the book incredibly repetitive! I liked applying the concepts but found my best quotes in supplemental material. Happy I learned it but happy it’s over.

[Landon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Required book for my business class, Organizational Design & Structure. I thought this book was interesting enough to read.

[Amir · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good book to start, but definitely not enough

[Kat Clyde · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was for class

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's quite a dry book for such an interesting topic. Read for MBA.

[Gennevia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to read for a class for graduate school. It was actually petty interesting for the most part.

[Luca Benthien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mandatory reading for organization theory (university course) - pretty good actually, started a bit late so I had to read it under stress & pretty fast pace

[Jana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was required reading for one of my summer quarter classes and it would have been a more appropriate choice for an undergraduate course. It was easy to read, but so dry and boring and a little too reliant on graphics to explain organizational models.

[loafingcactus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very descriptive, which might be of use if it were an anthropology book. But we want to direct and inspire leaders toward excellence, yes? This book doesn't get there.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as textbooks go, it was ok but the next edition could definitely benefit from a closer round of editing. My favorite part was the list of books featured.

[Doruk · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a good text book. It covers many aspects of organization theor but the perspectives are dominated by based on positivist (American approach)...What a pity!!! Where is the critical side of view?