Seeing Organizational Patterns: New Theory and Language of Organizational Design

Today every manager, in every sector and at every level, is challenged by organizational complexity - demands and data from all directions. In order to make sense of this complexity, managers, consultants and academics have devised a multitude of models of organizational structure, strategy and systems. However, nearly all of these models turn out to be of limited real-world utility because either they oversimplify reality (by focusing on just one or two variables) or they are themselves as complex as the reality that they are trying to simplify. "Seeing Organizational Patterns" presents a third option - a new prism for viewing organizational design that is neither too simple nor unduly complicated. Robert Keidel explains that most organizational issues are a balance of three variables: individual autonomy, hierarchical control and spontaneous cooperation. "Seeing Organizational Patterns" shows that the basic requirement for high-performing organizations is the ability to think in terms of these three variables that lie at the head of every organization. Organizations are inherently triadic because there are only three ways in which people can relate to each other without conflict - patterns that correspond to the three core design variables: autonomy, control and cooperation. By learning to frame issues as trade-offs among these variables one can see underlying patterns that previously had not been visible - and thereby make more intelligent analyses, choices and commitments than would otherwise be possible. Once this essential triangle is grasped, it can be leveraged across a wide range of organizational plans, decisions and problems. Keidel explains how organizational design can be usefully understood in terms of triangular patterns; shows how this traidic framework can be applied to organizational strategy, structure and systems; and depicts a new organizational model that unifies a host of organizational analogies. "Seeing Organizational Patterns" converts organizational design into an art form of triangular patterns. Featuring a rich array of examples - including AT&T, Computer Associates, Johnson & Johnson, and the World Bank - it presents a wealth of experience-based lessons and concepts. Readers should come away with a set of conceptual lenses that enables them to see organizations more clearly, systematically, and imaginatively than ever before.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Understanding organizational design: the triadic nature of organization; varieties of design failure; triangulating autonomy, control, and co-operation. Part 2 Framing organizational issues: organizational strategy; organizational structure; organizational systems. Part 3 Designing for tomorrow: towards an organizational pattern language; a new organizational form.