Journal of Organization Design

A Neglected Role for Organizational Design: Supporting the Credibility of Delegation in Organizations

Diego Stea, Kirsten Foss, Nicolai J. Foss — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0100

Managers delegate the right to make decisions to employees because delegation economizes on scarce managerial attention, fosters the use of local knowledge, and positively impacts employee motivation. This is particularly important in knowledge-intensive organizations that operate in uncertain environments, where employees have specialized knowledge and need to be responsive to local changes. Managers, however, often renege on delegation, particularly in high-uncertainty contexts, because they are tempted to adjust past decisions based on new information. We argue that employees’ knowledge that management may renege on delegated decision rights has negative motivational consequences that are costly in knowledge-intensive organizations. As a consequence, making delegation credible is essential for sustaining the advantages that flow from delegation. Organizational design can play a key role in making delegation credible, supporting the value creation caused by delegated discretion. Our theoretical argument sheds new light on relationships among organizational design, credible delegation, and firm-level value creation.

Interview with Professor George Huber

Dorthe Døjbak Håkonsson — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0100

Professor Huber holds the Charles and Elizabeth Prothro Regents Chair Emeritus in Business Administration at the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Huber is a founding member of the Organization Design Community. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Management and of the Decision Sciences Institute and is a charter member of the Academy of Management Journals Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of multiple international awards for his research contributions. The interview focuses on Prof. Huber’s research journey. Professor Huber explains how he has managed to stay focused while working in many fields, and how his experience in non-academic environments is reflected in his academic thinking. Professor Huber also explains what moved him to the field of organization design, and what he sees as the major challenges for organization design research in the future.

Resume of interview with Ron Nicol, Boston Consulting Group

John Joseph — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0100

In this interview, Ron Nicol, Senior Partner and Managing Director at BCG and John Joseph, Assistant Professor of Strategy at the University of California-Irvine, discuss BCG’s approach to organizational design known as “delayering.” Delayering is the process by which the layers and levels in the organization are reduced and aligned so as to provide better decision making and reduce costs. As Nicol discusses, delayering is a multi-step process based on two key concepts: the geometric nature of organizational structure and LeChatelier’s Principle. Key success factors include CEO involvement, participation at multiple levels of the organization, and adherence to a carefully crafted set of design principles. Nicol also discusses the optimal structure for Fortune 500 companies and their international equivalents.

Multimarket Competition

Metin Sengul, Stefan Dimitriadis — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0100

This article provides an introduction to multimarket competition and the research stream that examines it. Multimarket competition occurs when firms meet their competitors in multiple markets and compete with them by coordinating their strategies across those markets. In this article, we present a concise exposition of the theoretical foundations of the literature on multimarket competition and illustrate how empirical research projects are typically designed in this literature. We also provide some directions for future work in this area and discuss implications for research in organization design.

Substitutes for Silicon Valley: The case of the Round House Startup Factory

David J. Ketchen, Kyle Sandler — Sun, 27 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0200

Taking a startup from creation to success is notoriously difficult. Many entrepreneurs gravitate to hotbeds such as Silicon Valley in order to enjoy high levels of intellectual and financial support that in turn make success more likely. This case examines an attempt to launch startups in the absence of ‘big city’ resources: the Round House Startup Factory. Founded in the small town of Opelika, Alabama by a former Google employee, the Round House contains three types of startups: co-working firms, incubator firms, and accelerator firms. With more than thirty companies under its roof, the Round House is trying to realize big entrepreneurial dreams by leveraging strategic and non-strategic resources, developing an innovative business model, and making astute choices about governance, culture, and structure.

RETRACTION: This article "Substitutes for Silicon Valley: The Case of the Round House Startup Factory" contains several significant inaccuracies and misrepresentations that were unknown to the first author. That author has requested that the article be retracted.

RETRACTION: The article "Substitutes for Silicon Valley: The Ca

se of the Round

House Startup Factory" (Vol. 4, No. 3, 2015) contains several s

ignificant inaccuracies

and misrepresentations that were unknown to the first author. T

hat author has

requested that the article be retracted.

Introduction

Børge Obel, Charles C. Snow — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0100

Beginning in this issue, Journal of Organization Design is introducing a new feature called the Research Primer Series. The purpose of this series is to introduce readers to a particular research stream or literature and articulate its implications for the theory and/or practice of organization design. The first research primer to appear in the series is by Metin Sengul and Stefan Dimitriadis on the topic of multimarket competition.

How to get the Matrix Organization to Work

Richard M. Burton, Børge Obel, Dorthe Døjbak Håkonsson — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0100

Many organizations, both public and private, are changing their structure to a complex matrix in order to meet the growing complexity in the world in which they operate. Often, those organizations struggle to obtain the benefits of a matrix organization. In this article, we discuss how to get a matrix to work, taking a multi-contingency perspective. We translate the matrix concept for designers and managers who are considering a matrix organization and argue that three factors are critical for its success: (1) Strong purpose: Only choose the matrix structure if there are strong reasons for doing so, (2) Alignment among contingencies: A matrix can only be successful if key contingencies are aligned with the matrix’s purpose, and (3) Management of junctions: The success of a matrix depends on how well activities at the junctions of the matrix are managed.