Organizational Design Course

Lesson 1 • Historical Evolution of Org Design

Traces design thinking from classical bureaucracy to modern agile models. Provides historical context for evaluating current practices.

Lesson 2 • Strategy-Structure Alignment

Explains Chandler's thesis that structure follows strategy and its modern extensions. Students connect strategic intent to structural choices.

Lesson 3 • Stakeholders in Design Decisions

Identifies who influences and is affected by design choices, including executives, managers, and employees. Sets up stakeholder analysis used in later chapters.

Lesson 4 • Key Design Dimensions

Introduces specialization, formalization, centralization, and span of control. These dimensions form the analytical toolkit used throughout the course.

Lesson 1 • Divisional and Product Structures

Covers product, geographic, and customer-based divisions and their autonomy benefits. Contrasts with functional structure to sharpen analytical skills.

Lesson 2 • Selecting the Right Structure

Provides a decision framework integrating size, strategy, environment, and technology. Synthesizes the chapter into actionable structural selection criteria.

Lesson 3 • Flat and Holacratic Models

Examines self-managing, flat, and holacratic structures and their applicability. Challenges students to evaluate radical alternatives critically.

Lesson 4 • Network and Platform Structures

Introduces virtual networks, ecosystem platforms, and modular organizations. Reflects contemporary design responses to digital and global markets.

Lesson 5 • Functional Structure Fundamentals

Examines grouping by function, its efficiency benefits, and coordination costs. Provides the baseline structure against which others are compared.

Lesson 1 • Spans, Layers, and Reporting Lines

Analyzes how span of control and hierarchy depth affect cost and agility. Guides students in optimizing reporting structures.

Lesson 2 • Job Design Theories and Models

Reviews Hackman-Oldham job characteristics, job demands-resources, and motivational design. Connects theory to practical role enrichment decisions.

Lesson 3 • Designing for Flexibility and Agility

Explores role fluidity, T-shaped skills, and dynamic role assignment. Prepares students to design roles that adapt to changing demands.

Lesson 4 • Job Analysis and Role Profiling

Covers methods for capturing job content, context, and requirements. Produces role profiles that feed into structure and talent decisions.

Lesson 1 • Lateral and Informal Coordination

Examines cross-functional teams, communities of practice, and informal networks. Addresses coordination needs that formal structures cannot fully meet.

Lesson 2 • Technology-Enabled Coordination

Reviews how workflow tools, collaboration platforms, and data systems support coordination. Connects structural design to digital infrastructure choices.

Lesson 3 • Integrating Roles and Units

Introduces integrator roles, shared services, and centers of excellence. Shows how dedicated integration units reduce structural friction.

Lesson 4 • Formal Coordination Mechanisms

Covers standardization, direct supervision, and formal liaison roles. Provides the structural toolkit for predictable coordination needs.

Lesson 1 • Decision-Making Architecture

Maps decision types, frequency, and stakes to appropriate governance levels. Ensures the right decisions are made at the right organizational level.

Lesson 2 • Governance Frameworks and Bodies

Covers boards, steering committees, and operating councils as governance instruments. Connects governance design to accountability and oversight needs.

Lesson 3 • Policies, Standards, and Controls

Examines how policies and internal controls formalize expected behavior. Balances control with the autonomy needed for agility.

Lesson 4 • Performance Measurement Systems

Designs KPI frameworks and scorecards aligned to structural units. Ensures measurement reinforces rather than undermines design intent.

Lesson 1 • Culture as a Design Variable

Positions organizational culture as both a constraint on and an output of design choices. Prevents students from treating structure as culture-neutral.

Lesson 2 • Leadership Models and Design

Analyzes how leadership style and model requirements vary by structural type. Ensures leadership capability matches the demands of the chosen design.

Lesson 3 • Talent Architecture and Design

Covers workforce segmentation, critical roles, and talent supply chain design. Aligns human capital strategy with structural requirements.

Lesson 4 • Psychological Safety and Design

Explores how structural features enable or suppress psychological safety and innovation. Connects design choices to employee voice and learning.

Lesson 1 • Design Principles and Criteria

Establishes how to derive design principles from strategy and diagnostic findings. Principles serve as decision filters throughout the design process.

Lesson 2 • Generating and Evaluating Options

Introduces structured ideation, option modeling, and evaluation against design criteria. Prevents premature convergence on a single solution.

Lesson 3 • Monitoring and Iterating the Design

Establishes feedback loops, design health metrics, and iteration triggers. Ensures the design evolves as strategy and context change.

Lesson 4 • Diagnostic Phase and Assessment

Covers data collection, stakeholder interviews, and current-state analysis techniques. Produces a design brief that guides subsequent phases.

Lesson 5 • Detailed Design and Blueprinting

Covers org chart development, role definition, and governance documentation. Translates the chosen option into an implementable blueprint.

Lesson 1 • Ambidextrous Organization Design

Introduces structural approaches to balancing exploitation and exploration simultaneously. Addresses the innovation-efficiency tension at the design level.

Lesson 2 • Future-Ready Organizational Models

Surveys emerging models including teal organizations, DAOs, and AI-augmented structures. Equips students to anticipate and design for future organizational forms.

Lesson 3 • Enterprise-Level Design Complexity

Addresses multi-business, multi-geography, and multi-stakeholder design challenges. Extends earlier models to enterprise scale and complexity.

Lesson 4 • Mergers, Acquisitions, and Integration Design

Covers structural integration options and cultural alignment in M&A contexts. Applies design methodology to high-stakes post-merger scenarios.