Mission Mastery: Pillar 2—Organization Design

Brian Dive
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Brian Dive: Fairlawn

Chapter 4 in Mission Mastery, 2016, pp 77-113 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This is the fulcrum chapter of this book. Firstly, because command does not highlight the need for good organization : that had been established centuries ago in a military setting and was therefore taken for granted. Secondly, faulty design is consistently the abiding weakness in the civilian organizations I have encountered around the world in the last 50 years or so. It is the missing link, which undermines their leadership development regimes. Organization design consists of two axes: one horizontal (its reach) the second vertical (its height.) In the 1970s I did a lot of research into effective design of the horizontal axis under the leadership of Roger Roes. We focused on issues of shape, such as geographical, functional, divisional and matrices delving into the right balance between centralisation/decentralisation, spans of control, over specialisation and unnecessary duplication. In the 1980s I realised the driver of effectiveness is the vertical axis. Layers drive spans not the other way round thus it was necessary to have a mental framework to identify the correct height of an organization to ensure the two axes are in equilibrium. My findings revealed many civilian organisations do not have such a framework; hence the focus of this book is on the vertical dimension of the organization not the horizontal linkages, as there is generally no shortage of material on the latter.

Keywords: Organization Design; Global Financial Crisis; District Manager; Leadership Development; Management Management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-25223-0_4

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