How to Link the Efforts of an Organization

Jeroen van Bree

Chapter 8 in Organization Design, 2021, pp 137-163 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Linking refers to the integration of effort, which is the second of the two interlinked problems at the core of organization design (the first being the division of labor). The extent of linking necessary will depend on the design decisions made with regard to the division of labor. Linking mechanisms are needed to address interdependencies that remain in the structure that was designed. There are six types of interdependence. Goal interdependence and task interdependence are the two most important ones and will exist in almost any structure. The other types of interdependence are around sharing and leveraging resources (funding, support services, brand names, etc.), sharing knowledge, working according to standards, and delivering to the same market. Interdependencies in a structure can be identified using these six categories. Only the most critical interdependencies should be addressed in the organization design. The linking mechanisms available to organizations are authority, rewards, management processes, tacit coordinating mechanisms, and lateral roles and teams. These linking mechanisms differ in terms of complexity and cost and in terms of their formalization. The least expensive linking mechanism that adequately addresses the critical interdependence in question should be chosen. Remaining interdependencies can be addressed by informal means of coordinating.

Keywords: Organization design; Integration of effort; Linking stage; Coordinating mechanisms; Coordination; Collaboration; Rewards; Authority; Interdependence; Management processes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-78679-3_8

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783030786793

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-78679-3_8

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().