Designing Organizations A Very Brief Introduction

When (re-)designing organizations, one must first be clear about what is meant by the structures of an organization and what can be done in order to change them. In this book, we present communication channels, programs and personnel as central structures. We also unfold the aspects that come to the forefront when one focuses on either the formal, the informal or the display side of an organization. At the core, we elaborate on how structures cause blind spots, and how these can be utilized for processes of change.

Foreword.- The Organization—What Is It, and How Can It Be Understood?—Introduction.- Beyond an Instrumental-Rational Narrowing in the Design of Organizations.- How Can Organizational Structures Be Designed?.- On Working with Latencies—Conclusion.

Stefan Kühl is professor of sociology at the University of Bielefeld in Germany and works as a consultant for Metaplan, a consulting firm based in Princeton, Hamburg, Shanghai, Singapore, Versailles and Zurich.

Judith Muster works as a sociologist for the chair of organizational and administrative sociology at the University of Potsdam in Germany. At the same time, she is a senior consultant at the consulting firm Metaplan, where she consults companies in logistics, the automotive sector and the media industry in the areas of digital transformation, re-organization and strategy development. In her research she focusses on the topics of leadership, the limits of organizing, decision-making and digitalization