S.1.6 Org. Design & the digital Transformation

Question 1

Digitalization

Answer 1

a sociotechnical process of applying digitizing techniques to broader social and institutional contexts.

Question 2

Contingency theory

Answer 2

sees all organizations as having to deal with contingencies that will shape the organization’s design as it adapts to them.

Question 3

Mechanistic organizations

Answer 3

keynote is machine-like predictability and efficiency achieved by tightly prescribing job designs that employees have little or no part in creating.

Question 4

Organic organizations

Answer 4

are flexible and innovative, facing continuous and turbulent changes in markets, customer preferences, technologies and regulations. Decision-making processes are decentralized and organization design flatter.

Question 5

Characteristics of an agile organizational design

Answer 5

• Flexible work teams
• Flat hierarchies
• Informal and direct communication
• Transparency/“openness”

Question 6

Agile as an organizational design

Answer 6

• Adaptive instead of predictive
• Iterative instead of “waterfall”
• Code instead of documentation

Question 7

Open innovation:

Answer 7

the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation,
respectively.

Question 8

Organizational design in distributed innovation systems

Answer 8

Principle 1: Interface Design
-Interfaces enable communication between heterogeneous elements while maintaining their differences
-Steering via interface’s inherent “affordances”
Principle 2: Design of Architectures of Participation
- “Open participation” approach
-Chance for contributions increased by breaking down complex tasks:
-modular (decomposed into small sub-problems)
-granular (every input matters)
Principle 3: Design of Evaluative Infrastructures
-Creation of visibilities (e.g., reputation, trust)
-Selections based on post-hoc evaluations instead of pre-given criteria

Question 9

Isomorphism:

Answer 9

a similarity in form, referring to a situation in which organizational designs and practices in different organizations are nonetheless similar.

Question 10

Institutional theory

Answer 10

focuses on how organization designs and practices become cultural capital through a coercive, mimetic or normative isomorphism that hastens their adoption elsewhere.

Question 11

Rationalized myths

Answer 11

are beliefs and practices that organizations adopt as being efficient and effective, thus granting legitimacy.

Question 12

Embeddedness

Answer 12

is the recognition that economic action is grounded in social relations.

Question 13

M-form organizations

Answer 13

have a hub of central services linked to spokes with profit centres that are usually specialized in terms of either products or regions.

Question 14

In matrix organizations

Answer 14

reporting relationships are grid-like rather than traditionally hierarchical. Employees report to both a functional and a product manager.

Question 15

A network

Answer 15

can be understood as a long-term relationship between organizations that share resources to achieve common goals through negotiated actions.

Question 16

In networking

Answer 16

independent organizations form networks in which the other organizations have complementary skills to achieve something that neither alone would be able to manage.

Question 17

Design thinking

Answer 17

recommends a conjoined process of inspiration, ideation and implementation.