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March 8th 2018

Designing Adaptable Organisations for Tomorrow’s Challenges

Written By Amy Kates, Greg Kesler and Gillian Pillans

  • Tags
  • Organisation Development & Change
  • HR & Organisation Effectiveness

Today’s organisations operate in a complex, digitally disrupted environments marked by continuous change. . Organisations are experiencing fundamental shifts in their business models and have to constantly adapt their teams, networks, and structures to remain competitive.Creating and sustaining an organisation design that simultaneously enables growth, innovation, and market responsiveness while benefiting from economies of scale can be a key source of competitive advantage.

This research report reviews the latest thinking in organisation design, exploring how organisations are seeking to resolve a core tension: how to balance the need for agility and responsiveness to customer needs while achieving the benefits of operating at a global scale. We present examples of the strategies different organisations are pursuing, provide practical recommendations, and consider how HR can build expertise in this critical capability.

Topics include:

  • What is organisation design and why is it a critical capability for HR?
  • Designing a suitable global operating model that enables execution of business strategy.
  • Jay Galbraith’s STAR Model, which shows how strategy, structure, process, people practices, and metrics/rewards interact systematically to deliver business strategy.
  • How to deploy innovation and execution networks to improve coordination of activities across organisational silos.
  • How to use organisation design techniques to resolve the core tension between achieving organisation agility and  benefiting from global economies of scale.
  • The evolving role of the corporate centre, from centralised to centre-led.
  • Specific design implications arising from three strategic imperatives affecting most organisations: building digital capability; moving from a products- to solutions-driven business model; and balancing the need for efficiency with driving innovation and growth.
  • Exploring HR’s role in organisation design and how to build capability in this key area.

 

The research report is available to CRF members only. To access the report, please log in with your username and password. If you are not a member of the CRF network, you can still access the executive summary of the report.

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This resource is available to CRF members only. To access, please log in with your username and password. If you are not a member of the CRF network and are interested in membership please contact Richard Hargreaves, Commercial Director, on +44 (0) 20 3457 2640 or at richard@crforum.co.uk.

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