Organizational Architecture

The authors of Organizational Architecture present new and innovative approaches to designing and structuring organizations, approaches that are now being developed and tested in some of the most well respected companies in the United States. Based on over ten years of consulting with such corporate leaders as AT&T, Corning, Alcoa, American Express, Xerox, and PepsiCo, the authors reveal emerging techniques for answering the challenges senior managers face today--challenges to improve organizational quality, create powerful long-range strategies, tighten operations, and inspire team performance. Organizational Architecture presents a proven model for understanding organizations and demonstrates how the model can be used to effect positive change in both formal and informal organizational systems. It shows how to expertly manage mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and high-performance work systems. It also explains how to bring about enhanced organizational learning, increased risk-taking behavior, and improvements in total quality management strategy. The book gives advice on designing the most effective role for senior management. It recommends a strategic selection process for staffing executive teams, presents a model for executive team effectiveness, and tells how to help executive teams develop collaborative strategy. Finally, it presents ten common misconceptions that ensure corporate decline and summarizes the roles strategy, design, quality, and learning can play in improving corporate competitiveness.