Deep Dive into Organizations
W1 - Organizational Archetypes and Strategic Design
Organizations = systems of coordinated action among individuals and groups whose preferences, information, interests or
knowledge differ.
- Organizations exist to coordinate the actions of multiple people who have different information, interests, and
goals.
- Four universal problems of organizing:
o Taks division (How do we break down the work?)
o Task allocation (Who does what?)
o Information provision (How do people coordinate?)
o Reward provision (Why should people contribute?)
Organizational structure = A form of organising is therefore a specific combination of solutions to these four problems.
- How it solves these problems differently compared to traditional organizations is what makes an organizational
form ‘new’.
Take-aways:
- Organizational structure is not just hierarchy; it is how coordination happens
- All organizations solve the same basic problems
- New organising forms (e.g. flat firms) rethink how to solve them
- Understanding structure helps you design better, more adaptive organizations
Organization (structure) = System of roles + relationships + processes to coordinate activity and
allocate resources.
- Structure matters because of: speed, clarity, cost, accountability
Organizational archetypes (structures)
- Fundamental points:
1. Optimises the allocation/use of resources
2. Helps make administration easier
3. Improves business stability
4. Promotes specialisation of individuals
5. Fosters growth/development
6. Supports a sense of culture
- Important archetypes:
o Traditional Hierarchical Structure
▪ (+) Clear chain of command, defined roles
▪ (-) Slows decision-making, no cross-department collaboration
▪ Innovation fit: Low
▪ Example: traditional industrial firm (e.g. Amazon & Apple)
o Functional Structure
▪ (+) Based on specialised roles & functions
▪ (-) Silos, reducing cross-departmental collaboration
▪ Innovation fit: Moderate (needs bridges)
▪ Example: manufacturing with separate departments (e.g. car
manufacturer)
o Divisional Structure
▪ (+) Flexibility, divisions based on market, region, product focus, semi-
autonomous
▪ (-) Duplication of effort
▪ Innovation fit: Moderate (cross-division tensions)
▪ Example: consumer goods by category (e.g. Pepsi Co.)
o Modern (Flat) Structure
▪ (+) Less middle management, speed & autonomy
▪ (-) Role blur at scale, difficult to manage when grow
▪ Innovation fit: High (early stage)
▪ Example: startup stage (tech company) -> E.g. TU Delft?
o Modern Matrix Structure
▪ Report to both a functional manager (e.g. marketing, engineering) and a project or product
manager
, ▪ Combines functional and project-based structures to improve:
coordination, flexibility, and responsiveness in complex environments
▪ (+) Employees can work across functions, cross-functional
collaboration
▪ (-) Dual-authority (confusion and role conflict, power struggles
between managers)
▪ Innovation fit: High (with role clarity)
▪ Example: large tech/services (e.g. IBM)
o Modern Network Structure
▪ (+) Focus on core + partner ecosystem
▪ (-) Partner coordination risk/challenges
▪ Innovation fit: High (encourages agility; outsourcing non-core tasks)
▪ Example: in-house design/marketing + external production (e.g. Nike)
o Innovative and Agile Structure
▪ Self-Managed: a decentralised structure with self-organising teams
• (+) Boosts speed, decision right
• (-) Lack of formal leadership, teams optimise only local goals
• Innovation fit: High (more experiments in parallel)
▪ Team-Based: teams, rather a rigid hierarchy, responsible for specific goals
• (+) Work organised around stable cross-functional teams
• (-) No decision clarity, conflicts potential
• Innovation fit: High (speed delivery and customer learning)
▪ Project-Based: temporary project teams, a defined scope, budget, and end
date
• (+) Useful for one-off transformation
• (-) Lack of post-project operations or support
• Innovation fit: High
*If you combine self-managed, team-based and project-based, you will end up with modern
network structure or Modern Matrix Structure.
Strategic Design = the application of design principles and methods to shape: direction, strategy, and WHERE and HOW an
organization creates long-term value, innovation.
- Combines design thinking & strategic planning to: drive strategic decisions, solve complex problems & provides
meaningful solutions
- Goes beyond creating products, services, or visuals: uses design practices to shape and guide an organization’s
strategic direction
- Helps to:
o Diagnose the organizational set-up (structure, decision rights, culture)
o Frame direction (goals, value drivers, sustainability practices)
o Intervene with evidence: small, testable changes to rules, roles, and interfaces
o Measure impact using near-term and outcome
- Activities:
o User research, Prototyping and testing, Cross-disciplinary collaboration, Long-term, sustainable impact
embedded in decision-making and knowledge sharing
- Key components:
1. Holistic Perspective: considering the entire ecosystem
2. Alignment with Business Goals: ensures that design efforts are closely aligned with the
organization’s strategic objectives
3. User-Centric: emphasises on understanding and addressing the needs, behaviours, and experiences
of users
4. Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: involves collaboration across various functions to
5. ensure cohesive and comprehensive solutions
6. Long-Term Impact: focuses on creating sustainable value and long-term implications
7. Iterative Process: employs iterative methodologies to ensure solutions are viable and effective
8. Innovation-Driven: encourages creative problem-solving & innovation for complex challenges
, W2 - Organizational Theory and Structure
Google’s Hybrid Structure
- Function-Based: departments organised by core business functions, led by specialised executives
- Product-Based Divisions: parallel teams organised around product lines like Search, Ads, and Cloud services,
enabling focused development
- Relative Flatness: reduced middle layers to support direct communication and fast decision-making
- Overall Benefit: this structure helps Google manage a diverse portfolio while maintaining flexibility and innovation
Structures:
- Top-Down: A centralised system where decisions are made at the top
o Processes are carried out under the direction of the project manager,
who: guides the team on all operations necessary to fulfil objectives
o Example: military, where commands are given by high-ranking officers
and followed by lower ranks
- Bottom-Up: Ideas, decisions & initiatives originate from employees at lower
levels: managers act more as facilitators than command-givers
o Employees actively shape strategy, processes, and problem-solving -> high employee engagement vs.
risk of misalignment
Organizational coordination = how interdependent tasks are integrated, so collective work can happen
- Five coordination mechanisms (i.e. building blocks of structure)
o plans and rules
o object and representations (schedule, prototypes, dashboards)
o roles
o routines (recurring sequences)
o proximity (physical or virtual interaction)
How coordination mechanisms work in practice:
1. Plans/rules: define responsibilities and allocate resources (e.g. protocols)
2. Objects/responsibilities: prototypes, maps, dashboards that let different groups see the same thing and share
tacit know-how
3. Roles: boundary spanners translate across groups and enable substitution when someone’s missing
4. Routine: repeated, predictable practice (same people, same steps, same timing)
5. Proximity: ways of working that put people close enough (physically or virtually) to interact
Good coordination produces: accountability (clarity on who
is responsible for what), predictability (knowing what will
happen, and when) and common understanding (shared
view of goals, and tasks).
Organizational Structure VS Organizational theory: Each
structure (functional, flat) depends on these mechanisms to
coordinate.
Topic Organizationanl Structure Organizational Theory
Plain meaning Structure of people/units and decision routes Explanations of which structure will fit the work
Typical forms Functional, Divisional, Ecosystem Classic, Humanistic, Contingency
Main question How are we organised? Why will this set-up work here, given our tasks and constraints?
Time scale Today’s arrangement (can be changed) General rules you can reuse across cases
Core artefacts Tangible things like org charts or job descriptions Conceptual tools, ways of seeing and diagnosing problems
Failure symptom Silos, rework, slow approvals, unclear ownership We reorganised but nothing improved (we picked the wrong pattern)
- Organizational Structure: HOW we are arranged to work (teams, reporting lines, decision rights, handovers)
- Organizational Theory: WHY that arrangement fits the work and WHEN to change it (explanations and lenses that
predict what will work in which conditions)
o Key concepts:
▪ Organizational Structure: Formal and informal arrangements, how works are coordinated, and
controlled
▪ Organizational Behaviour: How individuals and groups act. Motivation, teamwork, leadership, &
overall performance
• Understanding organizational behaviour is essential for managers: a positive work
environment and improve employee performance
▪ Organizational Culture: Shared values, beliefs, and assumptions that shape the behaviour of
individuals
• unwritten rules that govern how things are done within an organization
• Impact of culture:
W1 - Organizational Archetypes and Strategic Design
Organizations = systems of coordinated action among individuals and groups whose preferences, information, interests or
knowledge differ.
- Organizations exist to coordinate the actions of multiple people who have different information, interests, and
goals.
- Four universal problems of organizing:
o Taks division (How do we break down the work?)
o Task allocation (Who does what?)
o Information provision (How do people coordinate?)
o Reward provision (Why should people contribute?)
Organizational structure = A form of organising is therefore a specific combination of solutions to these four problems.
- How it solves these problems differently compared to traditional organizations is what makes an organizational
form ‘new’.
Take-aways:
- Organizational structure is not just hierarchy; it is how coordination happens
- All organizations solve the same basic problems
- New organising forms (e.g. flat firms) rethink how to solve them
- Understanding structure helps you design better, more adaptive organizations
Organization (structure) = System of roles + relationships + processes to coordinate activity and
allocate resources.
- Structure matters because of: speed, clarity, cost, accountability
Organizational archetypes (structures)
- Fundamental points:
1. Optimises the allocation/use of resources
2. Helps make administration easier
3. Improves business stability
4. Promotes specialisation of individuals
5. Fosters growth/development
6. Supports a sense of culture
- Important archetypes:
o Traditional Hierarchical Structure
▪ (+) Clear chain of command, defined roles
▪ (-) Slows decision-making, no cross-department collaboration
▪ Innovation fit: Low
▪ Example: traditional industrial firm (e.g. Amazon & Apple)
o Functional Structure
▪ (+) Based on specialised roles & functions
▪ (-) Silos, reducing cross-departmental collaboration
▪ Innovation fit: Moderate (needs bridges)
▪ Example: manufacturing with separate departments (e.g. car
manufacturer)
o Divisional Structure
▪ (+) Flexibility, divisions based on market, region, product focus, semi-
autonomous
▪ (-) Duplication of effort
▪ Innovation fit: Moderate (cross-division tensions)
▪ Example: consumer goods by category (e.g. Pepsi Co.)
o Modern (Flat) Structure
▪ (+) Less middle management, speed & autonomy
▪ (-) Role blur at scale, difficult to manage when grow
▪ Innovation fit: High (early stage)
▪ Example: startup stage (tech company) -> E.g. TU Delft?
o Modern Matrix Structure
▪ Report to both a functional manager (e.g. marketing, engineering) and a project or product
manager
, ▪ Combines functional and project-based structures to improve:
coordination, flexibility, and responsiveness in complex environments
▪ (+) Employees can work across functions, cross-functional
collaboration
▪ (-) Dual-authority (confusion and role conflict, power struggles
between managers)
▪ Innovation fit: High (with role clarity)
▪ Example: large tech/services (e.g. IBM)
o Modern Network Structure
▪ (+) Focus on core + partner ecosystem
▪ (-) Partner coordination risk/challenges
▪ Innovation fit: High (encourages agility; outsourcing non-core tasks)
▪ Example: in-house design/marketing + external production (e.g. Nike)
o Innovative and Agile Structure
▪ Self-Managed: a decentralised structure with self-organising teams
• (+) Boosts speed, decision right
• (-) Lack of formal leadership, teams optimise only local goals
• Innovation fit: High (more experiments in parallel)
▪ Team-Based: teams, rather a rigid hierarchy, responsible for specific goals
• (+) Work organised around stable cross-functional teams
• (-) No decision clarity, conflicts potential
• Innovation fit: High (speed delivery and customer learning)
▪ Project-Based: temporary project teams, a defined scope, budget, and end
date
• (+) Useful for one-off transformation
• (-) Lack of post-project operations or support
• Innovation fit: High
*If you combine self-managed, team-based and project-based, you will end up with modern
network structure or Modern Matrix Structure.
Strategic Design = the application of design principles and methods to shape: direction, strategy, and WHERE and HOW an
organization creates long-term value, innovation.
- Combines design thinking & strategic planning to: drive strategic decisions, solve complex problems & provides
meaningful solutions
- Goes beyond creating products, services, or visuals: uses design practices to shape and guide an organization’s
strategic direction
- Helps to:
o Diagnose the organizational set-up (structure, decision rights, culture)
o Frame direction (goals, value drivers, sustainability practices)
o Intervene with evidence: small, testable changes to rules, roles, and interfaces
o Measure impact using near-term and outcome
- Activities:
o User research, Prototyping and testing, Cross-disciplinary collaboration, Long-term, sustainable impact
embedded in decision-making and knowledge sharing
- Key components:
1. Holistic Perspective: considering the entire ecosystem
2. Alignment with Business Goals: ensures that design efforts are closely aligned with the
organization’s strategic objectives
3. User-Centric: emphasises on understanding and addressing the needs, behaviours, and experiences
of users
4. Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: involves collaboration across various functions to
5. ensure cohesive and comprehensive solutions
6. Long-Term Impact: focuses on creating sustainable value and long-term implications
7. Iterative Process: employs iterative methodologies to ensure solutions are viable and effective
8. Innovation-Driven: encourages creative problem-solving & innovation for complex challenges
, W2 - Organizational Theory and Structure
Google’s Hybrid Structure
- Function-Based: departments organised by core business functions, led by specialised executives
- Product-Based Divisions: parallel teams organised around product lines like Search, Ads, and Cloud services,
enabling focused development
- Relative Flatness: reduced middle layers to support direct communication and fast decision-making
- Overall Benefit: this structure helps Google manage a diverse portfolio while maintaining flexibility and innovation
Structures:
- Top-Down: A centralised system where decisions are made at the top
o Processes are carried out under the direction of the project manager,
who: guides the team on all operations necessary to fulfil objectives
o Example: military, where commands are given by high-ranking officers
and followed by lower ranks
- Bottom-Up: Ideas, decisions & initiatives originate from employees at lower
levels: managers act more as facilitators than command-givers
o Employees actively shape strategy, processes, and problem-solving -> high employee engagement vs.
risk of misalignment
Organizational coordination = how interdependent tasks are integrated, so collective work can happen
- Five coordination mechanisms (i.e. building blocks of structure)
o plans and rules
o object and representations (schedule, prototypes, dashboards)
o roles
o routines (recurring sequences)
o proximity (physical or virtual interaction)
How coordination mechanisms work in practice:
1. Plans/rules: define responsibilities and allocate resources (e.g. protocols)
2. Objects/responsibilities: prototypes, maps, dashboards that let different groups see the same thing and share
tacit know-how
3. Roles: boundary spanners translate across groups and enable substitution when someone’s missing
4. Routine: repeated, predictable practice (same people, same steps, same timing)
5. Proximity: ways of working that put people close enough (physically or virtually) to interact
Good coordination produces: accountability (clarity on who
is responsible for what), predictability (knowing what will
happen, and when) and common understanding (shared
view of goals, and tasks).
Organizational Structure VS Organizational theory: Each
structure (functional, flat) depends on these mechanisms to
coordinate.
Topic Organizationanl Structure Organizational Theory
Plain meaning Structure of people/units and decision routes Explanations of which structure will fit the work
Typical forms Functional, Divisional, Ecosystem Classic, Humanistic, Contingency
Main question How are we organised? Why will this set-up work here, given our tasks and constraints?
Time scale Today’s arrangement (can be changed) General rules you can reuse across cases
Core artefacts Tangible things like org charts or job descriptions Conceptual tools, ways of seeing and diagnosing problems
Failure symptom Silos, rework, slow approvals, unclear ownership We reorganised but nothing improved (we picked the wrong pattern)
- Organizational Structure: HOW we are arranged to work (teams, reporting lines, decision rights, handovers)
- Organizational Theory: WHY that arrangement fits the work and WHEN to change it (explanations and lenses that
predict what will work in which conditions)
o Key concepts:
▪ Organizational Structure: Formal and informal arrangements, how works are coordinated, and
controlled
▪ Organizational Behaviour: How individuals and groups act. Motivation, teamwork, leadership, &
overall performance
• Understanding organizational behaviour is essential for managers: a positive work
environment and improve employee performance
▪ Organizational Culture: Shared values, beliefs, and assumptions that shape the behaviour of
individuals
• unwritten rules that govern how things are done within an organization
• Impact of culture:
