Faculty
Professor William F. Joyce
Objectives
New patterns of competition, new technologies, and basic shifts in values are combining to require fundamental changes in the way that management is practiced. Senior managers report that they face major new challenges and that they feel particularly unprepared to deal with organizing and managing the human side of the enterprise. Organizational Design, in particular, is emerging as the most significant management challenge of the decade.
Early management thinking emphasized the "functions" of a manager- planning, directing, controlling, and staffing the organization. The increasing pace of change in modern society has forced a re-examination of the traditional role of management. Old ideas encouraged stability and order. New management concepts focus on change, creativity and the involvement of the workforce, and consequently require new management skills for implementing them.
The Evergreen Studies identified the key factors that determine a firm’s success. After extensive study of 60,000 pages of analyst’s reports, journalist’s accounts, and interviews with industry and firm experts, four “Foundation Practices” were identified that distinguished “Winner” from “Loser” firms. These practices were:
1. Creating shared, focused Strategy
2. Efficient and effective Execution
3. Fat and fast Organization Design
4. Building an adaptive work Culture
Implementing these practices is the primary responsibility of the executive leadership of the firm. The first of these topics was begun in the AGM class and will be extensively addressed in the Competitive and Corporate Strategy class. The remaining 3 will be addressed in the 8 sessions comprising this course.
A Note on Theory and Practice
In this course we will make considerable use of theory from organization science, strategic management, and organizational psychology. Students should be prepared to participate in graduate level discussions in these areas. Producing leading edge solutions to important practical problems requires this level of understanding at a minimum.
This course, therefore, is about merging theory and practice in order to produce creative, enduring, and effective solutions to the most important issues facing management today- problems of organization design and change.
Requirements
Assessment
A take home case-based examination will be distributed to student mailboxes after class on November 4, and will be due at 5:00 p.m. on November 12. The exam is intended to be a thinking experience aimed at helping integrate course concepts.
The examination will be closed book, closed notes, and open mind, and will emphasize the use of course concepts to logically address a practical problem in organizational alignment and change. Students will have 4 hours to complete the examination, and the exam must be completed in a single seating. Space limitations will apply. All honor code conditions will be respected.
Materials
Grading
Exam 67%
Participation 33%
Schedule
Class 1 - October 14
Introduction
In this session we will review course procedures, grading, and schedule. Following this brief introduction, we will then discuss the concept of organizational alignment and the critical decisions leaders must address to ensure alignment and organizational success.
Class 2 - October 15
The purpose of this session is to help students understand the fundamental leadership actions and tools that are essential to creating lean, fast, and effective organizations.
Before class read: Nohria, Joyce, and Roberson, “What Really Works”
After class read: Hrebiniak and Joyce, Implementing Strategy, Chapters 1 and 5
(Optional)
Class 3 - October 20
Leading Health Care Organizations
This is a Special Joint Session. All classes will meet in Cook auditorium from 1:00-3:00 PM.
Guest Lecture: Leading Health Care Organizations
Paul Gardent
Center for Leadership and Improvement
The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice
Class 4 - October 21
Organizing: Basic Organizing
In this session students apply the ideas presented at the previous lecture to a case that illustrates the trade-off between different management practices and the factors that influence the choice from among these alternatives.
Case: Polaroid
Class 5 - October 22
Organizing: Fast and Flat Organizations
This session focuses on the leadership challenges inherent in managing modern process-driven organizations. The session presents core ideas necessary to understand new organizational forms including matrix, network, process, and front-back structures.
After Class Read: Galbraith, Designing Complex Organizations, Chapters 2 and 5
Hrebiniak and Joyce, Implementing Strategy, Chapter 6 (Optional)
Class 6 - October 28
Fast and Flat Organizations
The purpose of this session if to allow the students to appreciate the challenges in implementing lateral organizations that may violate many traditional principles of management, and to help them develop strategies for overcoming them.
Case: Federal Radar Corporation
Class 7 - October 29
Managing Organizational Change
This session will focus on managing change in organizational design and culture, and will utilize frameworks developed in the GE WorkOut! and Change Acceleration programs. We will utilize an actual change in organizational design to illustrate effective and ineffective change management methods.
Class 8 - November 4
Organization Design at BMW: The ODF Model
This is a Special Joint Session. All classes will meet in Cook auditorium from 1:00-3:00 PM.
Guest Lecture: The BMW Organizational Development Model
Stefan Kramer, BMW
