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The Fundamentals of Organisational Design: What It Is and Why It Matters

The larger an organisation gets, the more complex and nuanced the connections and interrelations among its various parts become. Yet even in the smallest organisations, effective cooperation and collaboration across its different parts are essential to organisational success. This sort of human capital management can make or break an organisation.

Organisational design, also known as organisational architecture, is a process that works to optimise the way in which different elements of an organisation communicate and cooperate. It is a key part of the organisational development process, and for any organisation that has yet to implement this sort of optimised restructuring, the results can be truly game-changing.

What Is Organisational Design?

Organisational design can be best understood as the process of reshaping an organisation to achieve maximum alignment of structure, process, rewards, metrics, and talent with the organisation’s business strategy. It is a fine mix of objective science and intuitive art, and there are a variety of possible design structures to implement, so embarking on this journey without professional assistance can be daunting.

According to a report by Deloitte, it can have enormous positive impacts on productivity and profitability, but also run the risk of entrenching structural problems if done poorly. It is not a process to be embarked on lightly, and though the return can be incredible, one also risks the damage of fixing something that isn’t broken. With Orgro’s assistance, your organisation can go through the five stages of organisational design as efficiently as possible and reap the benefits without the risks.

The Five Stages of Organisational Design

Discovery: Here problems in organisational design structure are identified, and possible solutions set forward, until both the problems and the optimal solutions are clear.
Strategic Grouping: Here the necessary groupings of work to deliver the decided strategy are determined.
Integration: Here the boundaries created by work groupings are opened, delivering results across the organisation.
Talent and Leadership: Here, the hierarchy of the organisation is finalised, determining the number of positions, profiles of ideal candidates, and implementing leadership structures.
Transition: Here the overall plan is implemented in a careful and sustainable way to make sure the new and improved structures take.

As you can see, there is a lot of room for error in such a complex process. Organisational design, being a mix of art and science, requires both skill and experience to take it effectively from start to finish. It is also just one stage in the organisational development process, and forms part of a larger structure of human capital management. While this means that there are many risks and moving parts to this kind of organisation-wide shake-up, they can be largely mitigated by undertaking the process with the support of experienced professionals. So much productivity and even profit is needlessly lost to a sub-optimal organisational structure, and once the organisational design and restructuring process has been completed, its benefits will be immediately apparent.

The Very Best in Organisational Design Services

This is one of our areas of speciality, ensuring that our services make approaching any massive task of organisational design and restructuring can be done with confidence. You can rest assured that your organisation’s restructuring is in safe hands with Orgro. If you would like to know what we can do for your business, contact us today to see how we can help you optimise the structure of your organisation.