Articles

The tyranny of the head office? Revisiting corporate headquarters’ (CHQs) role in MNE subsidiary initiatives

What roles should corporate headquarters (CHQs) of multinational enterprises (MNEs) play in foreign subsidiary initiatives? Rather than viewing the MNE’s CHQ as a single, internally homogenous unit, we call fo...

Authors: Alain Verbeke and Wenlong Yuan

Editorial Vol. 9

Authors: John Joseph and Metin Sengul

Organization design as a competitive choice: an application to the study of innovation

This commentary reflects on how a perspective that concentrates on the role of competitive context and sees organization design as a competitive choice may inform the research stream on the link between organi...

Authors: Metin Sengul

What makes self-managing organizations novel? Comparing how Weberian bureaucracy, Mintzberg’s adhocracy, and self-organizing solve six fundamental problems of organizing

The bureaucratic organizational structure has been recently challenged by a number of organizations that claim to offer employee emancipation and autonomy through self-management, self-organizing, or “holacrac...

Authors: Frank Martela

Use hierarchy for “liberating servant leadership” instead of controlling employees

Since the Industrial Revolution, management has relied on hierarchy to control assets and employees. The negative impact of that hierarchical control on employee performance has long been recognized, yet in sp...

Authors: Bill Nobles

Climbing up and down the hierarchy of accountability: implications for organization design

The notion of organizational hierarchy is disputed, also in view of the rise of new organizational forms claimed to have “hierarchies without bosses.” To better understand the contested nature of hierarchy, th...

Authors: A. Georges L. Romme

Setting the stage for corporate headquarters: a technological explanation for the rise of modern industrial corporations

This paper combines theories of organizational design with theories of production to provide a novel perspective, which helps explain the technological forces that led to the rise of vertically integrated “mod...

Authors: Carliss Y. Baldwin

Designing the microstructure of routines

Coordinating organizational routines is a strategic challenge in contexts ranging from healthcare to software development. Yet, we have few theories of the design of routines. This paper compares field data on...

Authors: Tom Steinberger and Ju Yeon Jung

Fading hierarchies and the emergence of new forms of organization

Authors: Stephan Billinger and Maciej Workiewicz

Dynamic attention-based view of corporate headquarters in MNCs

While the usefulness of the attention-based view in understanding the role of headquarters-subsidiary relationships in multinational companies (MNC) is well established, recent research on corporate headquarte...

Authors: Tomi Laamanen

Extending the role of headquarters beyond the firm boundary: entrepreneurial alliance innovation

Prior research on corporate headquarters (CHQ) characteristics identifies the impact of CHQ location and composition on the innovation outcomes of internal subsidiaries. However, given that external strategic ...

Authors: Jaeho Kim and Andy Wu

The Platform Review Alliance Board: designing an organizational model to bring together producers and consumers in the review and commissioning of platform software

Digital networking technology has helped to bring about the platform economy, in which online networking sites mediate between individual freelance workers and their temporary employers. However, the digital p...

Authors: Justin Larner and Åke Walldius

Organization design challenges: results from a practitioner survey

We conducted a survey to identify the most important challenges faced by consultants who support managers in re-designing their organizations. The results indicate that the most frequently encountered challeng...

Authors: Nicolay Worren, Jeroen van Bree and William Zybach

Dealing with headquarters in the multinational corporation: a subsidiary perspective on organizing costs

This study examines how subsidiaries in multinational corporations (MNCs) experience interactions with corporate headquarters. We conceptualize such interactions in terms of organizing costs, focusing on two k...

Authors: Randi Lunnan, Sverre Tomassen, Ulf Andersson and Gabriel R. G. Benito

Primer on artificial intelligence and robotics

This article provides an introduction to artificial intelligence, robotics, and research streams that examine the economic and organizational consequences of these and related technologies. We describe the nas...

Authors: Manav Raj and Robert Seamans

Curating creative communities of practice: the role of ambiguity

Communities of Practice (CoPs), it is argued, are loci for creativity, innovation and problem-solving. Instigating a CoP and harnessing this creative energy from an external position (be it institutional or in...

Authors: Michael Kaethler

How corporate headquarters add value in the digital age

How will digitalization influence the role of corporate headquarters (CHQs) and their relationships with their operating units? We recently asked 67 senior CHQ managers this question. The results suggest that ...

Authors: Jan Schmitt, Benoit Decreton and Phillip C. Nell

The corporate headquarters in organization design theory: an organizational economics perspective

The corporate headquarters (CHQ) is an important part of the organization of large firms; yet, it is neglected in organization design theory. In this brief essay, I argue that we need a better understanding of...

Authors: Nicolai J. Foss

Navigating in a Hierarchy: How Middle Managers Adapt Macro Design

With the emergence of new organizational forms promoting de-layering, downscoping, and self-management, middle managers have been under attack in recent years. Organizational design has traditionally been conc...

Authors: Marianne Livijn

The organizational implications of Brexit

This point-of-view article examines the organizational implications of the UK’s exit from the European Union (Brexit). We identify the effects of Brexit on firms’ transaction costs in cross-border trade within...

Authors: Caterina Moschieri and Daniel J. Blake

Headquarters as hardware and software

The article proposes a framework for thinking about the role and elements of a corporate headquarters. The concept is that headquarters is both a physical place with implications for the culture and work proce...

Authors: Kevin Sharer

Additive manufacturing (“3D printing”) and the future of organizational design: some early notes from the field

Authors: John M. Jordan

Correction to: Bitcoin and the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations

Following the publication of this article [1], it was noted that the author list was incomplete and was missing the following three authors.

Authors: Ying-Ying Hsieh, Jean-Philippe Vergne, Philip Anderson, Karim Lakhani and Markus Reitzig

Exploring reasons for the weekend effect in a hospital emergency department: an information processing perspective

This study examines fits and misfits between information processing requirements and capacities in a hospital emergency department in order to identify possible explanations for the “weekend effect.” Previous ...

Authors: Iben Duvald

Editorial Vol. 8

Authors: John Joseph and Metin Sengul

Implementing design thinking in organizations: an exploratory study

Design thinking has been adopted by organizations in all sectors of the economy. In this qualitative study, I explore organizations’ goals in adopting design thinking, the challenges such programs encounter, a...

Authors: David Dunne

A note on how NK landscapes work

The NK landscape methodology has been used by much research in strategy and organizations, and the concept of “landscape” has become a popular business idea. Despite such popularity, exactly what NK landscapes...

Authors: Felipe A. Csaszar

Bitcoin and the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations

Bitcoin represents the first real-world implementation of a “decentralized autonomous organization” (DAO) and offers a new paradigm for organization design. Imagine working for a global business organization w...

Authors: Ying-Ying Hsieh, Jean-Philippe Vergne, Philip Anderson, Karim Lakhani and Markus Reitzig

Rocket Internet: organizing a startup factory

While some firms build cars or smartphones, Rocket Internet builds companies. The incubator and investment firm has pioneered an extreme approach to new venture creation that is often referred to as a “startup...

Authors: Oliver Baumann, Carsten Bergenholtz, Lars Frederiksen, Robert M. Grant, Rebecca Köhler, David L. Preston and Scott Shane

Ecosystems: broadening the locus of value creation

The objective of this article is to introduce readers to the emerging research stream on business ecosystems, explicating the novelty and the usefulness of ecosystem-based theorizing, and hoping to pave the wa...

Authors: Rahul Kapoor

Collaborative organizational forms: on communities, crowds, and new hybrids

In this article, I examine collaborative organizational forms in terms of their institutional properties and the mechanisms by which they solve the universal problems of organizing. Based on three ideal forms—...

Authors: Vegard Kolbjørnsrud

Field study of complements to supervisory leadership in more and less flexible work settings

Self-management is increasingly required by people in jobs with flexible schedules and locations, freelance arrangements, and other forms of organizational job design. Successful self-management requires a sen...

Authors: Terri L. Griffith, Emma S. Nordbäck, John E. Sawyer and Ronald E. Rice

Research in Journal Of Organization Design, 2012–2018

Articles published in the Journal of Organization Design (JOD) from its inception in 2012 until mid-2018 are reviewed and summarized according to their type: research, point of view, translational, case study, re...

Authors: Charles C. Snow

When firms learn from prior acquisition experience

Acquisition experience is commonly viewed as an important determinant of subsequent acquisition success. Yet, empirical evidence suggests that acquisition experience may not be positively associated with acqui...

Authors: Kalin D. Kolev and Jerayr (John) Haleblian

Evolution of the Journal and the Field of Organization Design

This commentary reflects on how the themes in the Journal of Organization Design have evolved along with the field of organization design itself. Using topic modeling of abstracts, I assess the key topics or them...

Authors: John Joseph

Analyzing competing demands in organizations: a systematic comparison

Organizational scholars have shown increasing interest in the ways in which managers enact and respond to competing demands and the tensions they prompt as constitutive elements of their organizations. There is n...

Authors: Medhanie Gaim, Nils Wåhlin, Miguel Pina e Cunha and Stewart Clegg

The science of organizational design: fit between structure and coordination

Organization design is a major factor determining an organization’s performance and how the people work together in these organizations. In the paper, we argue that designing organizations should be scientific...

Authors: Richard M. Burton and Børge Obel

Editorial Vol. 7

Authors: Børge Obel, Charles Snow, John Joseph and Metin Sengul

Post-merger integration

This article discusses post-merger integration (PMI) and the trade-off between the economic benefits and costs that arise when organizations merge under a new organizational structure and reconfigure their bus...

Authors: Julia Bodner and Laurence Capron

Constructing M&A valuation: how do merger evaluation methods differ as uncertainty and controversy vary?

We investigate the idea that firms’ choices of M&A evaluation methods are influenced by two socio-political factors that arise in the behavioral theory of the firm—uncertainty and controversy. In doing so, we ...

Authors: Hyoung-Goo Kang, Wonseok Woo, Richard M. Burton and Will Mitchell

Transitioning from a hierarchical product organization to an open platform organization: a Chinese case study

Organizations around the world are designing new forms of organizing in order to deal with the challenges of advances in information technology and digitization that promote increases in customization and inno...

Authors: Jiao Luo, Andrew H. Van de Ven, Runtian Jing and Yuan Jiang

On organizing: an interview with James G. March

In this interview with Professor James G. March, we focused on the key insights stemming from his work, with a special emphasis on the lessons for organization science and organization design. We discussed the...

Authors: Jiyang Dong, James G. March and Maciej Workiewicz

The matrix as a transitory form: the evolution of FMC technologies 2001–2016

The matrix structure is sometimes presented as an inevitable “end point” for organizations that must adapt to an increasingly complex business environment. However, observations of the structure of firms do no...

Authors: Nicolay Worren

GitHub: exploring the space between boss-less and hierarchical forms of organizing

In this edition of the organizational zoo series, we take a closer look at an interesting organization design case—GitHub, a software company from California. Similar to Valve, the subject of the previous arti...

Authors: Richard M. Burton, Dorthe Døjbak Håkonsson, Jackson Nickerson, Phanish Puranam, Maciej Workiewicz and Todd Zenger

Design, Perception and Behavior in the Innovation Era: Revisiting the Concept of Interdependence

The innovation era has seen firms adopting a variety of organization designs with autonomous teams as their basic building blocks. Such organization designs have confronted firms with the challenge of managing...

Authors: Abdelghani Es-Sajjade and Terry Wilkins

Challenges to large-scale digital organization: the case of Uber

Mobile computing, the so-called Internet of Things, and the rapid expansion of Internet connectivity all over the world are combining to challenge long-standing assumptions about the mission, function, and rea...

Authors: John M. Jordan

Evolutionary psychology: theoretical foundations for the study of organizations

This article provides an introduction to evolutionary psychology and its relevance to organizational design theory and practice. Evolutionary psychology assumes that human nature reflect adaptations to an ance...

Authors: Mark Van Vugt

Business models, value capture, and the digital enterprise

Firms across all industries are embracing internet-based digitization strategies to expand or improve their business. In many cases, though, internet-based businesses pursue customer growth ahead of profits. T...

Authors: David J. Teece and Greg Linden

Designing the digital organization

Increasingly, organizations are assessing their opportunities, developing and delivering products and services, and interacting with customers and other stakeholders digitally. Mobile computing, social media, ...

Authors: Charles C. Snow, Øystein Devik Fjeldstad and Arthur M. Langer

Seeing through the network: Competitive advantage in the digital economy

Firms operate in an environment that is increasingly permeated with digital technology. The incorporation of digital technology into products, services, and operations has significant implications on how firms...

Authors: Thorsten Koch and Josef Windsperger