Does this sound familiar?
Five things that keep repeating — how many apply to you?
Structural problems often look like people problems. These five are frequently created by structure, not by people.
Your selections are not saved. Use this list as a starting point for an internal conversation.
Why it repeats
Why it repeats — structure shapes the work
Structure should follow purpose — strategy (Chandler 1962). In many organizations it is instead reverse-engineered from the people currently in place, and the structure itself keeps producing the problems.
Figure: an organization’s communication structure and the structure of what it produces mirror each other (Conway 1968; MacCormack, Baldwin & Rusnak 2012)
An organization’s communication structure and the structure of what it produces mirror each other.
Conway 1968; MacCormack, Baldwin & Rusnak 2012
Different kinds of interdependence between tasks call for different ways of coordinating.
Thompson 1967
Splitting (differentiation) and connecting (integration) are both needed, depending on the environment.
Lawrence & Lorsch 1967
Organization design means choosing coordination mechanisms to match the amount and uncertainty of information.
Galbraith 1973
How a job is designed — autonomy, meaning, feedback — is linked to motivation.
Hackman & Oldham 1976
Organizations come in a few basic configurations, and the fit depends on the situation.
Mintzberg 1979
The imitation trap
The imitation trap — under uncertainty, organizations copy others
Learning from other companies and new methods is valuable. The problem is copying the form without being able to judge what to adopt, and why.
When the future is unclear, organizations tend to imitate others that appear successful.
DiMaggio & Powell 1983
Management techniques have fashions; how fast they spread and how well they work are different things.
Abrahamson 1991
When things don’t work, revisit not only the method but the assumptions behind it.
Argyris 1977
Look at the connections in the whole, not only at optimizing the parts.
Senge 1990
Theory, then practice
Theory taught, practice supported
Training aligns the theory of organization design; coaching accompanies you while you apply it to your own structural decisions. This is a proposal, not a description of past results.
TRAINING = CLEAR THEORY Learn the theory of organization design
Customized training, built from scratch to your needs, gives your leaders a shared language for structural decisions.
- Structure and work, interdependence and coordination, differentiation and integration
- Designed for executives, managers and team leads
- The public Systems Thinking course is another entry point
COACHING = SUPPORT GROUNDED IN REALITY Work through your own structural decisions
Based on interviews and observation with executives and managers, we lay out the options and their rationale together — so that you can choose, rather than being handed an answer.
- Coaching for Executives and Managers
- Can be combined with coaching for Product Owners, Scrum Masters and developers
- Duration and frequency proposed after a needs assessment
Applications
LeSS, Scrum and Systems Thinking are applications of the theory
Our certified training programs are leading examples of applying this theory to work. Start from the theory or from an application — whichever fits your situation.
Certified LeSS Training
A framework that applies organization-design theory to product development with multiple teams.
View DetailsScrum Alliance® Certified Training
Learn how structure and roles work, starting from a single team.
View DetailsSystems Thinking (public course)
Learn to see the connections in the whole — in a small group.
See public courses (training.tech-kai.com)Key points for your internal brief
Use as a draft for an internal proposal (our suggestion; no figures included).
- Problem
- Structural decisions rely on experience and intuition, and the same problems repeat.
- Approach
- Learn established organization-design theory (training) and apply it to our own structural decisions (coaching).
- Target state
- We can explain in our own words why we change structure, and choose rather than copy.
- How
- Free first consultation → needs assessment → quote → start small. Public courses are an option for a few people.
- Evidence
- Reference list at the end of this page (author, year). No folk laws or unsourced statistics.
Share of establishments reporting problems with human resource development, and why
79.9% of establishments in Japan report some problem with human resource development. Among those establishments, the problems cited (multiple answers) are a shortage of people who can train others (59.5%), people leaving after being trained (54.7%) and no time for development (47.4%) (FY2024 survey, establishment survey)
Theory behind this page
- Chandler 1962
- Conway 1968
- Lawrence & Lorsch 1967
- Thompson 1967
- Galbraith 1973
- Mintzberg 1979
- Hackman & Oldham 1976
- MacCormack, Baldwin & Rusnak 2012
- DiMaggio & Powell 1983
- Abrahamson 1991
- Argyris 1977
- Senge 1990
Full list: Theoretical background and sources
We Promote Improvement
The first consultation is free. We listen to your challenges and goals, then propose what fits best.
Get Your Certification
One or a few people? Start with a public course — certified training and Systems Thinking are open for booking.