A systematic comparison of three organizational design theories

Abstract

Organizational design theories claim to be genuinely relevant and useful for the design of the organizational structure. This study sets out to analyse the usefulness of three organizational design theories, by reviewing the useful insights they might have to offer toward the purpose of designing organizational structures. In order to be able to critically assess these theories, a framework is needed by which the theories can be analysed. This study starts by developing a theoretical framework, which includes the necessary requirements to critically assess organizational design theories. The study is then followed with a thorough assessment, by systematically reviewing three pre-selected organizational design theories, using the theoretical framework. The three selected theories have a different organizational design approach. The findings of the analysis of the theories does not only result in an overview of the organizational design theories, it also results in some interesting comparative results. The overview and results are not only beneficial for academic scholars, but also for managers or designers in practice, who may not easily find and select the most useful guidelines these design theories offer to support the task of designing organizational structures.