Designing for Balance: Rethinking Coordination and Control in Organizational Design A framework-synthesis of Mintzberg, Stanford, Galbraith and the IOD approaches
Keywords
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Issue Date
2025-06-26
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
This thesis studies the conceptual differentiation of coordination and control within the organisational design field. The focus is on enhancing the Integral Design (IOD) framework by exploring the works of Mintzberg (1979, 2023), Stanford (2013, 2022), and Galbraith (1973, 1974, 2014). It is a literature-based framework-synthesis around the main books of each author. While coordination is broadly acknowledged as a response to division of labour and integration of effort, control understanding expands from traditional command-and-control to strategic adaptability, or decentralised decision-making. The study reveals overlapping and interconnected characteristics of coordination and control mechanisms, highlighting their practical inseparability. Additionally, the thesis proposes a theoretical refinement of IOD design rules by: (1) acknowledging the importance of lateral relations, including soft aspects in design, creating a pre-phase of redesign and being more contextually dependent.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen