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Strategic Organizational Design

3-0-6 units · Graduate

Focuses on effective organizational design in both traditional and innovative organizations, with special emphasis on innovative organizational forms that take advantage of new information technologies. Topics include when to use functional, divisional, or matrix organizations; how IT creates new organizational possibilities; examples of innovative organizational possibilities, such as democratic decision-making, crowd-based organizations, and other forms of collective intelligence. Team projects include inventing new possibilities for real organizations.

Spring 2011

Topics

  • What is strategic organizational design?
  • Case: eBay
  • Why are things changing?
  • Case: InnoCentive
  • Basic organizational designs
  • Case: Wikipedia
  • How are things changing?
  • Case: Threadless
  • Case: TopCoder
  • Self-organizing communities
  • Organizational change in crowds
  • Project team presentations
  • Project team presentations (cont.)

Readings

  • Malone, Thomas W. The Future of Work . Harvard Business School Press, 2004. ISBN: 9781591391258.
    Listed reading
  • Kates, Amy, and Jay R. Galbraith. Designing Your Organization . Jossey-Bass, 2007. ISBN: 9780787994945.
    Listed reading
  • Surowiecki, James. The Wisdom of Crowds . Anchor/Random House, 2005. ISBN: 9780385721707.
    Listed reading
  • Tapscott, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything . Portfolio/Penguin, 2006. ISBN: 9781591841388.
    Listed reading
  • Hamel, Gary. The Future of Management . Harvard Business School Press, 2007. ISBN: 9781422102503.
    Listed reading
  • Howe, Jeff. Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business . Crown Business, 2008. ISBN: 9780307396204.
    Listed reading
  • [Malone] = Malone, Thomas W. The Future of Work . Harvard Business School Press, 2004. ISBN: 9781591391258.
    Listed reading
  • “A Time to Choose.” Chapter 1 in [Malone].
    Listed reading
  • Saloner, Garth, Andrea Shepard, and Joel Podolny. “Comparative Advantage.” Chapter 3 in Strategic Management . Wiley, 2000. ISBN: 9780471380719.
    Recommended
  • Frei, Frances X., and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar. “eBay (A): The Customer Marketplace.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-602-071, August 29, 2001.
    Listed reading
  • “An Amazing Pattern.” Chapter 2 in [Malone].
    Listed reading
  • “The Amazing Pattern in Business.” Chapter 3 in [Malone].
    Listed reading
  • Tapscott, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. “Wikinomics.” Chapter 1 in Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything . Portfolio/Penguin, 2006. ISBN: 9781591841388.
    Listed reading
  • Stroll, Clifford. “ The Internet? Bah! ” Newsweek , February 26, 1995. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Hamel, Gary. “Moon Shots for Management.” Harvard Business Review Magazine , February 2009.
    Recommended
  • Malone, Thomas W., and Robert J. Laubacher. “Dawn of the E-Lance Economy.” Harvard Business Review 76, no. 5 (1998): 144-152.
    Recommended
  • Lakhani, Karim R. “InnoCentive.com (A).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-608-170, June 10, 2008.
    Listed reading
  • 5 · Basic organizational designs · Kates, Amy, and Jay R. Galbraith. “Fundamentals of Organization Design.” Chapter 1 in Designing Your Organization . Jossey-Bass, 2007. ISBN: 9780787994945.
    Listed reading
  • Piskorski, Mikolaj Jan , and Alessandro L. Spadini. “Proctor and Gamble: Organization 500 (A).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-707-519, January 23, 2007.
    Listed reading
  • Edelman, Benjamin, and Thomas R. Eisenmann. “Google Inc.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-806-105, January 28, 2010.
    Listed reading
  • Kane, Tim. “ Why Our Best Officers are Leaving .” The Atlantic , January/February 2011. ↗
    Recommended
  • “Loosening Up the Hierarchy.” Chapter 4 in [Malone].
    Listed reading
  • Green, Heather. “ How Meetup Tore Up the Rule Book .” Business Week , June 5, 2008. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Paine, Lynn Sharp, and Sarah Mavrinac. “AES Honeycomb (A) and (B).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Cases: 9-395-132 and 9-395-122, December 9, 1994.
    Listed reading
  • Sorensen, Jesper, and Sara Gaviser Leslie. “Siemens: Building a Structure to Drive Performance and Responsibility (A) and (B).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Cases: SM181A-PDF-ENG and SM181B-PDF-ENG, October 7, 2010.
    Listed reading
  • “Unleashing Markets.” Chapter 6 in [Malone].
    Listed reading
  • Excerpt from “Lessons About Markets.” Chapter 7 in [Malone], pp. 104-109.
    Listed reading
  • Huston, Larry, and Nabil Sakkab. “Connect and Develop: Inside Proctor and Gamble’s New Model for Innovation.” Harvard Business Review 86, no. 3 (2006).
    Listed reading
  • Gottfredson, Mark, Rudy Puryear, and Stephen Phillips. “Strategic Sourcing: From Periphery to the Core.” Harvard Business Review 10, no. 2 (2005): 132-139.
    Listed reading
  • Bourdreau, Kevin J., and Karim R. Lakhani. “How to Manage Outside Innovation.” MIT Sloan Management Review 50, no. 4 (2009): 69-76.
    Listed reading
  • Kotter, John P. “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail.” Harvard Business Review , March-April 1995.
    Listed reading
  • Ibarra, Herminia, and Nicole Sackley. “Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide (A) and (B).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Cases: 9-495-031 and 9-495-032, January 26, 1995.
    Listed reading
  • Poe, Marshall. “ The Hive .” The Atlantic , September 2006. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Lakhani, Karim R., and Andrew McAfee. “Wikipedia (A).” Harvard Business School Multimedia Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-607-712, February 22, 2007.
    Listed reading
  • Malone, Thomas W., Robert Laubacher, and Chrysanthos Dellarocas. “ The Collective Intelligence Genome .” MIT Sloan Management Review 51, no. 3 (2010): 21-31. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Surowiecki, James. Introduction and Chapter 1 in The Wisdom of Crowds . Anchor/Random House, 2005. ISBN: 9780385721707.
    Listed reading
  • ———. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 in The Wisdom of Crowds . Anchor/Random House, 2005. ISBN: 9780385721707.
    Recommended
  • Lakhani, Karim R., and Zahra Kanji. “Threadless: The Business of Community.” Harvard Business School Multimedia Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-608-707, June 30, 2008.
    Listed reading
  • “Harnessing Democracy.” Chapter 5 in [Malone].
    Listed reading
  • Hamel, Gary. “Building An Innovation Democracy.” Chapter 5 in The Future of Management . Harvard Business School Press, 2007. ISBN: 9781422102503.
    Listed reading
  • Colchester, Max. “ One Team Gets 26,000 Owners—All With a Vote on Who Plays .” The Wall Street Journal , January 2, 2008. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Hempel, Jessi. “ Big Blue Brainstorm .” Business Week , August 7, 2006. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Howe, Jeff. Excerpt from Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business . Crown Business, 2008, pp. 223-233. ISBN: 9780307396204.
    Listed reading
  • “Bringing the Market Inside.” Chapter 7 in [Malone].
    Listed reading
  • “When Should You Decentralize?” Chapter 8 in [Malone].
    Listed reading
  • “Coordinating Activities.” Chapter 9 in [Malone].
    Listed reading
  • 19 · Self-organizing communities · Evans, Philip, and Bob Wolf. “Collaboration Rules.” Harvard Business Review 83, no. 7 (2005): 96-104.
    Listed reading
  • Howe, Jeff. “iStockPhoto.” Case study in Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business . Crown Business, 2008, pp. 7-8, 182-196. ISBN: 978-0307396204.
    Listed reading
  • ———. “Current TV.” Case study in Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business . Crown Business, 2008, pp. 197-210. ISBN: 9780307396204.
    Listed reading
  • “Cultivating People.” Chapter 10 in [Malone].
    Listed reading
  • “Putting Human Values at the Center of Business.” Chapter 11 in [Malone].
    Listed reading
  • Hamel, Gary. “Creating a Community of Purpose.” Chapter 4 in The Future of Management . Harvard Business School Press, 2007. ISBN: 9781422102503.
    Listed reading
  • Kelly, Kevin. “ We Are the Web .” Wired Magazine , August 2005. ↗
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Prereq: None G (Fall) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-6 units

Sources