Designing the Adaptive Organization

Organizational design has recently emerged as a field of inquiry in its own right. It has a rapidly developing foundation in theory, method, empirical research, and application. Research and practice in the design of organizations has prescriptive objectives building upon the generalizations from research in both the micro and macro domains of organizational behavior. Organizational design implies the prescription of organizational characteristics presumed to be related to improving the effectiveness of organizations and thereby contributing to the viability and strength of the organization. Organizational design is in contrast to the purely descriptive research that characterizes conventional research in the study of organizations.