Organization Design: Creating Strategic & Agile Organizations

Very detailed and informative and challenging book.

This is an excellent textbook for a student or an entrepreneur, or even someone in HR who needs a refresher on how the employees come together to create a hopefully well-structured profitable business. Strategy is everything and that goes hand in hand with valuing the employees, and the text illustrates how the design of such when well done is one where everyone can thrive.

Initially I had thought that this book was about the Agile approach in the workplace but really it is more of a textbook on Organizational Design (OD) methodology and practice. The book does not push a particular method or fad approach (think Agile approach!) but emphasizes that there is no one design that will fit all companies.If you have been part of a team utilizing the Agile approach, you either love it or hate it and a lot of that depends on your group cohesion and your scrum master handling the team progress. For IT teams, the process has been shown to be quite effective. For the rest of us it can often feel like a high school group project with the responsible adult holding everyone accountable. However, it encourages a fast pace and keeps management involved, which they love. The process is covered in Chapters 9 and 10 of the book with the remainder of the text devoted to the how's and why's of successful organizational design for processes that suit the company.This is a well written and accessible textbook although, like many textbooks, it hovers on being quite a dry read.

I was a bit underwhelmed by this book; not bad per se but simply lacking any type of major impact. It's easy to following, provides a very basic framework from which to start yet doesn't really allow the user sufficient insight into the nitty gritty details required to put into implementation. I'd call this a solid overview.

Only like the overall description of the model. So The first two o three chapters were good. The rest felt like unnecessary details of each part of the model. I had to use if for a class but ended looking for the information elsewhere.

This is intended as a textbook, but it also makes a great reference book. It has a nice level of depth that would be great for an introductory undergrad or graduate course. It goes over the basics starting with key concepts and theories (chapter 2), then moves into strategy (chapter 3) and structures (chapter 4). Then it goes into processes (chapter 5) and people (chapter 6), which are the two chapters I found the most interesting as it gets to the culture. The following chapters go through rewards (chapter 7) and managing change (chapter 8), and then finally agility (chapter 9). It is very logically organized and clearly written. A good resource.

"Organization Design: Creating Strategic & Agile Organizations" by Donald L. Anderson is meant for classroom use but it is also good as a reference book. It is smart and accessible. For those already in the workplace, it offers a refresher of familiar ideas and a presentation of newer ideas to help adjust for changing marketplace for consumer and also to attract prospective employees. A solid read that is worth a look.