How is organizational design adapting to such evolutionary change?
MT: First, let’s define what we call ‘organizational architecture.’ From the perspective of managing change, it encompasses not only organizational structure, but perhaps more importantly, core competencies, processes, and organizational culture. It is the firm’s hardware and software that must be integrated to swiftly execute business strategy. In successful firms, we find all of these elements changing simultaneously. Naturally, it becomes a very complex management task. EE: What do you see as being the greatest barriers to organizational change? CO: I think that unquestionably it’s the tendency for many companies to develop a strong comfort level based on current success. They often become complacent, almost arrogant, about their success. They focus solely on doing what they now do better, rather than building the foundations for what they’ll need to be doing when the world around them has substantially changed. MT: In Leading Change and Organizational Renewal, we begin by helping m
