Home / Summaries / Designing effective organizations : how to create structured networks / unit-broad-reporting

A taxonomy of unit roles - What to specify

4 important questions on A taxonomy of unit roles - What to specify

What is meant with broad responsibilities?

Make the broad remit (opdracht) clear, but leave the details to be determined by the unit. Specify what sort of responsibility the unit has (f.e. market-focused). The unit needs to know what sort of resources and authority it will have.

It is important to specify whom to report to and the nature of this reporting. What variety of levels of influence are there?

At one end parents are closely invovled in the decisions made by the main operating functions reporting to them. At the other end corporate parents adopt a hands-off role (believing they don't have enough knowledge to intervene)

Whats the value of the 5 types of lateral relationships?

It lies in their ability for teams to capture the intended orientation towards each other. It provide guidance on how to conduct itself, without imposing detailed process design.

Summarize what needs to be specified in the design intentions?

The designer needs to lay out in broad terms what the unit is supposed to be doing (broad responsibilities), how it is supposed to work with other units (reporting and lateral relationships), and how its performance will be assessed (main accountabilities).

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Designing effective organizations : how to create structured networks | 9780787960643 | Michael Goold, et al

View summary