The emergence and evolution of the multidimensional organization

California Management Review

Volumn 51, Issue 4, 2009, Pages

  Strikwerda, J ^a   Stoelhorst, J W ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 70349197661     PISSN: 00081256     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/41166503     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (33)

1. John Roberts, The Modern Firm: Organizational Design for Performance and Growth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 2.
2. Oliver E. Williamson, The Economic Institutions of Capitalism (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1985), p. 279.
3. Alfred D. Chandler, Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of American Enterprise (Cambridge, MA; MIT Press, 1962).
4. Oliver E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1975).
5. Neil Fligstein, "The Spread of the Multidivisional Form Among Large Firms, 1919-1979", American Sociological Review, 50(1985):377-391.
6. Alfred P. Sloan, My Years with General Motors (Hammondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, [1962] 1986).
7. Williamson (1975), op. cit.
8. Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell, Strategies and Styles: The Role of the Centre in Managing Diversified Corporations (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987);
9. Michael E. Porter, "From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy", Harvard Business Review, 65/3(May/June 1987):43-59.
10. For the concept of "theory in use", see Donald A. Schön, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (Aldershot, UK: Arena, 1991).
11. Jay R. Galbraith, Designing Matrix Organizations That Actually Work (San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass, 2009).
12. Samuel J. Palmisano, "The Globally Integrated Enterprise", Foreign Affairs, 85/3(May/June 2006):127-136.
13. Jay R. Galbraith, Designing the Customer-Centric Organization: A Guide to Strategy, Structure, and Process (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2005):112.
14. Russell L. Ackoff, "Towards Flexible Organizations: A Multidimensional Design", Omega, 5/6(1977):649-662;
15. Christopher A. Bartlett, "How Multinational Organizations Evolve", The Journal of Business Strategy, 3/1(Summer 1982):20-32;
16. William C. Coggin, "How the Multidimensional Structure Works at Dow Corning", Harvard Business Review, 52/1(January/February 1974):54-65;
17. C. K. Prahalad, "The Concept and Potential of Multidimensional Organizations", in F. Stevens, ed., Managing Managers (Eindhoven: N. V. Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken, 1980), pp. 159-176;
18. C. K. Prahalad and Yves, L. Doz, "Strategic Reorientation in the Multidimensional Organization", Graduate School of Business Administration, The University of Michigan, Working Paper No. 195, 1979.
19. For well-designed matrix organizations, see Galbraith (2009), op. cit.
20. For ABB, see Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, "Beyond the M-Form: Toward a Managerial Theory of the Firm", Strategic Management Journal, 14(Special Winter Issue 1993):23-46.
21. For more in-depth and critical discussions, see Christian Berggren, "Building a Truly Global Organization? ABB and the Problems of Integrating a Multi-Domestic Enterprise", Scandinavian Journal of Management, 12/2(1996):123-137;
22. Winfried Ruigrok, Leona Achtenhagen, Mathias Wagner, and Johannes Ruegg-Sturm, "ABB: Beyond the Global Matrix Towards the Network Multidivisional Organization", in Andrew Pettigrew and Evelyn Fenton, eds., Processes and Practices of New Forms of Organizing (London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000). For network organizations,
23. see Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell, "Structured Networks: Towards the Well-Designed Matrix", Long Range Planning, 36/5(October 2003):427-439.
24. Jay R. Galbraith, Organization Design (Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1977).
25. See also Galbraith (2009), op. cit. Note that we focus on the planning and control process, which is essential to the operation of the multidimensional organizations we studied. We do not discuss operational processes, which differ widely across the firms.
26. See also Galbraith (2005), op. cit.
27. Peter F. Drucker, "The New Society of Organizations", Harvard Business Review, 70/5(September/October 1992):95-104.
28. Among the seven multidimensional firms in the sample, six firms are performing well. ABN AMRO is the exception. Under pressure from activist shareholders that were dissatisfied by the performance of its shares, it has recently been taken over by a consortium of three competitors and broken up. This illustrates that the multidimensional organization, like any form of organization, is certainly no panacea.
29. C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel, "The Core Competence of the Corporation", Harvard Business Review, 68/3(May/June 1990):79-91;
30. Bartlett and Ghoshal, op. cit.
31. Drucker (1992), op. cit., p. 100.
32. Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2004);
33. Sherwin Rosen, Markets and Diversity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004).