Ancona, Managing for the Future

Description of different lenses on organization

Schema defined

A cognitive structure that represents how individuals construct their own maps of the social world

How schemas lead us astray:

Schemas become outdated

Schemas are resistant to change

Schemas become universal rules

Schemas are incomplete

The strategic design lens

How the flow of tasks and information is designed

How people are sorted into roles

How these roles are related

How the organization can be rationally optimized to achieve its goals

The political lens

How power and influence are distributed and wielded

How multiple stakeholders express their different preferences and get involved in (or excluded from) decisions

How conflicts can be resolved

The cultural lens

How history has shaped the assumptions and meanings of different people

How certain practices take on special meaningfulness and even become rituals

How stories and other artifacts shape the feel of an organization

Grouping (differentiation)

Drawing boundaries around clusters of tasks or activities to define jobs, departments, processes

Linking (integration)

Creating links across organizational boundaries

Alignment

Positioning elements of the organization (such as rewards and incentives) to provide access to the resources and the incentives to do the tasks assigned

Task

Basic element of organization design

Smallest unit of activities that need to be performed if organization is to realize strategic goals.