Microstructure of Organizations

This book synthesizes a decade of research by the author into fundamental issues in organization design. The result is a novel micro-structural perspective on organizations, which aims to both expand and narrow current thinking. The new perspective takes an expansive view on the kinds of phenomena that can be studied in terms of organization design- such as cross-functional teams, strategic partnerships, buyer-supplier relations, alliance networks, mega-projects, post-merger integration, business groups, open source communities, and crowdsourcing, besides traditional concerns with bureaucratic organizations. At the same time, this approach narrows focus by abstracting away from the variety and complexity oforganizations to a few fundamental and universal problems of organizing (that relate to how they aggregate their members' efforts), as well as a few reusable building blocks microstructures (which capture common patterns of interaction between members of an organization). The microstructural approach to organizations will be of interest to researchers and PhD students in management, organization science, and strategy.

I had been certain that our understanding of organizational structure had progressed little since the 1970s. But Puranam's compact volume has convinced me otherwise, and I would encourage anyone interested in organization design or corporate strategy to read it.

Phanish Puranam is Roland Berger Chair Professor of Strategy & Organization Design at INSEAD. He is also Academic Director of INSEAD's PhD programme. Phanish's research focuses on organization design and corporate strategy. He has published extensively in internationally reputed academic journals, and has served in senior editorial roles in such journals. His research has won international awards and competitive grants awarded across the social and naturalsciences. Phanish obtained his PhD at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, and was on the faculty of London Business School till 2012.