More Than Org Charts for A Built To Change Shift

The readings this week about organization design was amazing, and timely for me as I went through my workweek because I charged with designing our 2012 convention press operations shop, save money, find workers and build a structure that would meet our overall DNCC needs.

In the first of this week’s reading, I was struck by that fact that to ensure that organizations will be able to change is to build them to change (Lawler & Worley, 2006), I was quickly reminded of two books I had read just a few years ago Built to Last and Good to Great by Jim Collins. At the time I read Collins’ books I was looking to expand my own boutique PR consulting firm. Collins’ books seemed to be the current biblical guide of how to build a great, successful company. Yet, this week I was challenged to think differently which lead me to examine my current organization, my given task assigned and my role within it.

A team project, short term, with more than 50% of the employees who have relocated just to work with this organization. I joined this temporary work environment, assuming it would be designed based on Max Weber’s hierarchical bureaucratic framework organization like most government or political offices. We all, no matter what department we are assigned to or “specialize” in functionally, have one common strategic goal. It is the same goal, that is set for the Democratic National Convention Committee every four years, create “a world-class event” where democrats from all across the United States can gather to nominate their presidential candidate. With precise repetition the employees change, some return for different positions with better titles and higher salaries. And others join the ranks with no previous convention, sometimes even political experience. But, no matter how or where you join the team, there is a hierarchy that rules.

But in this week's reading on organizational design, one might not view a temporary organization such as one established solely for the purposes of creating an event, a built to change organization. I have come to realize that is exactly what these organizations are. Yet, most do not function as such. However, from my perspective inside the gates, the DNCC is in fact a built to change organization. Yet it is designed within the traditional hierarchy design matrix.

Yet, according to Nitin Nohria in Notes on Organization Structure (1991), "the structure of an organization is far more complex than drawing an organizations chart of lines and boxes." That has never been truer for me than was evident this week in my job.

The first week of September 2012, some 15,000 members of the media from around the world will descend upon the "Queen City" - that's the nickname given to Charlotte, NC. I spent the better part of this week working on the press operation organization that will provide product and services to the media for four days across three venues. I was charged with reorganizing the press operations organization.  I had no idea, prior to week two of our CMGT 500 class, that what I was actually doing was designing an organization. While I had given thought to what positions I needed and how those positions would look on an organizational chart I would create. I did not realize the intricate complexities and thinking I needed to do while designing this massive operation.

Traditionally the press operations organization was built based on Weber's hierarchy organization theory. However, in 2012 with technological, environmental, changes we needed to design the structure, strategy, process, rewards, etc for a flexible ever changing organization. One that could not only change its directional course within moments, while not being caught in a hierarchical approval process but also bring on the right people for the right jobs, many of whom would be volunteers. These volunteers would only find motivation based on the rewards I could offer, rewards such as housing, credentials, food vouchers, and transportation. So the question I asked myself was where on Maslow's needs chart did I have to create an organization that would provide the people and the motivation they needed to stay the course - potentially for 16 hour days doing tasks that for some where beneath their daily jobs.

I initially set our to create an org chart of "lines and boxes" until I learned that the optimal practices and designs are those that create high-performance organizations that are ready and able to change. Although there are a variety of features that contribute to an organization that is “built to change” and effective, the role of rewards and motivation in promoting change is one of the more important (Worley & Lawler, 2006). It was then that I learned the flexibility and benefits of a built to change organization. I immediately scraped my Visio created org chart and began to design an organization to meet the following strategic goals of the DNCC who’s mission was to set the stage for some 6,000 state delegates to nominate the sitting U.S. President as their candidate for office.

REFERENCES

Worley, C. & Lawler, E. (2006) Designing Organizations That are Built to Change. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48 (1), 19-23.

Worley, C. & Lawler, E. (2006) Winning Support for Organizational change: Designing Employee Reward Systems That Keep on Working. Ivey Business Journal, The Workplace, March/April. Retrieved from http://www.iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/the-workplace/winning-support-for-organizational-change-designing-employee-reward-systems-that-keep-on-working