IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/simgam/v47y2016i6p851-865.html

Reconfigure

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolay Worren
  • Tido Eger
  • Thorvald Hærem

Abstract

Background . Organization design is a subject that is covered in business school courses such as strategy implementation, organizational theory, and organizational behaviour. However, students sometimes perceive organization design concepts as abstract. Aim . To develop and pilot a simulation that may improve participants’ understanding of two key organization design concepts - work process interdependency and coordination cost . In addition, to develop an approach that may contribute to better operationalization of these concepts in future research. Method . Participants are divided into groups representing departments and are then asked to reconfigure the groups while considering both benefits (reduced coordination costs) and costs (of reconfiguration). The exercise is supported by a MicrosoftExcel TM tool, quantifying the concepts of interdependency and coordination cost. Results . The pilot application of the simulation achieved its pedagogical aims. The participants performed somewhat better than anticipated (some possible causes are discussed). Conclusions . Experiential simulations can be used to convey complex organization design principles to students and managers. They may also be used to study the capacity of individuals and groups to take into account multiple interdependencies in optimizing a design at the individual, group and system level. Recommendation . Simulations should be used to enhance the pedagogical value of organization design lectures (or seminars for employees in organizations).

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolay Worren & Tido Eger & Thorvald Hærem, 2016. "Reconfigure," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 47(6), pages 851-865, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:simgam:v:47:y:2016:i:6:p:851-865
    DOI: 10.1177/1046878116667777
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1046878116667777
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1046878116667777?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Daniel Sherman & Robert T. Keller, 2011. "Suboptimal Assessment of Interunit Task Interdependence: Modes of Integration and Information Processing for Coordination Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 245-261, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dietrichson, Jens, 2013. "Coordination Incentives, Performance Measurement and Resource Allocation in Public Sector Organizations," Working Papers 2013:26, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    2. Nicolay Worren & Federico Cammelli, 2025. "Role grouping experiments: a new method for studying organization re-design decisions," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 14(3), pages 169-187, September.
    3. Johann Piet Hausberg & Peter S. H. Leeflang, 2019. "Absorbing Integration: Empirical Evidence On The Mediating Role Of Absorptive Capacity Between Functional-/Cross-Functional Integration And Innovation Performance," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(06), pages 1-37, August.
    4. Nicolay Worren & Tore Christiansen & Kim Verner Soldal, 2020. "Using an algorithmic approach for grouping roles and sub-units," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, December.
    5. Dietrichson, Jens & Gudmundsson, Jens & Jochem, Torsten, 2014. "Let's Talk It Over: Communication and Coordination in Teams," Working Papers 2014:2, Lund University, Department of Economics, revised 18 Apr 2018.
    6. Dietrichson, Jens & Jochem, Torsten, 2014. "Organizational coordination and costly communication with boundedly rational agents," Comparative Institutional Analysis Working Paper Series 2014:1, Lund University, Comparative Institutional Analysis, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Andrea Pontiggia & Giovanni Fasano, 2021. "Data Analytics and Machine Learning paradigm to gauge performances combining classification, ranking and sorting for system analysis," Working Papers 05, Venice School of Management - Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    8. Abdelghani Es-Sajjade & Terry Wilkins, 2017. "Design, Perception and Behavior in the Innovation Era: Revisiting the Concept of Interdependence," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 6(1), pages 1-12, December.
    9. Dahai Li & Huan Wang & Yang Li, 2023. "Incentive Mechanisms for Thermal Power Generation Enterprises with Conflicting Tasks: Electricity Production versus Carbon Emission Reduction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-22, July.
    10. Runsten, Philip, 2017. "TEAM INTELLIGENCE: THE FOUNDATIONS OF INTELLIGENT ORGANIZATIONS - A Literature Review," SSE Working Paper Series in Business Administration 2017:2, Stockholm School of Economics.
    11. Dietrichson, Jens & Gudmundsson, Jens & Jochem, Torsten, 2022. "Why don’t we talk about it? Communication and coordination in teams," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 257-278.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:simgam:v:47:y:2016:i:6:p:851-865. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.