Chapter 3. Reorganization as a Change Lever

...a core dilemma for executives and leaders is how to maintain stability in their organizations and, at the same time, provide creative adaptation to outside forces; stimulate innovation; and change assumptions, technology, working methods, roles, and relationships, and the culture of the organization itself.

—Richard Beckard and Reuben T. Harris, Organizational Transitions

For many years senior management has placed emphasis on reorganization through hierarchies and structures to improve productivity and to achieve better alignment with corporate objectives. Indeed, this approach has been effective in many circumstances to achieve improvements in results, although the changes do little to enhance the way the work itself is performed. As observed by Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith of the McKinsey Group:“For literally hundreds of years hierarchies and structures have helped organizations create wealth through focusing, dividing up, and setting useful boundaries around jobs, tasks, and responsibilities.”^[1]