This third edition of the groundbreaking book Designing Organizations offers a guide to the process of creating and managing an organization (no matter how complex) that will be positioned to respond effectively and rapidly to customer demands and have the ability to achieve unique competitive advantage. This latest edition includes fresh illustrative examples and references, while the foundation of the book remains the author's popular and widely used Star Model.

Designing Organizations includes a comprehensive explanation of the basics of organization design and outlines a strategic approach to design that is based on the Star Model, a holistic framework for combining strategy, structure, processes, rewards, and people. The book describes the different types of single-business, functional organizations and focuses on the functional structure and the cross-functional lateral processes that characterize most single-business organizations. This new edition highlights the social technologies used to coordinate work flows, products, and services across the company. The author discusses the network organization and reviews the variations of enterprise strategies and their corresponding organizations. He covers classic portfolio strategy and the continuum spanning from related portfolios to unrelated or conglomerate portfolios, with examples of companies following those strategies. The book also includes a special section on the effects of big data on organization design, and whether or not it will result in a new dimension of organizational structure.

Throughout the book, Jay Galbraith brings theory to life with a wealth of examples from such well-known companies as Disney, Nike, IBM, and Rovio (Angry Birds) to show how various kinds of organization designs operate differently.