Big Data – Big Deal for Organization Design?

Abstract

Analytics is an increasingly important source of competitive advantage. It has even been posited that big data will be the next strategic emphasis of organizations and that analytics capability will be manifested in organizational structure. In this article, I explore how analytics capability might be reflected in organizational structure using the notion of “requisite organization” developed by Jaques (1998). Requisite organization argues that a new strategic emphasis requires the addition of a new stratum in the organization, resulting in greater organizational complexity. Requisite organization could serve as an objective, verifiable criterion for what qualifies as a genuine new strategic emphasis. Such a criterion is necessary for research on the co-evolution of strategy and structure.