Business Trends and Tendencies in Organization Design and Work Design Practice: Identifying Cause-and-Effect Relationships

Abstract

Current global business environment has a strong impact on theory and practice of organizations, as well as on working behavior of their employees. Increased complexity and competitiveness is changing settled ways of organizing and working. The ultimate search for the holy grail of achieving organizational effectiveness through better design solutions is gaining momentum. There are many possible areas and means for improvement. Great opportunities emerge from better understanding of contemporary organization and work environment. To seize them, the link between organization design and work design tendencies will be emphasized. Through an in-depth theoretical research on current business trends and their impact on the changing nature of work in organizations, potentially very strong patterns between these two different environmental categories and levels of analysis will be identified. Our extensive analysis of current trends and tendencies in organization design and work design field will provide useful insights for business practitioners and researchers.