By SocialArchitecture, we mean the human structures that support the culture and day-to-day operations of an organization.
There are or may be many structures that organizations have put in place that define the basic SocialArchitecture. Among these are the form that the organization takes to represent the formal working relationships between individuals (boss/subordinate, for example) and teams or departments (function to function, for example). Three kinds of social architectures commonly found are:
- Flat: Flat organizations keep reporting hierarchies to a minimum and encourage collegial interactions. They are more participatory and interactive structures that are found frequently in places like research and development environments.
- Hierarchical: Hierarchical organizations are, as the name suggests, more top down, command and control structures, found frequently in organizations that replicated products or services, like manufacturing or technical maintenance organizations.
- Clumpy: The clumpy organization houses both the flat and hierarchical arrangements, and maybe some other structures as well, like the typical notions of matrix management.
The
SocialArchitecture of clumpy organizations challenges its members to be aware of and work well across different ways of working and different styles of management. The leadership style needed for flat organizations to succeed is situational and actually different from the leadership needed to run hierarchical ones. Blending the two is also not an uncommon feature of modern companies.
CategoryManagement
Social Architecture