Question

What are the behavioural implications of different organization designs?

Answer 1

Organizational culture influences how employees behave and the design of an organization can affect its culture, thereby also impacting how employees act. In this lesson, we'll discuss the impact organizational structure can have on employee behavior.

Organizational Design & Culture

In organizational behavior, there's an important concept called the principal-agent problem, which essentially suggests that the motivation of an agent, or employee, to behave a certain way rarely aligns with how the principal, or company management, wants the agents to behave. This is how organizational design becomes an organizational behavior topic.

Organizational design is focused on how to structure employees, managers, and departments across the organization. There are many ways to do this, and each has benefits and drawbacks. The important thing to remember for now is that the way employees are organized, relative to each other, can really determine the culture of the organization and thus affect employee behavior.