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Organisation Design

Organisation design encompasses more than just structure and reporting lines: leadership, culture, vision, people management, and the systems and operations more generally all form part of an organisation's design. Some of the elements looked at in this module include how teams are grouped - for example, by functional areas or by customer segments; whether reporting is flat or in a matrix structure; and what decision-making structures exist. This module considers the strengths of an organisation's design and how it impacts upon its efficiency.

Overview assessment
The Framework Questions cover how an organisation's design deals with strategic priorities, decision making, accountability, and communication.

Detailed assessment
Please contact the NAO Efficiency Centre Team for further information and to discuss how a detailed assessment can be applied at your organisation. The Detailed Assessment materials contain information specifically about organisation structures - bureaucratic, divisional and matrix - and some advantages and disadvantages of each in terms of efficiency.

Other sources include
'The creation of Ofcom: wider lessons for public sector mergers of regulatory agencies': This report looks at the costs and challenges of organisational change in the merger of five regulatory bodies to create the Office of Communications (Ofcom)