Org Design, Job Architecture and Workforce Planning: Revision Notes

Organisation design aligns structure, processes, rewards and people with strategy. Chandler (1962): structure follows strategy, as diversifying firms moved from functional to divisional forms. Galbraith’s Star Model: strategy, structure, processes, rewards and people must align; changing structure alone fails. Mintzberg (1979): simple structure (direct supervision), machine bureaucracy (standard processes, e.g., cement), professional bureaucracy (standard skills, e.g., hospitals), divisionalised form (standard outputs), adhocracy (mutual adjustment, e.g., R&D). Burns and Stalker (1961): mechanistic structures suit stable environments, organic ones changing environments.

Six parameters define any structure: specialisation, departmentalisation (by function, product, geography, customer), chain of command and unity of command, span of control, centralisation and formalisation.

Weak, balanced and strong matrices shift authority from function to business. Other forms: front–back (segment fronts, shared backs: banks, telecom), network, agile teams (the “Spotify model” was never fully implemented as described) and holacracy (Zappos). India: HUL’s WiMI (~14–15 consumer clusters with local decision rights on a functional backbone); Tata Sons as holding company over independent firms; MNC subsidiaries with solid- and dotted-line reporting.

Cost leadership needs scale and control, so functional, centralised, formal structures; differentiation needs innovation and speed, so divisional or matrix and decentralised; diversified groups use divisional or holding structures.

Wider spans suit routine work, experienced teams, good systems and co-location; narrower spans suit complex, novel, dispersed or safety-critical work. Corporate averages are often 6–8; spans below 4 suggest excess layers. Example: 1,200 people with 240 managers (span 5) need about 150 managers at span 7. Redesign work before cutting managers.

Job design ranges from specialisation to rotation, enlargement (more tasks, horizontal) and enrichment (more responsibility, vertical). Hackman and Oldham’s five characteristics are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. MPS = ((variety + identity + significance) ÷ 3) × autonomy × feedback, so low autonomy or feedback kills motivating potential. Job crafting is employee-led redesign.

Job architecture classifies all jobs by family (type of work), sub-family, track (professional or management), level (defined by level guides on scope, complexity, autonomy, knowledge and leadership), standard title and grade. A dual career ladder lets experts progress without managing. Benefits: accurate benchmarking, internal equity, visible careers and mobility, clean workforce data, merger integration and title control. Build it by collecting job data, defining families, writing level guides, mapping jobs (with evaluation), rationalising titles, linking to grades, loading into the HRIS with governance, and communicating carefully because titles carry status.

A competency is observable knowledge, skill, ability and behaviour distinguishing effective performance. Frameworks have core, functional and leadership competencies, each with a definition, behavioural indicators and proficiency levels (e.g., basic, intermediate, advanced, expert). They are built from expert panels, critical incidents and behavioural event interviews (McClelland; Spencer and Spencer) and used in selection, performance, development and succession. Pitfalls: too many competencies, vague definitions, frameworks unused in decisions.

Workforce planning forecasts demand and supply of people and skills and plans to close gaps. Operational plans cover 12–18 months; strategic plans three to five years. Steps: scan strategy and environment, forecast demand, forecast supply, analyse gaps, plan actions, monitor.

Demand methods: managerial judgement, Delphi (anonymous expert rounds to consensus), scenario planning, ratio analysis (e.g., 25 pickers per dark store), trend, regression on business drivers and work study. Supply methods: skills inventory, replacement charts and Markov analysis. Example: 200 executives, 60 managers, 15 senior managers with yearly transitions give next-year supply of 150, 68 and about 18.

Close gaps with the 6 Bs: build (reskill), buy (hire), borrow (contractors, gig, fixed-term), bot (automate), bind (retain) and bounce (exit lawfully). Amazon expanded upskilling to US$1.2 billion for 300,000+ employees; Mastercard Unlocked is an internal talent marketplace.

Succession planning identifies critical roles (high impact, hard to fill), defines success profiles, assesses successors (9-box, assessment centres, 360s), classifies readiness (now, 1–2 years, 3+ years) and develops them. Bench strength = share of critical roles with a ready-now successor. Many firms build talent pools rather than one-to-one replacements.

Ulrich (1997) defined four HR roles (strategic partner, change agent, administrative expert, employee champion) and the three pillars: HRBPs, centres of excellence and shared services. Criticisms: hand-offs, HRBPs stuck in transactions, CoEs detached from business. Newer models add self-service, product thinking and agile teams.

Future of work: gig workers (NITI Aayog: 77 lakh in 2020–21 to 2.35 crore by 2029–30), hybrid work, AI-driven redesign (TCS cut about 12,000 roles in 2025), skills-based organisations and internal talent marketplaces.