Normative Design of Organizations - Part II: Organizational Structure

Abstract

This paper presents a multiobjective structural optimization process of designing an organization to execute a specific mission. We provide mathematical formulations for optimization problems arising in Phases II and III of our organizational design process (Phase I was presented in Part I of this paper [56]) and polynomial algorithms to solve the corresponding problems. Our organizational design methodology applies specific optimization techniques at different phases of the design, efficiently matching the structure of a mission (in particular, the one defined by the courses of action obtained from mission planning) to that of an organization. It allows an analyst to obtain an acceptable tradeoff among multiple mission and design objectives, as well as between computational complexity and solution efficiency (desired degree of suboptimality).