The What of Org Design: What Can Be Designed
Organization design focuses on how an organization is intentionally set up to deliver on its purpose. It is about the choices that shape how work is organized, how decisions are made, and how people collaborate to create value. You may also hear it described as an organizational model or an operating model, reflecting its focus on how the organization actually runs.
The term “OD” is sometimes used to refer to organization design or organization development. While these disciplines are related, they address different questions about how organizations function.
Organization development, by contrast, focuses on how the organization evolves over time. It emphasizes learning, leadership capability, and collective growth, creating the foundation for continuous improvement. In practice, the two disciplines are closely connected. Design choices shape the environment in which people learn and grow, and development efforts can reveal gaps or constraints in the current design that may need to be addressed.
There are many definitions of organization design. Some highlight alignment between strategy and structure, while others emphasize coordination across teams or integration of effort across organizational boundaries. The European Organisation Design Forum defines organization design as “a systematic and holistic approach to aligning and fitting together all parts of an organization to achieve its defined strategic intent.” What unites different perspectives is a shared understanding that organization design is about deliberately shaping how work gets done to achieve desired outcomes.
Organization design acts as the connective tissue between aspiration and execution. It translates strategic intent into the everyday realities of roles, workflows, and decision making. It is not a one-off choice made by a single leader, nor is it limited to reorganizations or reporting lines. At its best, organization design is a collective and thoughtful process that considers how an organization will deliver on its ambitions, whether that is innovation, growth, or operational resilience.
Crucially, organization design is not only about structure. It is about the full system that enables the organization’s purpose. Productivity, culture, and behavior are not designed directly. They emerge from the design choices that are made. This reflects a modern view of organizations as living systems, shaped by interconnected elements that continuously influence one another.
A widely used way to think about this system is Galbraith’s Star Model. Different versions of the model have adjusted the dimensions slightly, but the real value lies not in the labels but in the framework’s ability to provide a holistic lens on the organization as a system. It helps leaders connect strategic conversations with organizational realities and make design choices that are deliberate and coherent.
The Star Model highlights five core elements that must work together, guided by the organization’s strategic intent:
Task
The critical work that links strategy to execution. When this work is clearly defined and well designed, it directly enables the organization’s goals.
Structure
How work is grouped and distributed across teams or units. Structure defines boundaries and relationships, shaping how different parts of the organization connect to deliver value.
Information and decision processes
The flows of work, knowledge, and decisions across the organization. When these are not intentionally designed, productivity and collaboration suffer.
Rewards
The incentives that reinforce priorities and shape behavior. Reward systems send powerful signals about what is truly valued and expected.
People
The skills, mindsets, and leadership capabilities required for the system to function. Design choices influence how people experience their roles, grow, and contribute.
Galbraith did not treat culture as a separate design lever. Instead, culture emerges from how these elements interact. From this perspective, every design shapes the lived experience of people at work.