By the late 1960's, the American academic, James Thompson, overcame a major limitation of Woodward's earlier technology typology by including both manufacturing and service organisations. Technology, an important factor in contingency theory, assumed that the type of technology determined an organisation's most effective internal structure. Thompson based...

The Canadian academic, Henry Mintzberg, synthesised organisational design literature into five ideal organisational forms or configurations that do not exist in the real world, but provide consultants and managers a framework to understand and design organisational structures. Mintzberg defined organisational structure as "the sum...

The American organisation design specialist, Jay Galbraith, regarded organisations as information processors. He theorised that the more uncertain an organisation is about its task, the greater its need for information processing. An organisation can achieve a higher level of information processing capacity through:more coordination using rules...

Blue Ocean Strategies (BOS) denote strategies that result in the creation of new markets. Red oceans represent markets where incumbents' Red Ocean Strategies (ROS) are fairly similar and rivals are battling over a shrinking profit pool. Blue oceans are new markets where BOS, in the form of value innovation, create powerful leaps in value for both the firm...