This document discusses work organization and labor productivity. It covers topics like organization design at different levels, from jobs to the organization as a whole. Specifically, it discusses two main ways of organizing: functional structures that group by similar activities, and market-oriented structures that group by orders, products, or customers. It also discusses production structures for each approach. Finally, it provides an overview of projects related to sustainable employability, smart organizing in small and medium-sized firms, and workspace design.

1. Work organization
and labor
productivity
Jac Christis

2. The topics
1. Background philosophy: a note on organization design
3. The projects: a quick overview
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3. Organization design
To organize always is
• To differentiate: production structure (P)
• To integrate: control structure (C)
• To inform: information structure (I)
You do so at all organizational levels
• Job level (job design)
• Organization level (organization design)
Job design just is organization design at the lowest level, but
higher level design acts as an enabling constraint for lower
levels
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4. Smart organizing
The integration of organizing at the level of
– the job: stress risks and learning opportunities
– the organization: cost, quality, time
Cost Stress risks
Quality Work organization Job
Time Learning
opportunities
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5. Two ways of organizing
1. Functional structure: you look inside and group around similar
activities
• Constrains task integration at the job level
• Necessitates centralization of control structure
3. Market oriented structure: you look outside and group around
similar orders
• Product-based
• Customer-based
• Project-based
Enables both task integration and the decentralization of the
control structure
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6. Production structure
1. Functional structure:
X1…n X1…n
A B C D E
2. Market oriented structure:
Xa1…n Xa1…n
a b c d e
Xb1…n Xb1…n
a b c d e
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7. Projects
1. Sustainable employability
– Competence management at team level: an alternative form
– Workload control at team level: a diagnostic tool
– Work assignment at team level: smart organizing
• Smart organizing in SMF’s
• Smart organizing at Universities of Applied Science
• Workspace design
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8. Thank you for
your attention