DORTHE DØJBAK HÅKONSSON

Why did you agree to serve on the ODC board?

As a young PhD student in organization design, I was often met with the comment: "Organization Design? Isn’t that what they used to study back in the seventies?". 

That perception has certainly changed over the last decade! The change in perception is due to a lot of insightful organization design research having been published in the top tier journals – just as it is due to many more companies dealing with issues related to design in modern times. But I also believe that the change in perception is due to the Organization Design Community, where we’ve managed to assemble a wonderful set of great minds and spirits, all interested in discussing and promoting the latest thinking within the field of organization design, serving to promote the field as an intriguing area.

As a researcher, it makes a lot of sense to serve ODC’s mission of bringing together "an international community of scholars, executives, and organizations dedicated to advancing the theory and practice of organization design" and to seek to be "the preeminent community where research, practice, and learning intersect to produce valuable design knowledge and applications." 

Organization design is essentially an applied science, and for that reason, I believe it is important and meaningful to exchange ideas, not only with fellow researchers – but also with professionals at the forefront of organization design. Insights into what professionals do –while they do it, as well as methods and techniques enabling prototyping of early ideas, I believe, has helped the field move away from merely descriptive studies of what already happened.

What are your aspirations for the Community?

My aspirations for the ODC are that it will continue to grow, and that it will become even better at facilitating useful exchanges across firms and researchers. Further, I hope that it will continue to grow as a platform for exchanging the latest organization design knowledge. Both in the form of recently produced research – but also in the form of insights and updates on successful redesigns. Finally, I hope that we will continue to do this in a fashion that’s accessible and open to students and teachers at all stages - either by way of sharing relevant teaching material for teachers of organization design or by organizing courses and seminars.