A multidimensional organization is an organization that pursues its objectives simultaneously through multiple dimensions (product, region, account, market segment).
Contents
- Introduction
- Defining characteristics
- Cause
- Comparison to other organization forms
- Comparison to matrix organization
- Relating to ERP
- References
The multidimensional organization was discussed as early as the 1970s. It required the combination of the fall of costs of information, the development of dynamic multidimensional markets, and a new generation of workers and managers, to create this paradigm shift in organization forms.
Introduction
The multidimensional organization exhibits the following:
- the overall performance of the firm is reported simultaneously on multiple dimensions and on multiple levels;
- each of these dimensions has a manager who is held accountable for the contribution of his dimension to the overall performance;
- these managers depend on each other for required resources; and
- these managers collectively are accountable for the overall performance.
Defining characteristics
Cause
The most basic reason for the rise of the multidimensional organization is that due to the fall in costs of information, customers start to behave in multidimensional ways in terms of their preferences, in the ways in which they select and purchase goods and services, make use of distribution channels, etc. To answer this increasing variety in customer behavior, both in private consumers and between businesses, firms need to increase their internal variety.
The multidimensional organization also answers the emergence of multidimensional strategies, in which firms not only pursue market dominance and superior efficiency, but also need to exploit economies of scale.
Comparison to other organization forms
The multidimensional organization is a new organization form, compared to the U-form, the M-form and the H-form. It transcends the restrictions with the M-form or multi-unit organization, as well as the problems with the matrix-organization. Examples of firms with a multidimensional organization are IBM, Microsoft, and ASML.
Comparison to matrix organization
The differences between the multidimensional organization and the matrix organization can be summarized as below:
Relating to ERP
The multidimensional organization implies specific requirements on how transactions are recorded in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, implicating a shift away from the traditional paradigm in IT-governance of business IT-alignment. Now transactions need to be recorded, not only multidimensional, to allow multiple consolidations to occur simultaneously. Particularly, the recording needs to be neutral with respect to business models. ERP systems tend to have a technical lifetime of 10–15 years, whereas business models last for 3–5 years.