Redesign of Organizations as a Basis for Organizational Change

Artificial Intelligence has contributed (formal) design models and software support tools to application areas such as architecture, engineering and software design This paper explores the effectiveness of applying design models to the area of organization (re)design. To that purpose a componentbased model for (re)design of organizations is presented as a specialization of an existing generic design model. Using recently developed formalizations within Organization Theory organization models are described as design object descriptions, and organization goals as design requirements. A design process specification is presented that models the redesign process for an organization that adapts to changes in the environment. The formally specified and implemented approach to organization redesign thus obtained has been tested for a well-known historical case study from the Organization Theory literature.