Human Resources As Business Partner

CHAPTER 4

Organizational Design, DownSizing, and Right Sizing

4.1   Organizational Design Historical Development

It was in 1760 that Adam Smith set out the ideas that would shape businesses. He made the first symmetrical designs for how an organization should look and designed the first modern organizational structure; a company called Arkright in Cromford in the UK first used it in 1771. Then it was adopted by a factory called Smedley in 1784 which is still going—officially known as the world’s oldest factory.

Then it was adopted as the model for success by other companies worldwide and surprisingly this structure for organizations is still very much in evidence today.

Smith was also responsible for the new business titles of Supervisor and ...