Architecting buildings and organizational

domains in three spaces of strategy –

The Case for Climate Change

by
Albert Lejeune, Professor, ESG-UQAM, Montréal (QC), Canada
Avec la collaboration de Ira Sack, Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken (NJ), USA
Architecture in the
business Problematic
management field
4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 2

Organizational architecture
Results 1 - 10 of about 296,000
for Organizational architecture
Enterprise architecture
Results 1 - 10 of about 8,070,000
for enterprise architecture
Business architecture
Results 1 - 10 of about
189,000,000 for business
architecture
Process architecture
Results 1 - 10 of about 11,500,000
for process architecture
Technology architecture
Results 1 - 10 of about 23,900,000
for technology architecture
Network architecture
Results 1 - 10 of about 15,300,000
for network architecture
Data architecture
Results 1 - 10 of about
16,600,000 for data architecture
Application architecture
Results 1 - 10 of about
14,400,000 for application
architecture
Service oriented architecture
Results 1 - 10 of about
29,700,000 for SOA
 Architecting buildings and organizational domains
in three spaces of strategy: The Case for Climate Change

1. Introduction
2. A parallel between organizational architecture and architecture
3. Designing in a space of representation
4. Designing in a space of strategy
5. Three spaces of strategy around the organizational architect
6. Architecting in a space of strategy
7. The Case for Climate Change: Green Buildings and Green Strategies
4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 3
 Business and enterprises architects tend to ignore the fact that at the end of a
modeling exercise, people will have to inhabit the designed organization

•We propose to review certain contributions

in the strategic management literature around three
configurations of the space of the strategy:
the empty space, the programming space and the inhabited space

•Along the journey, we will discuss some aspects of the OM

approach (Organization Modeling), a modeling approach
concerned with both the hard and soft dimensions
of the organization
MORABITO, J. SACK. I. AND ANILKUMAR BHATE (1999).
ORGANIZATION MODELING. INNOVATIVE ARCHITECTURES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY,
UPPER SADDLE RIVER (NJ): PRENTICE-HALL.
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 Architecting organizational domains
in three spaces of strategy

1. Introduction
2. A parallel between organizational architecture and architecture
3. Designing in a space of representation
4. Designing in a space of strategy
5. Three spaces of strategy around the organizational architect
6. Architecting in a space of strategy
7. Conclusion
4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 5
 Organizational
OM STEP 1: Architect
Baseline
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Identify socio-cultural
and organizational
invariants

Identify the context

and requirements
 Organizational
OM STEP 1: Architect
Baseline
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La première tâche de l’architecte

Identify socio- -Identifier l'invariant socioculturel de l’organisation
cultural and - exemple : Google.
organizational l’invariant socioculturel est l’individualisme qui caractérise
la société occidentale nord-américaine. Mais
invariants
Google, de par sa culture de collaboration, exprime un
invariant organisationnel opposé à cet individualisme. Le
défi culturel de Google (Weburl-3) est de maintenir une
culture de collaboration au sein d’une culture marquée
par l’individualisme.
La seconde tâche de l’architecte
- Identifier l'invariant spécifique
exemple : Google.
l'identification des principaux « construits
Identify the context organisationnels », domaines ou molécules organisationnelles,
and requirements qui représentent des points de vue actuels et souhaités
sur l’organisation Google. L’ensemble des construits
organisationnels pertinents, disposés hiérarchiquement
(ex. : environnement – culture – processus – stratégie),
constituent les couches OM.
OM STEP 2: Organizational
Architect
Scope and
elaboration
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Choice of the
organizational
domains
(molecules) to
model

Elaboration of
the functions
OM STEP 2: Organizational
Architect
Scope and
elaboration
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Faut-il visualiser toute l'organisation

Choice of the et multiplier les domaines analysés (culture, stratégie,
structure, processus, apprentissage, personnes, information,
organizational etc.)
domains ou faut-il cibler un ou deux domaines organisationnels
(molecules) to en particulier ?
model Le choix de la portée de l'intervention
dépend des objectifs poursuivis par l’architecte
organisationnel.
la mission ambitieuse de la firme Google :
« organiser les informations à l'échelle planétaire
et de les rendre accessible à tous les internautes »
Elaboration of the (Weburl-1) pointe vers une culture de partage et la rapidité
d’innovation. Notre démarche est donc de retenir
functions deux molécules : Culture pour expliquer la culture innovatrice
de Google et Processus à l’aide de l’exemple du
processus de développement de produits et services chez
Google (Weburl-2).
 Organizational
Architect
OM STEP 3 :
Specification
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Instanciation of
the molecules
through contracts
(pre-conditions,
post-conditions,
trigger, rules)

Scaling,
dimensions, fit
with the land
 Organizational
Architect
OM STEP 3 :
Specification
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La couche de spécification
Instanciation of consiste à spécifier le comportement d’un domaine à travers un contrat et
d'en identifier les composantes.
the molecules Le contrat comprend
through contracts (1) des pré-conditions : la situation avant l'exécution,
(2) des post-conditions : la situation après l'exécution,
(pre-conditions, (3) les invariants : l’ensemble des règles à respecter durant
post-conditions, l'exécution et le déclencheur -événement initiant l'exécution du
contrat.
trigger, rules)

Scaling,
dimensions, fit with
the land
 Organizational
OM STEP 4: Architect
Alignment
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Check for
consistancy inside
and between
molecules

Check for unity,

integrity,
integration with
the land
 Organizational
OM STEP 4: Architect
Alignment
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En OM, l'alignement doit se faire à plusieurs niveaux dans

Check for l'organisation.
consistancy Premier niveau : molécule organisationnelle.
Tous les éléments constitutifs d’une doivent se renforcer mutuellement
inside and afin que, par émergence, la superstructure soit un patron qui présente
between les caractéristiques de performance souhaitées.
Deuxième niveau: se situe entre les molécules.
molecules Importance de savoir dans quelle mesure les molécules de l'organisation
se supportent mutuellement et quelle est la solidité du treillis qu'elles
forment de par leurs relations réciproques. Les liens entre les molécules
doivent être serrés pour procurer le maximum d'alignement possible.
Importance de l'alignement de chaque molécule par rapport à la
molécule "Culture".
En effet, selon l'OM, la culture organisationnelle est la première source
Check for unity, d'alignement tacite et contractuel. Sa force d'alignement est tellement
puissante qu'elle impose ses contraintes au reste des molécules.
integrity,
Troisième niveau: concerne l'organisation et son
integration with environnement.
the land Morabito et al., 1999, pp.117-118
 Organizational
OM STEP 5 : Architect
Realization
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Specific models of
processes,
systems, culture
change etc.

Detailed,
specialized plans
for the
contractors
 Organizational
OM STEP 5 : Architect
Realization
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Visualisation d’une architecture organisationnelle

Specific models
of processes, - Opérationnalisation du comportement de l'alignement par la
réalisation du modèle conçu (dont les spécifications ont été
systems, culture définies sous forme de contrats et dont les différents niveaux
change etc. d'alignement ont été validés dans les étapes précédentes).

Morabito et al., (1999, pp.118-120),

Detailed,
specialized plans
for the
contractors
 Organizational
OM STEP 6: Architect
Execution
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Check the level of There is a

agreement between stark
contract specifications contrast
for molecules between the
(i.e., postconditions) Google Corp. spaces
and the actual recognized
performance of the by architects
molecules and design
critics and
the real, yet
invisible of
The inhabitants spaces
satisfaction : created in
Is it the house of my the process
dreams? of living.
-Glenn
Robert Lym,
architect
 Architecting organizational domains
in three spaces of strategy

1. Introduction
2. A parallel between organizational architecture and architecture
3. Designing in a space of representation
4. Designing in a space of strategy
5. Three spaces of strategy around the organizational architect
6. Architecting in a space of strategy
7. Conclusion
4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 18
 In 1693, in the Kingdom of Sicily, the Prince of Butera, who designed a plan for his Occhiola
city destroyed by an earthquake ‘was respected like a scholar for being able to draw a hexagon
on paper and give the necessary instructions to a capomaestro to postpone all on the ground’

•We put fourth and develop

the notion of a social space of representation
and discuss the organization modeling activity in
three different spaces of representation:
empty, programming and inhabited.

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 But what is the space of representation of the
architect?

It is simultaneously
• A social legitimacy codified by a power (the legitimacy
to represent),
• A set of technical processes and practices,
• A complex of tools and forms suitable for the mental
representation. Raymond, H. (1984). L'architecture, Les Aventures
Spatiales de la Raison, Coll. Alors, Centre De Création
Industrielle, Centre Georges Pompidou. Paris.

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 Architecting organizational domains
in three spaces of strategy

1. Introduction
2. A parallel between organizational architecture and architecture
3. Designing in a space of representation
4. Designing in a space of strategy
5. Three spaces of strategy around the organizational architect
6. Architecting in a space of strategy
7. Conclusion
4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 22
 In what space does the strategist at the top, or the organizational
architect, visualizing the organization’s future, structure a
situation to reduce it to a small number of critical problems?
To answer this question, we need to consider :

• A range of political dimensions (the legitimacy of a strategist)

• A range of instrumental dimensions (the tools of the strategist)
• A range of theoretical dimensions (the theories underlying
the action of strategist)

4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 23

 Architecting organizational domains
in three spaces of strategy

1. Introduction
2. A parallel between organizational architecture and architecture
3. Designing in a space of representation
4. Designing in a space of strategy
5. Three spaces of strategy around the organizational architect
6. Architecting in a space of strategy
7. Conclusion
4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 24
 The empty space, the programming space, the inhabited space

• In the empty space, the strategist has full access to the object of the
strategy because it has the political ability, instrumental and theoretical to
create the emptiness around him in order to impose its own trajectory.

• In the programming space, constraints and opportunities of the

environment and the strengths and weaknesses of the organization are
filling up the situation of representation, reducing the role of strategist-
architect to the projection rather than action.

• In the inhabited space, the purpose of the strategy is not only accessible
to the top strategist: it is shared by multiple actors who want to contribute
to new strategies and performance.
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The empty space characterizes this type of architect,
who, in order to achieve her aesthetic intuition, create a
vacuum around him:
• Power vacuum; i.e., no legitimacy for the others,
• Tools vacuum; i.e., no constraints nor accepted way to work
• Theories vacuum i.e. no predetermined way to act about the
future.

Only the empty space will allow her personal trajectory

development, as was the case, with the merchants of San
Gimignano, known around the world for its thirteen medieval
towers.
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 Espace vide
Politique Légitimité des bureaux-chefs Légitimité du fournisseur TI
Légitimité du V.-P. Légitimité du V.-P. marketing
informatique
Légitimité du V.-P. opérations
Instrumental Action majeure posée par le Action majeure posée par le V.-P.
sommet informatique
Emprise du sommet sur les
opérations et les activités
Théorique Vision, obsession, intuition du Vision, obsession, intuition du
V.-P. informatique fournisseur TI
Vision, obsession, intuition du
V.-P. marketing

4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 27

 Espace Vide Enaction
Vision, obsession, intuition  1. L’action productive: l’historique du
couplage structurel qui enacte (fait-
émerger) un monde.
 2. Par l’entremise d’un réseau
d’éléments inter-connectés, capable

du subir des changements
L’empire de l’entrepreneur: de structuraux au cours d’un historique
Steve Jobs à Guy Laliberté au non interrompu.
Cirque du soleil  3. Quand il s’adjoint à un monde de
signification préexistant, en
continuel développement ou quand il
en forme un nouveau (comme cela
arrive dans l’histoire de l’évolution).

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Sears is very direct in its structural solution, a
new concept of cluster tubes... The Sears
Tower itself is much like the idea behind an
Gimignano, but unlike most tall buildings in
New York, it is a tower of the people, not
the palace of a bank."
Bruce Graham.

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Déployer les TI dans
l’espace vide

Des routines dans le quotidien pour pouvoir

regarder l’océan…

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Programming space is unique to the architect who eventually abandons any a priori
aesthetic vision for putting together a program resulting from a budget, data on
costs and regulatory burdens (of land, materials, aesthetics rules and the
construction industry).

• Programming space is full and dense, charged with standards and

constraints, tools for representation and practices rooted in
ideologies and theories in place.
• The architect who works in this kind of space of representation can
no longer develop its own trajectory.
• He makes only the formatting of various and multiple
constraints: ground plan of land use, standards of urban planning,
construction standards, specifications…

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 Espace programmatique
Politique Résistance au changement
Légitimité du réseau de
succursales
Instrumental Gestion par projet, par
produit
Emprise du plan sur les
activités et les opérations
Formation aux plans,
budgets, programmes,
procédures
Théorique Modèle conceptuel utilisé
pour formuler une stratégie
Modèle technologique
4/1/2010 (Nolan…)
Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune
Pouvoir de l’équipe de planification
stratégique
Pouvoir du V.-P. informatique et de la
planification des systèmes
Décision majeure prise dans le cadre
de la planification stratégique
Utilisation du FCC au siège social
Marge de manœuvre de la succursale
dans le cadre du plan
Modèle économique et financier
Effort de modélisation du puzzle
techno-stratégique
32
 Espace Programmatique
 Modèle conceptuel utilisé pour
formuler une stratégie, modèle
économique et financier, modèle
technologique (Nolan…),effort de
modélisation du puzzle techno-
stratégique
 MODÈLE: Toute représentation
théorique simplifiée d'un système :
elle comporte la définition d'une
structure, la formulation de lois
(relations déterministes ou
probabilistes) reliant les impulsions
ou entrées du système à ses
réponses ou sorties, et la définition
des paramètres.
4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune
Cognitivisme
 1. Le traitement de l’information: la
manipulation de symboles à partir de
règles
 2. Par n’importe quel dispositif
pouvant représenter et manipuler
des éléments physiques discontinus:
les symboles.
 3. Quand les symboles représentent
adéquatement quelque aspect du
monde réel, et que le traitement de
l’information solutionne…
33
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Déployer les TI dans
l’espace
programmatique

4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 35

The inhabited space is proper to the social architect who is
listening to the customer, seeking to capture and reflect only the
needs of a family, community or organization without imposing its
aesthetics trajectory.
• As at Google corp., the inhabited space is filled with living
legitimized subjects. They are, in architecture, the future
inhabitants of an environment built for the community ; in
organizational life, future users, individuals or sub-organizational
systems making a project or a strategy happen.
• But these people, even if they are not aesthetic and technically
competent as the architect, have a voice to express on their
habitat.
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These people hold the architectural concept (Raymond. 1984), 36
Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune
 Espace habité
Politique Luttes de pouvoir locales Partage du pouvoir sommet-
succursales
Luttes de pouvoir au sommet Légitimité des succursales
Pouvoir des équipes de travail
Instrumental Action collective entre Utilisation du FCC par la succursale
succursales
Emprise de la succursale sur Formation au travail d’équipe
ses propres activités
Langage stratégique Marge de manœuvre
commun
Autonomie
Théorique Recherche du consensus Émergence de projets et d’initiatives
stratégiques
Idéologie de la participation
4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 37
 Espace Habité Émergence
Recherche du consensus,  1. L’émergence d’états globaux
émergence de projets et d’initiatives dans un réseau de composants
stratégiques, idéologie de la simples.
participation  2. Des règles locales gèrent les
opérations individuelles et des
Propriétés émergentes règles de changement gèrent les
liens entre les éléments.
 3. Quand les propriétés
émergentes sont identifiables à
une faculté cognitive – une
solution adéquate pour une
tâche donnée.

4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 38

4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 39
Déployer les TI dans
l’espace habité

4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 40

 Architecting organizational domains
in three spaces of strategy

1. Introduction
2. A parallel between organizational architecture and architecture
3. Designing in a space of representation
4. Designing in a space of strategy
5. Three spaces of strategy around the organizational architect
6. Architecting in a space of strategy
7. Conclusion
4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 41
 The organization is not a built artifact: it is one node, a more dense area within a wider
society. An organization cannot be simplified into its structure. PFEFFER, J. SALANCIK, G.
(1978). THE EXTERNAL CONTROL OF ORGANIZATIONS, NEW YORK: HARPER & ROW, 1978.

• Historically, organizational design has meant changing

structure. The issue had been refined from "structure" to
"determinants of structure." Does technology or strategy
determine structure? Is size more important? Or is it a
combination of factors?
• But the game has changed. Structure is too static and
unresponsive… The sources of competitive advantage are
shifting to those organizational constructs that characterize
the behavior of an organization: culture, people, process,
information, and learning. Those elements have to be
architected! Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune
4/1/2010 42
• Future business analyst will be integrators of
organizational constructs like information, process,
people, learning, and culture.
•She will have to address many complex interactions: data
and knowledge, organizational learning paradigms,
culture change, business process change, integration, and
even invention.
•The business analyst must be an organizational architect
responsible for defining and building the organization’s
new source of advantage – its core architecture.

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 Architecting organizational domains
in three spaces of strategy : The Case for Climate Change

1. Introduction
2. A parallel between organizational architecture and architecture
3. Designing in a space of representation
4. Designing in a space of strategy
5. Three spaces of strategy around the organizational architect
6. Architecting in a space of strategy
7. Green Buildings and Green Strategies
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  Among IT industry veterans it had been long accepted
that with hardware costs on a perpetual downward
trend, hardware was fundamentally a commodity;
competitive advantage for vendors of end-user
applications and tools lay in differentiated software.
 Google showed the world that this was an
oversimplification. Fueled by venture capital
investments followed by a very rich initial public
offering, Google has made staggering investments in
its physical computing infrastructure. This allowed the
company to set a new standard for search performance
that would be impossible for all but the very richest
competitors to match.
 There is a parallel between Google’s focus on energy
and these two stories. In all three cases, a resource
believed to be a commodity emerged as a strategic
weapon in the right hands.
 Many companies still give little more thought to their energy
usage than they do to their water bill. But smart companies,
especially those in energy-intensive businesses, recognize that
energy is a strategic resource, not a commodity.
4/1/2010 Architecting buildings and organizational domains - Albert Lejeune 45
 OM is strongly anchored in a philosophical foundation that supports the social sciences. It is therefore
expected that in the future, not only managers and business executives, but also social science researchers
will find OM to be a convenient approach that complements many of their modeling requirements.

• The term architecture is prevalent in business management and managers

are becoming architects. Their new roles include designing structure,
engineering processes, developing people, leveraging information
technology, facilitating learning, and changing the whole.
• The manager-architect has an arduous task: He or she must design across
organizational boundaries, engineer processes into strategic capabilities,
develop individual competencies into a learning organization, align
information technology with business strategy, and integrate the disparate
pieces that constitute the organization.
• Successful organizations have manager-architects who
practice a disciplined approach to both analysis and design in an
adequate space of strategy.
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