How to design a startup? Understanding and shaping the organizational design of a case company

Abstract

How to design a startup? is a question of practical importance to the managers that are building an organization from scratch.

Focusing on a case startup, this thesis seeks to holistically understand its organizational development across five design dimensions (physical structure, visual design, organizational culture, decision processes, and team* composition).

Being inspired by action research, the thesis aims at simultaneously describing and solving the organizational design challenges of the case startup.

For each dimension, key discoveries are drawn from literature and compared to the perspectives surfaced in interviews with the four founders of the case company. Across dimensions, an overall good fit between literature and case organization is found. The research on startup organizations offers rich knowledge that will help any practitioner understand challenges and make research-based decisions.

The discussion addresses some of the areas where discrepancies between literature and founder views prevail. With respect to knowledge culture and decision processes, the thesis seeks to shape the organizational design of the case company by suggesting possible actions. It also suggests adopting a role and personality perspective when seeking to integrate change-persistence in future research on startup organizational design.