Redesigning a Global Organization to Deal with Increasing Complexity:
Note: This information was produced using AI analysis of the video presentation transcript and has not yet been reviewed and approved by the client or the consultant.
The Issue:
In 1992, George Weber was appointed as Secretary-General / CEO of The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the International Federation is a global body that is one of the largest international humanitarian organizations in the world. The organization was faced with increasing complexities, increasing demand, higher standards of accountability, and a budgetary requirement to meet these needs with the same or only slightly higher resources. Capelle Associates was engaged to support a redesign.
The Intervention:
Following a review of operating systems, a review of the organization design and a task force was put in place to work on International Federation Secretariat priorities and working methods. The organization design assessment included a literature review, review of internal documents, an interview of all managers in Geneva and worldwide to collect time span information and other information on their roles and those of their direct reports, and task analysis in terms of how people did their work.
Results:
The Secretariat was reorganized as a stratum 6 organization (it had been a stratum 5 organization with compression), introducing four stratum five subordinate roles to deal with the complexity the organization was facing. The reorganization created two core units of the Secretariat: Disaster Response and Operation Coordination, and National Society Cooperation and Development. A process was put in place to clarify cross-functional accountabilities and authorities. A new business planning and review system was also developed and introduced. This was linked to the strategic plan and cascaded down through the organization so that each plan was a subset of that person's manager’s plan. This clarified the key accountabilities of each person. Three parallel processes were used to implement the change(new organization design, priorities and working processes, improvements to operating systems). With close coordination between the project teams, and between the internal teams and the consultants, the changes were successfully implemented over a two-year period. The change process was without question a success, as reinforced by a second review by Capelle Associates after two years which reaffirmed that significant progress had been made.
Project Information:
| Industrial sector | Types of organization | Governance | RO Stratum of the organization | Number of Employees | Labour relations | Region | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Healthcare - medical devices,
Non-profits - charities, associations, service providers etc
|
Charity
|
Not-for-Profit
|
6
|
Not-unionized |
Global,
Europe
|
Switzerland
|
| Types of interventions | Specific functions targeted if any | Strata in which RO interventions were used | Approximate Years of project interventions |
|---|---|---|---|
|
CEO & general management,
Human Resources
|
6,
5,
4,
3
|
1992
|
Link to other project-related information on the site:
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
- The International Federation Red Cross is the largest humanitarian network in the world. I took over in December of 92, but it was 1994. Review of the operating systems led to 103 recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the organization.
- Only 45% of all managers were aligned properly, 55% were not aligned properly. The field geneva relations needed clarification and strengthening who were the boss of the field people. A better balance between relief, raising money for relief and dealing with relief. Results were improved and 99 years later we had increased productivity.
Transcript is not available
An article describing this project was published in the GO Society's book, Organization Design: Levels of Work Complexity and Human Capability part three - chapter 5 p211-223.pdf
An article describing this project was published in the GO Society's book, Organization Design: Levels of Work Complexity and Human Capability
Project principals
