Managerial Economics and Organizational Architecture Study Guide

by Clifford W. Smith, James A. Brickley, Jerold L. Zimmerman, et al.

With two distinct objectives, this text's approach to managerial economics takes models from recent economics research and applies the research to the internal structure of a firm. After teaching basic applied economics, the authors look inside the firm and apply this analysis to management decision making. Authors Brickley, Smith, and Zimmerman contend that organizational architecture consists of three aspects of corporate organization: the assignment of decision rights within the company; methods of rewarding individuals; the structure of systems to evaluate the performance of both individuals and business units. These three components can be likened to a stool with three legs. If one of the legs is shorter, the stool is out of balance. These three elements must be in balance in the organization as well.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0256172323
• ISBN13: 9780256172324
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Not Avail
• Length: 237 Pages

Customer Reviews

Great Economics Text for Managers

Great overview of economics. Good for managers who want to know how to read economic forces, react to them, and how to use them.

An outstanding all-in-one guide to business management

Besides being a well organized and example-packed textbook, I found Managerial Economics and Organizational Architecture to be a compact MBA refresher course -- and a useful reference for day-to-day problems. Thinking about business organizations as rational individuals responding to incentives and new information simply fits the facts. The three basic elements developed in this book allow managers to translate this logical thinking into operational decisions: allocating decision rights, measuring performance, and compensating individuals and groups. The power of this approach in analyzing common management problems equips the reader with a rich set of tools for identifying and solving them.

It provides a powerful analysis of organizational structure.

This book provides a broad, powerful, economics-based framework for examining a wide array of organizational problems--centralization vs decentralization, use of incentive compensation, establishing cost or profit centers. It is well organized, and the numerous examples from the business press help relate the analysis to practice. Because it is based on economics, it provides strong links to finance, accounting, and marketing.

I loved this book.

This is one of the most insightful approaches I have ever seen toward understanding behavior in organizations and organization structure. It's the best managerial economics text on the market. Very useful for thoughtful readers.

This is the best economics book I have ever read.

This book uses easy to understand economics to explain how organizations work. Real world examples illustrate the key concepts of how to structure incentive plans, how to design performance measures, and how to design the firm's orginization chart.