Who really shapes the way a company is organized, and how? In a new literature review published in the Journal of Organization Design, Clemens M. Brandstätter and Prof. Dr. Dr. Lorenz Graf-Vlachy of FAU’s Chair of Strategic Management and Leadership examine the role that strategic leaders play in shaping organizational design. Reviewing and synthesizing the existing body of research, the article shows that a company’s structure is not determined by market conditions or strategic decisions alone, but is substantially shaped by the characteristics and decisions of the people at the top of the organization. By systematically bringing together previously fragmented research, the review develops an integrative understanding of the interplay between strategic leadership and organizational design, identifies the underlying mechanisms at work, and derives concrete research questions for future work.
The publication is available in open access here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41469-026-00210-1