Public organizations in the Netherlands, such as municipalities, schools, and healthcare institutions, are facing problems that are putting pressure on their social contribution. These problems are often related to complex organizational structures, which lead to disruptions and limit the ability of employees to deal with those disruptions. As a result, the quality of service provision declines and the quality of work deteriorates. Modern Sociotechnics (MST) offers a theoretical framework for simplifying complex structures. This dissertation develops and tests a tool that supports bottom-up interventions in organizational structures, using the design expertise of MST. The dissertation provides insight into the characteristics that the tool for bottom-up interventions should have and the conditions under which the tool can meaningfully transform a complex organization with simple tasks into a simple organization with rich tasks. This dissertation thus contributes to both design science and change management, and offers perspectives for organizations that want to strengthen their social contribution in a bottom-up manner by improving their structure.
Anneke Offereins works as a researcher at the Organizing Dignified Work research group and combines this with her role as a lecturer at the Institute for People & Business. She is involved in practice-oriented scientific research in the public sector. Through (action) research, she co-creates new organizational forms and structural interventions, conducts accompanying research into the effects of structural interventions on the quality of work, the quality of the organization, and the quality of labor relations, and investigates how other organizations can learn from these insights to create a working environment that provides space for better service provision and decent work for professionals.