An exploratory study of organization design configurations in health care delivery organizations

Organizations are configurations of variables that support each other to achieve customer satisfaction. Based on Treacy and Wiersema (1995), we predicted the emergence of two configurations, one supporting a product leadership stance and one predicting the customer intimate approach from a set of 73 for profit health care clinics. In addition, we predicted the emergence of a configuration where the scores on most variables were near the mean for each variable. Using cluster analysis and discriminant function analysis, we identified three configurations: one a "master of two" strategy, one "stuck-in-the-middle," and one showing scores well below the mean on most variables. The implications for organization design and manager actions in the health care industry are discussed.