7 Organizational Design Courses To Follow in 2025
“In a balanced organization, working towards a common objective, there is success,” said Sir Arthur Helps in the 19th century. And this still holds true today, highlighting the importance of organizational design in business success.
Economic uncertainty and workforce shifts have pushed companies to reevaluate their business strategies. Relying on outdated organizational structures can be detrimental to your company’s success. It can cause misunderstandings among roles and functions, creates siloes, and slows down decision-making.
To achieve organizational effectiveness and stay competitive, your organizational design must be aligned with the business strategy and industry it operates. Good organizational design and structure improve productivity and innovation. Let’s have a look at organizational design courses that will help you become an effective organizational design practitioner!
Contents
Why do an organizational design course?
Best organizational design courses
1. Organizational Design in the Organizational Development Certificate Program – AIHR
2. Organizational Design for Digital Transformation – MIT Sloan School of Management
3. Organizational Design Cornell Certificate Program – eCornell
4. Organization Design Comprehensive Certificate Course – ORG-ology
5. Organisation Design Masterclass Programme – European Organisation Design Forum
6. Organisation Design – CIPD
7. Competitive Strategy and Organization Design Specialization – LMU
Why do an organizational design course?
Doing an organizational design course can boost your career in HR by providing you with an additional qualification as a proficient organizational design practitioner.
Not only does it give you the advantage over other HR professionals, but it also shows that you are genuinely committed to gaining more expertise and experience in fields relevant to your career.
What’s more, updating your organizational design knowledge gives you a competitive advantage in tackling current business challenges and trends.
Best organizational design courses
Ready for your organizational design course?
We’ve compiled the best organizational design courses to help you select the right program for you!
Please note that this list is compiled based on publicly available information. We have not tried the courses ourselves, with the exception of AIHR’s Organizational Design course.
1. Organizational Design in the Organizational Development Certificate Program – AIHR
Program overview:
If you’re looking for a course that will equip you with practical skills and knowledge to implement organizational design changes within your company, check out AIHR’s Organizational Design course.
It focuses on org design as one of the most common organizational development interventions.
You will learn how to:
- Identify triggers of organizational design change
- Select the appropriate organizational design model and structure
- Apply the org design process in practice
- Overcome common challenges.
The course will teach you how to conduct an organizational analysis and how to use data to develop, implement, and assess your organizational design program.
The full Organizational Development Certificate Program covers the following subjects:
- Organizational development
- Consulting & communication skills
- Organizational design
- HR operating models
- Organization culture
The program culminates in a capstone project to practice your newly acquired OD knowledge and skills.
The course and the program are aimed at forward-thinking HR professionals who want to help their organizations operate more effectively and adapt to the ever-changing external environment.
Format:
Self-paced video-based learning, with assignments and quizzes at the end of each module for learning check. Downloadable reading materials are also provided. The full certificate program takes about 30 hours to complete.
Program participants have access to the AIHR community discussions, as well as live events.
Cost:
The full Organizational Development Certificate Program costs $1,125. You can get access to all certification programs for 12 months for $1,850.
2. Organizational Design for Digital Transformation – MIT Sloan School of Management
Program overview:
Organizational Design for Digital Transformation teaches the five key dimensions needed for a successful digital transformation. These dimensions serve as foundations for businesses interested in using new technologies for innovation.
And within the context of digital transformation, you will learn how to evaluate your workplace and develop an action plan to execute a digital change.
The course covers the following modules:
- Designing for digital success
- Achieving operational excellence
- Customer desires and digital solutions
- Digital design: enabling rapid innovation
- Creating an effective innovation culture
- Implementing digital transformation
This course is appropriate for mid-, senior-, and top-level managers, including C-suite executives. In short, leaders across sectors who are passionate about digital transformation and optimizing their digital business models will benefit from this course.
Format:
The course runs for 6 weeks, with 6-8 hours/week of self-paced online learning. It is delivered in various formats: interactive videos, practice quizzes, presentations, and assignments.
Participants can interact with their peers and learning facilitators through weekly discussion forums and small group discussions.
Cost:
The course costs $2,950.
3. Organizational Design Cornell Certificate Program – eCornell
Program overview:
eCornell’s Organizational Design Certificate Program introduces the field of organizational design, helping the learners identify various structures and explore methods to restructure organizations for greater agility in response to industry, societal, and environmental changes.
Program participants will learn how to:
- Analyze organizations and how they are structured
- Understand organizations within the broader context
- Diagnose when design or redesign is necessary
- Design policies, systems, and practices to manage business and workforce effectively.
Format:
The program is delivered online, allowing you to learn at your own pace, with recommended time commitment of 3-5 hours of study per week across 2 months. It includes facilitated discussions, live sessions with industry peers, and practical projects to apply your learning directly to your organization.
Cost:
The certificate program is $3,900.
4. Organization Design Comprehensive Global Certificate – ORG-ology
Program overview:
The International Organizational Design Community (ODC) accredited this comprehensive organizational design course from ORG-ology. Participants receive a thorough overview of essential organization design methodologies and guided consulting support to approach their present design challenges in their own organizations.
Topics covered include:
- Fundamental building blocks of organization design
- Diagnosing an organization
- Design tools
- Implementing an organizational design
- Analyzing and framing the workplace need where participants present their unique workplace needs. They will give and receive feedback and ideas for how to implement OD.
After completing the program, participants will receive an ODC Certificate of Completion and an updated LinkedIn profile showing completed accredited organization design courses.
Format:
The course is delivered via virtual class sessions, independent reading, exercises, discussion, and consultation tailored to each individual’s workplace design issues. Participants are also expected to do independent work on top of virtual lessons.
The course comprises six half-day sessions (three sessions each week). Expected independent work is 12 hours, with 3 hours allotted for consultation.
You can also attend the course in person in Barcelona, Spain, and London, U.K., with an adjusted schedule.
Cost:
The virtual course is $3,500. The in-person course cost is $4,000.
5. Organisation Design Masterclass Programme – European Organisation Design Forum
Program overview:
If you’re looking for a hands-on environment to learn organizational design with real case studies, this is the org design course for you.
This Organisation Design Masterclass gives learners foundational knowledge and skills to be credible org design practitioners.
The course covers the following modules:
- Seeing and thinking design: Introduction to organizational design.
- Doing design: Learn different end-to-end design approaches, their advantages, and disadvantages.
- Making design real: Using case studies for practical understanding.
- Living the new: Learn how to implement organizational design using a hands-on approach in exploring different contexts and real case studies.
The program is open to everyone, from beginners to experienced. EODF members are entitled to a discount.
Format:
The course operates on a series of modules that build on each other. Modules are delivered on two consecutive days in half-day increments.
It is facilitated virtually via Zoom and available in English plus other European languages.
Cost:
The course costs €2,000 for members and €2,060 for non-members (includes first-year membership).
6. Organisation Design – CIPD
Program overview:
The U.K.-based Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) offers an Organisation Design course aimed at experienced change professionals, business leaders, and consultants seeking to improve their organizational design skills.
This course delves into the principles of organizational design, emphasizing the application of systems theory and various diagnostic strategies to address organizational challenges.
The course covers:
- Clarify the concept and scope of organizational design
- Apply systems theory to understand organizational dynamics
- Identify and utilize methods for diagnosing organizational issues
- Develop and implement effective organizational design strategies.
Format:
The program spans three weeks, combining online classes, group activities, and self-directed learning. In week 1, there is one two-hour facilitated online session. Weeks 2 and 3 include an eight-hour day of facilitated learning each.
Participants are encouraged to engage in approximately 10 hours of self-directed study to reinforce their understanding.
Cost:
The course is £990 excl. VAT.
7. Competitive Strategy and Organization Design Specialization – LMU
Program overview:
In the Competitive Strategy and Organization Design Specialization course, participants will learn:
- Organizational behavior in situations in which strategic decisions are interdependent
- Strategies to develop and retain customer base
- Internal and external corporate environments
- Agile organization design that can function in different environments
The course includes an applied learning project where participants can immediately apply theories to resolve real-life business problems.
By attending this course, participants will gain skills in organization design, strategic management, game theory, strategic thinking, competition (economics), pricing, marketing, competitiveness, business strategy, and organizational structure.
This is an intermediate-level course. Some related experience is required.
Format:
This course is available online, with a self-paced, flexible learning option. Most learners take about 5 to 7 months to complete the course with a commitment of 2 hours/week.
Participants are evaluated via practice quizzes and graded assignments.
After completing this course, learners can share their certificates on their LinkedIn profiles and printed resumes.
Cost:
The course is on Coursera. You can enroll for free and then pay $59/month to use the platform.
Over to you
When choosing an organizational design course, consider what exactly you want to learn and how you want to learn it. Review the topics the course covers to make sure they are relevant to your professional goals and/or the needs of your organization.
What’s more, it’s important to choose an organizational design course that fits your schedule and learning style. As for the financing, don’t forget to check with your organization if they can sponsor your course as part of their L&D benefit.
FAQ
Organizational design courses are a great way to gain org design skills and knowledge for HR professionals who want to help their organizations become future-proof in a dynamic business environment. Mid and top managers, as well as senior executives and business leaders who want to optimize how their organizations operate, will also benefit from an organizational design course.
Some courses are open to all professionals, whether entry-level or experienced. In contrast, others cater to senior and top-level managers. Choose a course that is appropriate to your level of knowledge and experience.
A good organizational design course will give you a comprehensive overview of how you recognize the need for an organizational design transformation, how to analyze and collect data about your organization, what the different organizational design models and structures are, how to apply the org design process in practice and overcome common obstacles.
Some courses concentrate on foundational skills and principles. In comparison, others focus on real-life situations and practical applications. Find a course that covers topics that interest you and are relevant to your role and organizational structure.
An effective organizational design practitioner can analyze the current state of organizational design within their business and propose and implement improvements to help the organization achieve its strategic goals.
They understand different types of organizational models and structures together with their pros and cons and can identify the best options for their company. An organizational designer helps manage the transformation through excellent stakeholder management and consulting.
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