Organizational Design as Configuration

Throughout this book, ever since the introduction of the five coordinating mechanisms in its first pages, we have seen growing convergences in its findings. For example, the standardization of work processes was seen in Chapter 1 to relate most closely to the view of the organization as a system of regulated flows. Then in

The Simple Structure: Description of the Basic Structure

The Simple Structure is characterized, above all, by what is not—elabo- rated. Typically, it has little or no technostructure, few support staffers, a loose division of labor, minimal differentiation among its units, and a small managerial hierarchy. Little of its behavior is formalized, and it makes minimal use of planning, training, and the liaison

Conditions of the Simple Structure

Above all, the environment of the Simple Structure tends to be at one and the same time simple and dynamic. A simple environment can be com- prehended by a single individual, and so enables decision making to be controlled by that individual. A dynamic environment means organic structure: Because its future state cannot be

Some Issues Associated with Simple Structure

In the Simple Structure, decisions concerning strategy and operations are together centralized in the office of the chief executive. Centralization has the important advantage of ensuring that strategic response reflects full knowledge of the operating core. It also favors flexibility and adaptability in strategic response: only one person need act. But centralization can also

The Machine Bureaucracy: Description of the Basic Structure

A clear configuration of the design parameters has held up consistently in the research: highly specialized, routine operating tasks; very formalized procedures in the operating core; a proliferation of rules, regulations, and formalized communication throughout the organization; large-sized units at the operating level; reliance on the functional basis for grouping tasks; relatively centralized power

Conditions of the Machine Bureaucracy

We began our discussion of the basic structure with the point that the work flow of the Machine Bureaucracy is highly rationalized, its tasks simple and repetitive. Now we can see that such machine bureaucratic work is found, above all, in environments that are simple and stable. The work of com- plex environments cannot

Some Issues Associated with Machine Bureaucracy

No structure has evoked more heated debate than the Machine Bureau- cracy. As one of its most eminent students has noted: On the one hand, most authors consider the bureaucratic organization to be the embodiment of rationality in the modern world, and, as such, to be intrinsically superior to all other possible forms of

The Basic Structure of the Professional Bureaucracy

1. The work of the operating core Here again we have a tightly knit configuration of the design parameters. Most important, the Professional Bureaucracy relies for coordination on the standardization of skills and its associated design parameter, training and indoctrination. It hires duly trained and indoctrinated specialists— professionals—for the operating core, and then gives

Conditions of the Professional Bureaucracy

This third configuration appears wherever the operating core of an orga- nization is dominated by skilled workers—professionals—who use pro- cedures that are difficult to learn, yet are well defined. This means an environment that is both complex and stable—complex enough to require the use of difficult procedures that can be learned only in extensive

Some Issues Associated with Professional Bureaucracy

The Professional Bureaucracy is unique among the five configurations in answering two of the paramount needs of contemporary men and women. It is democratic, disseminating its power directly to its workers (at least those who are professional). And it provides them with extensive autono- my, freeing them even of the need to coordinate closely

The Basic Structure of the Divisionalized Form

1. The design parameters Most important, the Divisionalized Form relies on the market basis for grouping units at the top of the middle line. Divisions are created accord- ing to markets served and are then given control over the operating func- tions required to serve these markets. Thus, in Figure 11-1, a typical organigram

Conditions of the Divisionalized Form

1. Market diversity One situational factor above all drives the organization to use the Divi- sionalized Form—market diversity. The organization faced with a single integrated market simply cannot split itself into autonomous divisions; the one with distinct markets, however, has an incentive to create a unit to deal with each. This enables the organization

Stages in the Transition to the Divisionalized Form

We have a good deal of research on the transition of the corporation from the functional to the Divisionalized Form, much of it from the Harvard Business School, which has shown a special interest in the structure of the large corporation. Figure 11-3 and the discussion that follows borrow from these results to describe

Some Issues Associated with the Divisionalized Form

We begin our discussion of the issues associated with this configuration by enumerating some of the advantages traditionally claimed for the Division- alized Form over the more integrated functional forms. Then, from soci- ety’s perspective, we suggest that the Divisionalized Form should logically be compared with another alternative, that of the divisions constituted as

The Adhocracy: Description of the Basic Structure

1. The design parameters In Adhocracy, we have a fifth distinct configuration: highly organic struc- ture, with little formalization of behavior; high horizontal job specializa- tion based on formal training; a tendency to group the specialists in functional units for housekeeping purposes but to deploy them in small, market-based project teams to do their

Conditions of the Adhocracy

1. Basic environment The conditions of the environment are the most important ones for this configuration; specifically, the Adhocracy is clearly positioned in an en- vironment that is both dynamic and complex. According to Hypotheses 9 and 10, a dynamic environment calls for organic structure and a complex one calls for decentralized structure. And

Some Issues Associated with Adhocracy

There has been little exploration of the issues associated with Adhocracy, the newest of the five configurations. Simple Structure is so old that its advantages and disadvantages are by now taken for granted. The issues associated with Machine Bureaucracy have been discussed at great length in the literature, especially those concerning alienation and conflict.

The Five Configurations of Organization as One System

Do any of these configurations really exist? This is a strange question to raise after so many pages of discussion, filled with illustrations. But it is worth asking, in order to draw a tighter line between the five configura- tions and the reality they purport to describe. In one sense, the configurations do not

To Six Configurations of Organization . . and Beyond

Is there a sixth configuration? Well, the rainbow still has only five colors.1 But the planets turned out to number more than five. We even seem to be on the verge of recognizing that sixth sense. So why not a sixth configura- tion? As long, of course, as it maintains the harmony of our