Information requirements increaseas a function of increasing diversity, uncertainty, and interdependenceof work processes (Scott p. Galbraith (1973, 1977) uses information processing capacity as an artifactand determinant of structural features. Each type of coordination has associatedcosts. Thompson (1967) argues that pooled interdependence is managed by standardization,sequential interdependence by plans and schedules, and reciprocal interdependenceby feedback and mutual adjustment. The greater the technical interdependence, the more resources the mustbe devoted to coordination. The greater the technical uncertainty, the less formalization and centralization.ģ. The greater the technical complexity, the greater the structural complexity.The structural response to technical diversity is organizational differentiation.Ģ. The rational system predictions are basically :ġ. Technology and Structure - Rational System Views Some measures of technology are complexity, uncertainty,and interdependence. The environment is both asupplier of an organization's technology while it is simultaneously actedupon by the organization. There is much overlap between technology, task environment,and environment in organizational literature.
It includes both the hardware, skills, and knowledge ofthe workers. Technology is broadly referred to as the work performed by the organization(Scott p. Lawrence and Lorsch and Galbraith use a more formal, rational opensystem approach, while the Tavistock group, Cole, and Ouichi use a morenatural approach that streeses the effects of informal groups. Thereis no best way to organize, but depends on the tasks performed and the environmentfaced. Those thatdefine the coordination and control of work are formalization, hierarchy,centralization, and lateral information flow facilitation.Ĭontingency theory is a popular orietating framework for this topic. Those structural features that definethe division of labor are stuctural differentiation, occupational and rolespecialization, departmentalization, and multidivisional forms. Organizations tend to move toward higher levels of complexity (Scott p.226), largely through added structure. The structure of an organizationcan be defined simply as the sum total of the ways in which it divides itslabor into distinct tasks and then achieves coordination among them". "Every organized human activity - from the making of pots to the placingof a man on the moon - gives rise to two fundamental and opposing reqirements:the division of labor into various tasks to be performed, and the coordinationof these tasks to accomplish the activity. Chapter 9: Sources of Structural Complexity: The Technical Core Chapter 9: Sources of Structural Complexity: The Technical Core
0 kommentar(er)
