3 - The concept of organizational structure
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2011
Summary
The concept of organizational structure pervades theory and research on organizations. Diverse theoretical works attempt to account for the structure of organizations in terms of size (Blau, 1970), technology (Perrow, 1967), and the degree of certainty or uncertainty arising in the environment (Thompson, 1967). Contemporary research studies comparing organizations have likewise analyzed data describing organizational properties, as opposed to characteristics of individual people, in order to test and refine propositions about structure. Surprisingly, neither these theoretical developments nor research studies comparing organizations have pursued the implications of denoting as structure certain relational properties of organizations such as levels of hierarchy, spans of control, and the like, as well as more global properties of organizations such as their rules and decision-making practices. One implication is that reporting relationships and rules, usually outlined on organization charts and in manuals, reflect actual configurations of behavior in organizations. This raises, of course, the issue of validity; and it is not of central concern here as it can be argued that formal representations of reporting relationships and rules are themselves of interest. A second implication is that configurations of behavior in organizations are in fact recurrent–that, at least for short intervals, there is some stability in allegedly structural features of organizations. In other words, the attribution of structure to organizational characteristics asserts that they change less over time than things not structured.
Concepts describing organizational structures have figured most prominently in so-called closed-system or rational models of organizations. These include Taylor's (1911) prescriptions for scientific management, Gulick and Urwick's (1937) discussion of specialization, unity of command, span of control, and the like, and Weber's (1946) ideal–typical model of bureaucracy.
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- Change in Public Bureaucracies , pp. 72 - 96Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1979