Management Systems: Mechanistic Organization Form and Organic Organization Form

	Mechanistic Organization Form / Management System	Organic Organization Form / Management System
Appropriate Conditions	Stable	Changing
Distribution of tasks	Specialized differentiation of functional tasks into which the problems and tasks facing a concern as a whole are broken down	Contributive nature of special knowledge and experience to the common task of the concern
Nature of Individual task	The abstract nature of each individual task, which is pursued with techniques and purposes more or less distinct from those of the concern as a whole: i.e., the functionaries tend to pursue the technical improvements of means, rather than the accomplishment of the ends of the concern	The "realistic" nature of the individual task, which is seen as set by the total situation of the concern
Who (re)defines tasks	The reconciliation, for each level in the hierarchy, of these distinct performances by the immediate superiors, who are also, in turn, responsible for seeing that each is relevant in his own special part of the main task	The adjustment and continual redefinition of individual tasks through interaction with others
Task scope	The precise definition of rights and obligations and technical methods attached to each functional role	The shedding of "responsibility" as a limited field of rights, obligations and methods (problems may not be posted upwards, downwards or sideways as being someone else's responsibility)
How is task conformance ensured	The translation of rights and obligations and methods into the responsibilities of a functional position	The spread of commitment to the concern beyond any technical definition
Structure of control, authority and communication	Hierarchic, Contractual	Network, Presumed Community of Interest
Locating of knowledge	Reinforcement of the hierarchic structure by the location of knowledge of actualities exclusively at the top of the hierarchy, where the final reconciliation of distinct tasks and assessment of relevance is made	Omniscience no longer imputed to the head of the concern; knowledge about the technical or commercial nature of the here and now may be located anywhere in the network
Communication between members of concern	Vertical; i.e., between superior and subordinate	Lateral; i.e., between people of different rank, resembling consultation rather than command
Governance for operations and working behavior	Instructions and decisions issued by superiors	Information and advice rather than instructions and decisions
Values	Insistence on loyalty to the concern and obedience to superiors as a condition of membership	Commitment to the concern's task and to the "technological ethos" of material progress and expansion is more highly valued than loyalty and obedience
Prestige	Greater importance and prestige attaching to internal (local) than to general (cosmopolitan) knowledge, experience, and skill	Importance and prestige attach to affiliations and expertise valid in the industrial and technical and commercial millieux external to the firm