The Structuring of Organizations

Abstract

This [reading] argues that […] spans of control, types of formalization and decentralization, planning systems, and matrix structures should not be picked and chosen independently, the way a shopper picks vegetables at the market or a diner a meal at a buffet table. Rather, these and other parameters of organizational design should logically configure into internally consistent groupings. Like most phenomena — atoms, ants, and stars — characteristics of organizations appear to fall into natural clusters, or configurations.