MGT 500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 52: Contingency Theory
8 Nov 2020
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Only one thing you can be sure of: your organization will need to change. It can be helpful to have some idea of its history. How is it best for company x to organize : that allows enough for control & flexibility. Goal: align / match organizational goals & objectives to organizational design/structure: shared values. Max weber: administrative bureaucracies: hierarchies, modeled after military, works best in stable environments, not very nimble in response to change, thus the need for restructuring in the 1980"s. Contingency theory (i. e. burns & stalker: no one best way to organize, more innovative, less stable, the more organic the organization needs to be. These are two extreme structures organizations can choose from. The mechanistic model is set up to facilitate high specialization, a clear chain of command and a large degree of formalization. The organic model, in contrast, is set up to facilitate teams, the free flow of information, decentralized, empowerment and very little formalization.
