Burns and Stalker
Mechanistic and Organismic Organisations
In their 1961 book, "The Management of Innovation" T. Burns and G.M. Stalker examined the relationship between organisations and their environment. Their focus was on Scottish electronics companies operating in increasingly competitive and innovative technological markets. A new edition has been recently published published.
In the original work they explored two forms of organisation:
Mechanistic form
- appropriate to conditions of relative stability.
- highly structured, members have well-defined, formal job descriptions/roles, and precise positions vis a vis others.
- direction is from the top - down through the hierarchy. Communication is similarly vertical.
- The organisation insists on loyalty and conformity from members to each other, to managers and to the organisation itself in relation to policies and methods.
- members need sufficient functionary ability to operate within organisational constraints
Problems?
- organisational creativity and effort can focus on internal problems only - systems and procedures.
- heavy administrative overhead - internal procedures consume more resources than external customer-focused operations.
- slow in responding to external change - lose touch with customers and external stakeholders.
- Parochialism, defend-my-patch behaviours occur. Organisational members can develop unhelpful, bounded mind-sets - perceptions of external and internal. Job and departmental boundaries can lead to the rational-legal organisation becoming bogged down in a spaghetti of tortuous processes and "need-to-consult" everyone and anyone.
- the status quo is defended rather than changed to meet new circumstances.
The organic/organismic form
- suitable to unstable, turbulent and changing conditions.
- The organismic firm tries to re-shape itself to address new problems and tackle unforeseen contingencies
- rather than a rigid, highly specialised structure - a fluid organisational design is adopted which facilitates flexibility, adaptation, job redefinition
- departments, sections and teams are formed and reformed. Communication is lateral as well as vertical - with emphasis on a network rather than a hierarchy.
- organisational members are personally and actively commitment to it beyond what is basically operationally or functionally necessary.
Moving from mechanistic to organismic
Burns and Stalker highlighted the problems of moving from mechanistic to organismic forms. Their conclusions - in 1966 were remarkably predictive.
Burns T and Stalker G, The Management of Innovation, Tavistock, 1961.
Burns T, The Management of Innovation, OUP, 1994.
Developed and maintained by Chris Jarvis