A model for explaining structural variations between work units within the complex organization is presented. Based upon an analysis of the impact of task difficulty and task variability on intraorganizational structure, a taxonomy of alternative work-unit structures is derived. The taxonomy suggests that work units within a complex organization…

Authority-task problems are organizational problems created by inconsistencies between the task process system and both the authority system and the formal hierarchy of offices. A new theory is used to develop a model that predicts how an administrator responds to an authority-task problem. (Author/IRT)

This essay reviews major trends in methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of organizations since the mid-sixties and espouses the political analysis of organizations, a position representing a middle ground between comparative structuralism and the loosely coupled systems approach. This position emphasizes micropolitics as well as…