A Typology of Organizational

Structure
Henry Mintzberg
Organizational Structure
one best
way
1930s
it all depends
Contingency
theory
getting it all
together
Configuration
Five Organizational Structure

Simple Structure

Machine Bureaucracy

Professional Bureacracy

Divisionalized Form

Adhocracy

Ways to effect Coordination

Direct supervision

One person gives direct orders to others

Standardization of work processes

One person designs the general work procedures of others to

ensure that these are all coordinated.

Standardization of output

One person specifies the general outputs of the work of another.

Standardization of skills

A person is trained in a certain way so that he or she coordinates

automatically with others.

Mutual adjustment

Two or more people communicate informally among themselves to

coordinate their work.
Five Basic Parts

Operating core

The basic work of producing the organizations products and services gets
done.

Strategic apex

The home of top management

Middle line

Managers who stand in a direct line relationship between the strategic apex
and the operating core.

Techostructure

The staff analysts who design the systems by which work processes and
outputs are standardized in the organization.

Support staff

The specialists who provide support to the organization outside of its

operating workflow.
Design Parameters

Job specialization

Behavior formation

Training and indoctrination

Unit grouping

Unit size

Planning and control systems

Liaison devices

Vertical and horizontal decentralization

Five types of decentralization

Vertical and horizontal centralization

All power rests at the strategic apex.

Limited horizontal decentralization

The strategic apex shares some power with the technostructure

that standardize everybody elses work

Limited vertical decentralization

Managers of market-based units are delegated the power to control

most of the decisions concerning their line units.

Vertical and horizontal decentralization

Most of the power rests in the operating core, at the bottom of the
structure.

Selective vertical and horizontal decentralization

The power over different decisions is dispersed widely in the

organization.
The Contingency Factors

Age and Size

Technical System

Environment

Power factors
Simple Structure

Strategic Apex, direct supervision, vertical

and horizontal centralization

simple and dynamic, sometimes hostile

Entrepreneurial firm


Machine Bureaucracy

Technostructure, standardization of work

process, limited horizontal decentralization

simple and stable

Mass-production firms, service firms with

simple, repetitive works

Professional Bureaucracy

Operating core, standardization of skills,

vertical and horizontal decentralization

complex and stable.

School systems, social-work agencies,

accounting firms

Divisionalized Form

Middle line, limited vertical decentralization,

standardization of outputs

Relatively simple and stable; market

diversity

Large corporations, government

Adhocracy

Support staff, mutual adjustment, selective

vertical and horizontal decentralization

complex and dynamic.

Consulting firms, advertising agencies,

chemical firms, space agencies
Discussion

In Adhocracy, the supporting staff is mixed

together. What if there is a separate
supporting staff part?

Organization structures seems to evolve

more complicate and combined. Then
these five separate organization structure
will be still meaningful in future ?
Henry Mintzberg

Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies, Faculty of

Management, McGill University, Canada

Ph.D. Sloan School of Management, M.I.T., 1968.

Current Work : focuses on the development of a family of

programs for educating practicing managers, as well as a book
entitled Developing Managers, not MBAs, and a pamphlet called
Getting Past Smith and Marx toward a Balanced Society.

http://www.henrymintzberg.com/

Books

Managing: 29 Days in the Lives of Managers (in preparation) - a

return to the subject of my first book, in this case based on 29 days
in the lives of managers

Getting Past Smith and Marx toward a Balanced Society

(pamphlet, in preparation) - using my knowledge of organizations to
seek a balance in society between the economic, the political, and
the social

Developing Managers, not MBAs (in preparation) - nearing

completion of several years of collecting, contemplating, and writing
on my views about the education and development of managers

Why I Hate Flying (Texere, 2001) - spoof of the flying and the
managing businesses, and of commercialism in general.

Managing Publicly (with Jacques Bourgault; Institute of Public

Administration of Canada, Toronto, 2000) - based on study I did of
8 Canadian public sector managers, published with commentaries

Strategy Safari (with Bruce Ahlstrand and Joe Lampel, Free Press
and Prentice-Hall International, 1998) - as the subtitle says, "A
Guided tour Through The Wilds Of Strategic Management"

Articles

Managing to Innovate, in Leading for Innovation (Volume Two of the

Drucker Foundation Wisdom to Action Series, (forthcoming in 2001)
-low key approach to stimulating innovation

Do MBAs make better CEOs? (with Joseph Lampel) Fortune

(February 19, 2001) -not how they get there but how they perform
there: not impressively!

Analysis: Framing and Frame Breaking (with Kunal Basu) to appear

in Mindsets for Managers (Book in preparation)

Educating Managers Beyond Borders (with Jonathan Gosling-

submitted for publication)-about our masters program for practicing
managers

Managing Health and Disease-Up and Down, In and Out (submitted

for publication)-a day in the lives of seven health care managers

The Yin & Yang of Managing Organizational Dynamics (forthcoming

in 2001)-a day in the life of the male head of Mdecins sans
frontiers and the female head of Paris's fashion museum