The purpose of this paper is to explain, in terms of a simple model, the structure of formal organization, and to show how external events can affect their performance. The conceptual viewpoint used to describe the coordination occurring within organizations, is that decision-making theories of organization design, namely, that organizations are information processing systems with problem solving units connected by a communication network. We begin by modeling a basis coordination structure (functional hierarchy), as set of actors (processors and managers) who are connected together by communication lines. Then, queuing models are employed to analyze the execution of tasks by processors and the processing of result by managers. A production function is defined, which considers the average delay for both processors and managers. Then we introduce the concept of environmental uncertainty. We explain how it relates to structures, and how it can affect the organization's productivity. In order to cope with this uncertainty, we have considered four alternative organizing strategies (Galbraith 1977): (1) creation of slack resources, (2) creation of self-contained tasks, (3) investment in formation systems, and (4) creation of lateral relation. Each of these strategies is applied to the initial coordination structure, and for each we define a production cost equation. In addition to production costs, we also analyze coordination and vulnerability costs. Then, based on these cots we make a comparison of the four strategies, pointing out the trade-offs between them. In conclusion, since we consider management delay time in our model, we are able to explain in more detail the trade-offs between the alternatives strategies.

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Date created

• 1995

Type

• Document

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• Processing documentation available at: https://wiki.albany.edu/display/SCA/Processing+Ingested+Digital+Files

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• Creative Commons BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International

  
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12420ec6bd5f758d2b4dea59aabd75a9

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Part of

23d738ba88f8333bc39725f9cb5bd0b8

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Part of

b83f2ce2912343b559f967dd985da515

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Collection

System Dynamic Society Records

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Collecting area

• This collection is part of the University Archives