Mintzberg: situation
and configuration
Pål Sørgaard, Telenor R&D and IfI
INF 5250
September 19, 2005
Situational factors of organisations
(ch 6)
Age and size
 The technical system used in the operating core
 Environment (stability, complexity, diversity, hostility)
 Power relationships

In the group task: determine these factors for your
case organisation!
 Test the hypotheses in your case organisation!

19 September, 2005
Pål Sørgaard, R&D
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Relations between design
parameters and with the situation
We have worked through 9 design parameters
 These cannot be combined arbitrarily
 There are some combinations that are really
consistent: these are called configurations

Effective structuring requires a fit between situation
and design parameters (congruence)
 Today: cover situational factors, hypotheses about
congruence and configuration, and two “basic”
configurations

19 September, 2005
Pål Sørgaard, R&D
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Age and size hypotheses
1. Older organisations tend to rely more on
formalisation of behaviour
– They’ve seen it all before
2. The structure of the organisation tends to reflect the
age of its industry
3. Larger organisations are more elaborate: more
specialised tasks, more differentiated units, more
developed administrative components
4. Larger organisations have larger units
5. Larger organisations have more formalised
behaviour
19 September, 2005
Pål Sørgaard, R&D
4
Technical system in the operating
core

Woodward’s research on
– unit production
– mass production
– process production (high degree of automation)
Mass production, boring jobs, conflict, hostility,
suspicion, focus on control
 Automation (IT!) leads to dramatic reduction on the
number of unskilled operators in production

–
–
–
–
Machines do their jobs without control
Hordes of specialists needed
Change in mix of people and jobs, new culture
Different challenges for management
19 September, 2005
Pål Sørgaard, R&D
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Technical system hypotheses
6. A more regulating technical systems leads to more
formalisation and more bureaucratic structure of the
operating core
– Remember: this is from the 80ies. Still a lot of manual work
being controlled by elaborate technical systems
7. A more sophisticated technical systems requires a
more elaborate nonoperating structure (IT/Telenor)
8. Automation of the operating core transforms a
bureaucratic administrative structure into an organic
one
– Less traditional industry, more knowledge industry, especially
in high-cost economies
19 September, 2005
Pål Sørgaard, R&D
6
Environment
Stability: stable vs dynamic (unpredictable)
 Complexity: simple vs complex, p 136
 Market diversity: integrated vs diversified
 Hostility: munificent (friendly) vs hostile


Telenor example
– From stable to dynamic
– From quite simple to increasing complexity
– From two integrated services in one market to increased
diversification and many markets
– From monopoly to competition and regulation
19 September, 2005
Pål Sørgaard, R&D
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Environment hypotheses
9. A more dynamic environment requires more dynamic
structure
10. A more complex environment requires more
decentralised structure
11. Diversified markets generally lead to split into
market-based units
12. Extreme hostility in the environment leads to
(temporary) centralisation
13. A mixed environment encourages selective
decentralisation
19 September, 2005
Pål Sørgaard, R&D
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Type of organisation and
environment (p 144)
stable
dynamic
Complex
Decentralised
Bureaucratic
(standardisation of skills)
Decentralised
Organic
(mutual adjustment)
Simple
Centralised
Bureaucratic
(standardisation of work
processes)
Centralised
Organic
(direct supervision)
19 September, 2005
Pål Sørgaard, R&D
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Power issues

External control
– owners
– politicians
– regulation

Personal ambitions
– at different positions in the organisation

Internal power struggles
19 September, 2005
Pål Sørgaard, R&D
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Power hypotheses
14. External control drives centralisation and
formalisation
15. Power needs of groups favour centralisation, to
themselves …
16. There is fashion and fad in the way organisations are
structured, sometimes resulting in inappropriate
structures
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Pål Sørgaard, R&D
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Overview of configurations (p 153)
Structural
configuration
Prime coordinating
mechanism
Key part of
organisation
Type of
decentralisation
Simple
structure
Direct supervision
Strategic
apex
Vertical and
horizontal
centralisation
Machine
bureaucracy
Standardisation of
work processes
Technostructure
Limited horizontal
decentralisation
Professional
bureaucracy
Standardisation of
skills
Operating
core
Vertical and
horizontal
decentralisation
Divisionalised
form
Standardisation of
outputs
Middle line
Limited vertical
decentralisation
Adhocracy
Mutual adjustment
Support staff
Selective
decentralisation
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Pål Sørgaard, R&D
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An “evolutionary” interpretation
To a large extent organisations compete (companies)
 As the economy develops, new environmental
challenges emerge (e.g. use of IT)
 Some organisation try new structures to cope better
with the challenges
 Those that succeed, tend to win in the competition
 Some solutions settle as types/configurations
 Thus, in an evolving economy, it is no surprise that we
over time have an increasing set of typical
configurations

19 September, 2005
Pål Sørgaard, R&D
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The simple structure (ch 8)

Characteristics
–
–
–
–

prime coordinating mechanism: direct supervision
key part: strategic apex (the boss)
main design parameters: centralisation, organic structure
situational factors: young, small, nonsophisticated technical
system, simple, dynamic environment, possible extreme
hostility or strong power needs of top manager, not
fashionable
Typical example: the entrepreneurial firm
– normally a boss and some employees (operating core)

Under extreme conditions other organisations revert to
the simple structure
19 September, 2005
Pål Sørgaard, R&D
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Variants and hybrids
The simplest structure (more mutual adjustment)
 The crisis organisation (temporary)
 The autocratic organisation (dictatorship)
 The charismatic organisation

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Important features
Flexible and dynamic, no bureaucracy
 Risky (depends on one person)
 Has a sense of mission, many people like them!
 Often a stage in a more mature organisation’s life

– It’s very hard to grow large with a simple structure

The transition from simple structure to other
configurations can be difficult
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The machine bureaucracy (ch 9)

Characteristics
– prime coordinating mechanism: standardisation of work
processes
– key part: technostructure
– main design parameters: behaviour formalisation, vertical and
horizontal job specialisation, usually functional grouping, large
operating-unit size, vertical centralisation and limited
horizontal decentralisation, action planning
– situational factors: old, large, regulating, nonautomated
technical system, simple and stable environment, external
control, not fashionable
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The organisation as a programmed
machine
The operating core is the processor
 The technostructure does the programming
 Low-level programming where assumptions are hardcoded into the design

– equipment
– job descriptions
The focus is efficiency and control
 Weber’s ideal
 Some remaining cases

– The Norway Post, Oslo sporveier, SAS, traditional mass
production, classical bureaucracies such as the Tax
Administration, National Insurance Scheme
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Max Weber 1864–1920
The decisive reason for the advance of bureaucratic
organisation has always been its purely technical
superiority over any other form of organization. The
fully developed bureaucratic mechanism compares
with other organizations exactly as does the machine
with the non-mechanical modes of production.
 Precision, speed, unambiguity, knowledge of the files,
continuity, discretion, unity, strict subordination,
reduction of friction and of material and personal costs
— these are raised to the optimum point in the strictly
bureaucratic organization (p 176 in Structure in Fives)

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The control issue
Rules, regulations, formal communication, formal chain
of authority: predictability
 Attempts are made to eliminate all uncertainties, so
that the organisation can run smoothly, uninterruptedly
 By virtue of its design, the structure is ridden with
conflict; the control system is required to contain it

–
–
–
–

separation of planning and doing
jobs with little satisfaction
difficult to get heard
vulnerable to disobedience
Conflicts are not resolved, but bottled up
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Challenges for the machine
bureaucracy
Work of complex environments cannot be rationalised
into simple tasks
 The work of dynamic environments cannot be
predicted and made repetitive
 Does not cope well with full automation of the
operating core
 Behaviour and lack of mutual adjustment (govt)
 Human problems
 Split strategy formulation and strategy implementation

– Assumes full information
– Assumes enough stability so that strategies remain relevant
during implementation
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Future of the configuration
Will become less common, especially in rich,
developed countries
 Will remain superior in mass production involving
manual work
 Loses (has lost?) its role as the main type of
organisation, as the source for general principles about
organising
 May still thrive in contexts were external control and
predictability is given top priority

– this ought to be a dilemma for politicians
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Pål Sørgaard, R&D
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