DSpace at Khazar University

Fashion favors the structure of the day (and of the culture), sometimes even
when inappropriate: Ideally, the design parameters are chosen according to the
dictates of age, size, technical system and environment. In fact, however, fashion
seems to play a role too, encouraging many organizations to adopt currently
popular design parameters that are inappropriate for themselves. Paris has its
salons of haute couture; likewise New York has its office of
'haute structure', the consulting firms that sometimes tend to oversell the latest
in structural fashion.
The Configuration
We have now introduced various attributes of organizations – parts, coordinating
mechanisms, design parameters, situational factors. How do they all combine?
We precede hereon the assumption that a limited number of configurations can
help explain much of what is observed in organizations. We have introduced in our
discussion six basic parts of the organization, six basic mechanisms of coordination, as
well as six basic types of decentralization. In fact, there seems to be a fundamental
correspondence between all of the sixes, which can be explained by a set of pulls
exerted on the organization by each of its six parts. When conditions favor one of these
pulls, the associated part of the organization becomes key, the coordinating mechanism
appropriate to itself becomes prime, and the form of decentralization that passes power
to itself emerge. The organization is thus drawn to design itself as a particular
configuration. We list here and then introduce briefly the six resulting configuration,
together with a seventh that tends to appear when no one pull or part dominates.
The Entrepreneurial Organization
The name tells it all. The structure is simple, not much more that one large unit
consisting of one or a few top managers, one of whom dominates by the pull to lead,
and a group of operators who do the basic work. Little of the behavior in the
organization is formalized and minimal use is made of planning, training or the liaison
devices. The absence of standardization means that the structure is organic and has little
need for staff analysts. Likewise there are a few middle–line managers because so much
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