1

Organizational Configuration from a Complexity Perspective

Introduction
In today’s world there is an integral saying that firms that remain unchanged and stagnant
cannot survive for long as the external operating environment is always changing.
Organizations flexibility and changing according to the environment are the major factors
that decide the continuance of the firm. Organizations that try to change mostly modify
their attributes like relationship exchange, production, and governance structure and
communication guidelines.
Most of the organizational experiences tell us those organizations that try to change
themselves through adjustments of their managerial line up ends up not in a flow of
options but instead be broken into small number of types. The concept that organizations
group themselves in distinct set of alternatives affects the shape of the official
organization. On the other hand managers try to manage themselves between those
distinct groups in order to make the organization more efficient and increase profitability.

Discussion
According to Henry Mintzberg every activity of human being from the making of pottery
to the man’s first step of man give rise to two distinct and opposing aspects that are
breaking up the labor into different tasks and to coordinate those tasks together to make it
fulfill any activity. According to Henry Mintzberg, corporations have only a few basic
configurations or arrangements and plans.
Many current literatures tell that the organizations change or restructure themselves in a
way that increases their performance and profit margins. The elements within the
organization need to complement each other in order to smoothly run the organizational
structure. The choice of organizational structure is mostly developed and can be decided
by the essential that all elements are balancing. Any organizational attempt to deviate
from of these commonly occurring organizational forms yields an underperforming
configuration (Mintzberg, 1979) that ultimately will alter or be unsuccessful.
 2

During the attempt to meet the adaptability level through working hard to increase the
factor of flexibility within the organization by the management there are many problems.
Several forces are present that wants the management to keep the structural elements
consistent within the organization. Two of the major factors that play an integral role are
centralization and formalization that are commonly attuned by managers while they are
adapting to the innovative environments.
It is probable that the alteration of these two elements often happens as they are
administratively compliant. Adoption of a structural form in which the attributes do not
harmonize and support one another eventually leads to extermination of the organization
(Mintzberg, 1979).
There is also a suggestion that the two constructs are influence by administration when
reanalyzing because they are integral in all the formal and informal arrangement of the
organization. To promote the levels of the structure and central function of the
organization is the main aim for the organizations management which is needed at the
whole organizational level. Another important aspect is the centralization or
decentralization in the organization which in the literature of marketing and management
has mostly been discussed on. The need for consistency is the major things that have
importance in the structural element. For example in organizational theory
“decentralization is the diffusion of decision-making authority” (Mintzberg, 1989 p. 105)

Key Drivers
The key drivers in the domain of external complexity are mostly found in the customer
base and the products demand by the market in which the company is operating. While
empirical evidence suggests both centralization and formalization are adapted to meet
environmental conditions (Bahrani, 1992), the literature does not suggest that uniformity
in direction of adjustment exists along these two elements of structure. Some firms have
found that decentralization in conjunction with decreased formalization has improved
adaptability (Covin et al., 1994).
Integral idea
The integral idea to point out those firms reacts to external complexity through their inner
means. The basic supposition is that a manufacturing system accustoms, when
 3

organizational ability have to be grown and innovated through making clear directions
within and throughout the organization. In high complexity environment firms strengthen
their efforts to improve on the scales of pricing, value and flexibility on a higher degree
than firms in low complexity environment have.

Emergent Strategy
The organization is organized in a way to react in a good way to the environmental
demands which in affect the internal complexity of the organization. Though, the original
structure and decisions within the organization and its decisions have an effect on the
strategic decision making of the firm. This bi-directional association stand for the fact
that Mintzberg and Waters (1985) term “emergent strategy”, that shows that strategic
prototype do not essentially have to be formulated by a company's management but that
strategies appear from the and the resulting behavior of members and parts of the firm.
The organizational view is explicated as formalization is the standardization of work
processes by operating instructions, job descriptions, rules and regulations (Mintzberg,
1989). In conclusion the objective of variation within an organization in formalization
while concentrating decision making.
The focal point of such corporations is their chief executive or leader, with whom most or
all of the corporation or an enterprise’s knowledge and power rests. The leaders of
industrial corporations synchronize work by means of direct supervision. (Stein, 1995)
According to Henry Mintzberg, leaders of these types of corporations are individuals
with strong personalities to whom professional advice or ideologies contrary to their own
personal vision can seem like a challenge. He also mentions that it is not uncommon to
find all employees in an industrial corporation or an enterprise reporting to the chief
executive.
The decision making aspect of the operations and strategy is also concentrated at the
corporation or an enterprise’s strategic apex. In fact, leaders of industrial corporations
tend to become closely concerned in particulars of the corporation or an enterprise’s
operations, because they depend upon this knowledge to formulate strategy.
 4

The primary functions of the leader in an industrial corporation or an enterprise are

innovating, and management of problems. This arrangements and plans are found set in
external environments that are both simple and active such as food trade (as opposed to
aircraft plan). The simple atmosphere and surrounding promotes a condition in which a
single person at the top of the corporation or an enterprise is able to keep hold of a great
deal of influence, and a dynamic atmosphere and surrounding gives the industrial
corporation or an enterprise’s fluid, flexible decision-making and configuration the edge
over larger bureaucracies. An automobile dealership with a strong owner, a new
government department, and a corporation or nation runs by an autocratic leader all offer
examples of industrial corporations.
Industrial corporations tend to emerge when a corporation or an enterprise is young; thus,
most corporations will pass through an industrial stage, even if they do not remain in this
arrangements and plans for long periods. This arrangements and plans may also manifest
that the leader actually pertains all the power in the organization and enjoys a place given
to him by members of the corporation or an enterprise. (Mintzberg, 1978) Industrial
corporations also tend to emerge when a corporation or an enterprise is faced with a crisis
and its members turn to strong leadership for survival which in turns effects on the
performance of the organization in long term.
Similarly, if the external atmosphere and surrounding or conditions are such that the
corporation or an enterprise is likely to again take on an industrial arrangements and
plans like in the time of disaster we have to analyze the comprehensive data located in the
strategic apex.

The Machine Corporation or an enterprise

The machine preparations and plans is typified by the system of government, exemplify
by centralization, formal events governing routine operating tasks, specialized work,
sharp divisions of labor (usually into functional groupings), and widespread chain of
command. As most of the operating tasks are straightforward and recurring in this type of
corporation or an enterprise, they are often controlled and coordinated through
standardization. (Mintzberg, Waters, 1984) To achieve high levels of work
standardization, the administrative configurations of machine corporations are well
 5

articulated. In particular, they exhibit a fully developed middle line hierarchy and techno
configuration.
The techno configuration in machine corporations consists of a multitude of staff analysts
responsible for standardizing work. In machine corporations the set of rules are all geared
towards standardization of processes. According to Henry Mintzberg, middle-line
executives within the machine arrangements and plans have tasks that occur recurrently
because many non-standard cases cannot be dealt with according to existing standards);
2) to work with the staff analysts constituting the techno configuration to incorporate
standards into operating units; and 3) to support vertical flows of information within the
corporation or an enterprise.
Henry Mintzberg makes the point that conflicts will rise to the level within the
corporation or an enterprise having the decision-making authority needed to resolve
them, which may even be at the strategic apex. The machine arrangements and plans may
be a national tax office, a central command building or a large scale automobile
company, or even a small security agency if the correct conditions exist. (Stein, 1995)
The environmental conditions that tend to give rise to machine arrangements and plans
are plainness and constancy, as the day to day and recurring work that characterizes such
environments is well suited to encouraging adoption of the machine arrangements and
plans.

The Diversified Arrangements and plans

As Henry Mintzberg explains, the diversified arrangements and plans is essentially a
group of semi-autonomous units, often called divisions, held together by a central
administrative core, such as a headquarters. This is an arrangements and plans often
found in the private sector among Fortune 500 enterprises and in large government
bureaucracies. These arrangements and plans usually have evolved from corporations that
originally had a more unified functional configuration. In its purest form, each unit of the
diversified corporation or an enterprise serves a distinct market or area, has control over
its own operating functions, and more or less follows the machine arrangements and
plans internally. The role of the central administrative core is to control performance
 6

through measurable standards of output, such as return on investment, growth in sales, or

some other, usually financial, measure. (Farganis, 1993)
Some indefinite and important functions will remain in the headquarters. The
headquarters develops overall corporate strategy, including definition of the products or
services which the corporation or an enterprise will produce. It establishes, acquires,
divests, or closes units as it sees fit. It transfers funds between units to maintain internal
financial stability. It operates a strict performance control system, needed to control and
coordinate the corporation or an enterprise’s work, and it often provides support services,
such as corporate public relations or legal counsel. Henry Mintzberg observes that when
market diversity rests on clients or region as opposed to the provision of a unique product
or service, “divisionalization” may be incomplete, in which case the headquarters may
retain control of certain crucial functions in order to ensure common operating standards
for all divisions. According to him control and diversity goes on together. In more
bureaucratic organizations control is necessary to run them effectively due to the nature
of the work they perform. The centralization of power of command is another factor that
distinct some organizations from others that have a distributed command of power. The
core operational factors are mostly kept at the central headquarters or within the top level
management. For example, one study found that insurance companies concentrate their
critical investment functions at headquarters.

Henry Mintzberg and Managerial and clerical Complexity

If we accept Henry Mintzberg’s hypothesis that corporations naturally change their
arrangements and plans over time within a comparatively set pattern it pursues that
archivists should not appraise the comprehensive data of corporations using one set of
integrated criterion, but should relate the criteria suitable to the particular stage or stages
in the corporation or an enterprise’s life cycle during which the series in question were
formed. The archivist may make this determination by researching and monitoring
strategic and important modifications in the relative size and implication of the
corporation or an enterprise’s component parts, in the characteristics of its plan
parameters, its method of work coordination, or its external atmosphere and surrounding.
(Mintzberg, 1987) For example, in the case of a corporation or an enterprise shifting from
 7

an innovative to professional arrangements and plans, noteworthy changes might include

a gradual decline in the number of project teams and rise in the significance of same-
discipline units and administrative committees.

Conclusion
Regardless of their seldom composite manifestations in the real world and the anomalies
that may exist, Henry Mintzberg’s arrangements and plans help us to understand
corporations, and in so doing give us an influential tool to assist in the evaluation of
comprehensive data. The high level of correlation that exists between Samuels’ and
Yates’ findings and the Henry Mintzberg-based hypotheses put forward in this article
propose, at least on an opening stage, that these hypotheses have some validity. At the
same time, dissimilarity between the cases and the hypothesis point to ways in which we
can revise the hypotheses to both expand and refine the hypothesis.
Obviously, much more investigation is desired to fully draw out all of the possible
implications for assessment flowing from Henry Mintzberg’s seven basic managerial and
clerical arrangements and plans. This should be pursued by a methodical investigation to
test the validity of hypothesis arising from his hypothesis and by further refinements in
the application of methodology based on that hypothesis. These could prove very
productive and beneficial. Regardless of whether we accept Henry Mintzberg’s
hypothesis or the resulting hypotheses which this article outlines, the field of managerial
and clerical hypothesis is incredibly rich ground for the archivist. For in gaining fuller
understanding of corporations, we gain important insight, valuable in appraising archival
comprehensive data: the products of managerial and clerical activity.
 8

REFERENCES:

Bahrani, H.H. (1992), "The emerging flexible organization: perspectives from Silicon
Valley", California Management Review, Vol. 34 pp.33-52.

Covin, J.G., Slevin, D.P., Schultz, R.L. (1994), "Implementing strategic missions:
effective strategic, structural and tactical choices", The Journal of Management Studies,
Vol. 31 No.4, pp.481-506.

Farganis, J. (1993), Readings in Social Hypothesis: The Classic Tradition to Post-

Modernism, New York

Mintzberg, H., (1978), ‘Patterns in Strategy Formation’, Administration Science, pp.

934-948.

Mintzberg. H., (1987), ‘Crafting Strategy’, Harvard Business Review, July-August, pp.
66-75.

Mintzberg, H., and Waters, J. A., (1984), ‘Researching the Formation of Strategy: The
History of Canadian Lady, 1939-1976’, In R. B., Lamb, ed., ‘Competitive Strategic
Administration, Englewood Cliffs, N., Prentice Hall, pp. 62-93.

Mintzberg H., The Structuring of Corporations: A Synthesis of the Research (Englewood

Cliffs, N.J., 1979)

Mintzberg, H. (1989), Mintzberg on Management: Inside Our Strange World of

Organizations, Macmillan, New York, NY

Stein, E.W (1995), “Managerial and clerical Memory: Review of Concepts and
Recommendations for Administration,” International Journal of Information
Administration 15, no. 1 pp. 17–32