ORGANIZATION DESIGN

PARAMETERS: INTERNAL
CHARACTERISTICS
The design parameters determine how the various
parts of an organization will be organized to
coordinate and control the entity’s activities.
 Mintzberg (1979) one of the leading scholars in
organization theory, breaks down organizations into five
basic but interrelated parts:
 (1) strategic apex (senior management)
 (2) middle line (middle management)
 (3) operating core
 (4) technostructure
 (5) support staff
MINTZBERG’S FIVE BASIC PARTS OF
ORGANIZATION
 MINTZBERG’S FIVE BASIC PARTS OF
ORGANIZATION
Senior management Middle management
(strategic apex) (middle line)

The chain linking senior

Senior managers are responsible for
management to the operating core.
ensuring that the organization
This chain runs from the senior
effectively serves its mission, serves
managers just to the first-line
the needs of the organization’s
supervisors (e.g., the nurse
various stakeholders, and manages
supervisor) who have direct
the organization’s relationships with
authority/supervision over the
its environment
operatingcore members.
 MINTZBERG’S FIVE BASIC PARTS OF
ORGANIZATION
The operating core
The heart of every organization, the
part that produces the essential
outputs that keep it alive. The
operating core of the organization
encompasses those members who
perform the basic work related
directly to the production of
services and products
The technostructure
Includes the staff that serve the organization by affecting
the work of others, design the systems by which work
processes and outputs are standardized in the
organization. Technostructure employees are removed
from the operating work flow—they may design it, plan
it, change it, or train the people who do it, but they do not
do it themselves. As such, technostructure employees
spend a good deal of their time in informal
communication.
 Support staff

Comprises those employees who perform support

services to the organization outside of its
operating workflow, such as public relations and
legal counsel.
 Proper use of communication forms and methods by managers is essential for the coordination
and control of an organization’s activities. Communication activity and frequency increase as
activity and/or task variety increase.
 examine the increasing need and direction for communication when interdependence between
or among departments regarding an organization’s workflow exists
 Interdependence refers to the extent that organizational units depend on one another for
resources or materials to accomplish their tasks. There are three types of interdependence:
pooled (minimal), sequential (medium), and reciprocal (high) (Thompson, 1967)