This research provides a breadth review of the literature related to organizational theory and behavior. Literature is reviewed in the contexts of organizational structure, motivation in organizations, the application of power in organizations, organizational commitment, decision making in organizations, organizational stress, and sociotechnical organizational systems.
Two primary classifications of organizational structure are mechanistic and organic. The differences between mechanistic and organic organizational structures are expressed in the context of the level of formal structure and control embodied in the two organizational concepts (Daft, 1992, p. 140). The character of an organization's internal structure is often related to the external environment within which it functions. In this context, Warren Bennis (1976, pp. 22 27) observed that organizations must strike a balance between openness to the external environment and protection from too much permeability. Organizations functioning within a stable external environment typically have formal internal organizational structures with clearly established and observed operating procedures and rules, and a well defined hierarchy of authority. Within such organizations, decision making is typically top down in character. This type of organizational structure is mechanistic in character. Organizations functioning within a dynamic external environment frequently are chaotic in character defined as "much looser,
free flowing, and adaptive (Daft, 1992, p. 71). Rules and
regulations are not written down, or if written down are frequently ignored. People have to find their own way through the system to figure out what to do. The hierarchy of authority is not clear. Decision making authority is decentralized. Such internal organizational structures are organic in character.
Daft (1992, p. 42) held that the organic organizational structure is associated with cha...