Mintzbergs Model on Organisational Structures
Mintzbergs Model on Organisational Structures
The Five Parts
This note summarises the key features of Henri Mintzbergs theory on the structuring of organisations, which he presented in his book The Structuring of Organisations and Structure in 5 's: Designing Effective Organizations in the early 1980s.
According to Mintzberg organisations are formed of five main parts:
Operating core
Those who perform the basic work related directly to the production of products and services
Strategic apex
Charged with ensuring that the organisation serve its mission in an effective way, and also that it serve the needs of those people who control or otherwise have power over the organisation
Middle-line managers
Form a chain joining the strategic apex to the operating core by the use of delegated formal authority
Technostructure
The analysts who serve the organisation by affecting the work of others. They may design it, plan it, change it, or train the people who do it, but they do not do it themselves
Support staff
Composed of specialised units that exist to provide support to the organisation outside the operating work flow Pressures
Each of these five parts has a tendency to pull the organisation in a particular direction favourable to them
* Strategic Apexes – centralisation * Support Staff - collaboration * Technostructures - standardisation * Operating Core – professionalisation * Middle Line - balkanisation
Five Generic Structures
There are five generic organisation structures which can be described in terms of the five-part theory: * Simple structure, * Machine bureaucracy, * Professional bureaucracy, * Divisionalised form, * Adhocracy.
Simple Structure
The simple structure, typically, has * little or no technostructure, few support staffers, * a loose division of labour, minimal differentiation among its units, and a small managerial hierarchy. * The behaviour of simple structure is not
The Five Parts
This note summarises the key features of Henri Mintzbergs theory on the structuring of organisations, which he presented in his book The Structuring of Organisations and Structure in 5 's: Designing Effective Organizations in the early 1980s.
According to Mintzberg organisations are formed of five main parts:
Operating core
Those who perform the basic work related directly to the production of products and services
Strategic apex
Charged with ensuring that the organisation serve its mission in an effective way, and also that it serve the needs of those people who control or otherwise have power over the organisation
Middle-line managers
Form a chain joining the strategic apex to the operating core by the use of delegated formal authority
Technostructure
The analysts who serve the organisation by affecting the work of others. They may design it, plan it, change it, or train the people who do it, but they do not do it themselves
Support staff
Composed of specialised units that exist to provide support to the organisation outside the operating work flow Pressures
Each of these five parts has a tendency to pull the organisation in a particular direction favourable to them
* Strategic Apexes – centralisation * Support Staff - collaboration * Technostructures - standardisation * Operating Core – professionalisation * Middle Line - balkanisation
Five Generic Structures
There are five generic organisation structures which can be described in terms of the five-part theory: * Simple structure, * Machine bureaucracy, * Professional bureaucracy, * Divisionalised form, * Adhocracy.
Simple Structure
The simple structure, typically, has * little or no technostructure, few support staffers, * a loose division of labour, minimal differentiation among its units, and a small managerial hierarchy. * The behaviour of simple structure is not