The Distribution of Authority in Formal Organizations

Abstract

This study relates two issues of increasing importance to management: authority and change. It also combines two types of research design and methodology: a field experiment and a natural experiment with an emphasis on the and measurement of variables.The field experiment is a case study of the impact and developing effects of a series of changes in organizational structure at the research and development center of a large U.S. corporation over a two-year period. It assesses the attendant changes in the productivity and satisfaction of some 150 scientists, engineers, and managers engaged in technical development work at the Center under a newly promoted director--a scientist-executive--who has reorganized its lines of authority in an attempt to improve its effectiveness. His steps to move decision-making downward are examined in some detail.In the controlled experiment, before any of the organizational changes were announced to staff of the Center, the investigators were allowed to measure attitudes as revealed through questionnaires and interviews covering not only groups that were to be reorganized but also a control group not involved. A year after the reorganization was put into effect, a second set of questionnaires and interviews was used to measure the effect of change.The study was originally published in 1968 by the Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, where the authors have served as faculty colleagues and project collaborators while retaining their independence of mind. In the two concluding chapters of this book--one by Professor Zaleznik, the other by Professors Barnes and Dalton--they summarize their findings and present differing and sometimes opposing conclusions.

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