Original scientific paper
THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF TASKS AND STRUCTURE IN PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS
Eugen Pusić
; Faculty of Law, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
To what degree does function determine structure in organizations? Classical Organization theory disagrees about the answer, with technological determinism on one end and contingency theory on the other.
The problem is becoming more complex when considering organizations of public administration with a number of interveening variables between their functions and their structure.
The opinions of German and American Contemporary authors are compared on the way in which function does, or does not, determine structure or Organization culture in their respective Systems of public administration. The conclusions drawn from this comparison point to the existence o f structural principles in organizations generally and organizations of public administration specifically that in some way precede the application of the principle that structure should follow function. They also speculate on the possible consequences of a major change in the way organizations are integrated, the transition from primary reliance in this respect on internal mechanisms within each Organization to incresing dependence on the societal pool of informations and knowledge as well as on general professional rules o f what constitutes acceptable quality of performance.
Keywords
public administration; State; tasks; structure; technology; environment; efficiency
Hrčak ID:
197672
URI
Publication date:
8.9.1999.
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