and can engage in different activities only if they are explicitly modified or redesigned to
do so.
Changing circumstances call for different kinds of action and response. Flexibility
and capacities for creative action become more important than narrow efficiency. It
becomes more important to do the right thing in a way that is timely and "good enough"
than to do the wrong thing well or the right thing too late. In these respects, mechanistic
organization falls victim to the kind of "segmentalism" that Rosabeth Moss Kanter and
others have shown plagues so many modem corporations. The compartmentalization
created by mechanistic divisions between different hierarchical levels, functions, roles,
and people tends to create barriers and stumbling blocks.
For example, when new problems arise they are often ignored because there are no
readymade responses. Or they are approached in a fragmented rather than a holistic way
so that they can be tackled through existing organizational policies, procedures, and
patterns of expertise. But standardized procedures and channels of communication are
often unable to deal effectively with new circumstances, necessitating numerous ad hoc
meetings and committees, which, because they have to be planned to fit rather than
disrupt the normal mode of operation, are often too slow or too late for dealing with
issues. Problems of inaction and lack of coordination thus become rife. In such
circumstances the organization frequently becomes clogged with backlogs of work
because normal routine has been disrupted, and complex issues float up the
organizational hierarchy as members at each level find in turn that they are unable to
solve them. On the way, information often gets distorted, as people hide errors and the
true nature and magnitude of problems for fear of being held responsible for them. Those
in command of the organization thus frequently find themselves facing issues that are
inappropriately defined, and which they have no real idea of how to approach. They are
often forced to delegate them to special task forces or teams of staff experts or
consultants who, since they are often remote from the concrete problems being
experienced, further, increase the delay and inadequacy of response.
The difficulty of achieving effective responses to changing circumstances is often
further aggravated by the high degree of specialization in different functional areas within
the organization (e.g., production, marketing, finance, product engineering).
Interdepartmental communications and coordination are often poor, and people often
have a myopic view of what is occurring, there being no overall grasp of the situation
facing the enterprise as a whole. As a result the actions encouraged by one element of the
organization often entail negative consequences for others, so that one element ends up
working against the interests of another.
These problems are often compounded by the fact that mechanistic definitions of job
responsibilities encourage many organizational members to adopt mindless,
unquestioning attitudes such as "it's not my job to worry about that," "that's his
responsibility, not mine," or "I'm here to do what I'm told." Although often seen as
attitudes that employees "bring to work," they are actually inherent in the mechanistic
approach to organization. Defining work responsibilities in a clear-cut manner has the