The organic form is appropriate to changing conditions, which give rise constantly to fresh problems and unforeseen requirements for action which cannot be broken down or distributed automatically arising from the functional roles defined within a hierarchic structure. It is characterized by:
1. The contributive nature of special knowledge and experience to common task of the concern.
2. The “realistic” nature of the individual task, which is seen as set by the total situation of the concern.
3. The adjustment and continual re-definition of individual task through interaction with others.
4. The shedding of “responsibility” as a limited field of rights, obligations, and methods. (Problems may not be posted upwards, downwards, or sideways as being someone else’s responsibility.)
5. The spread of commitment to concern beyond any technical definition.
6. A network structure of control, authority, and communication. The sanctions which apply to the individual’s conduct in his working role derive more from presumed community of interest with the rest of the working organization in the survival and growth of the firm, and less from a contractual relationship between himself and a nonpersonal corporation, rep-resented for him by an immediate superior.
7. Omniscience no longer imputed to the head of the concern; knowledge about the technical or commercial nature of the here and now task may be located anywhere in the network; this location becoming the ad hoc center of control authority and communication.
8. A lateral rather than a vertical direction of communication through the organization, communication between people of different rank, also, resembling consultation rather than command.
9. A content of communication which consists of information and advice rather than instructions and decisions.
10. Commitment to the concern’s task and to the “technological ethos” of material progress and expansion is more highly valued than loyalty and obedience.
11. Importance and prestige attach to affiliations and expertise valid in the industrial and technical and commercial milieux external to the firm.