Organization theory is directly relevant to top- and middle-management con-
cerns and partly relevant to lower management. Top managers are responsible
for the entire organization and must set goals, develop strategy, interpret the ex-
ternal environment, and decide organization structure and design. Middle man-
agement is concerned with major departments, such as marketing or research,
and must decide how the department relates to the rest of the organization.
Middle managers must design their departments to fit work-unit technology
and deal with issues of power and politics, intergroup conflict, and information
and control systems, each of which is part of organization theory. Organization
theory is only partly concerned with lower management because this level of
supervision is concerned with employees who operate machines, create services,
or sell goods. Organization theory is concerned with the big picture of the organization and its major departments.