mechanistic organization

(noun)

A bureaucratic structure.

Related Terms

Examples of mechanistic organization in the following topics:

  • Flat versus tall organizations

    • By definition, a small business is typically a flat, centralized organization.
    • Flat organizations follow the decentralized approach, or organic system.
    • More decisions are made at the middle levels of the organization.
    • Internally, the organization as a whole encourages more participation between all levels of the organization.
    • A tall structure is a more formal, bureaucratic organization or mechanistic system.

  • Layers in an Organization: Tall vs Flat Organizations

    • A tall organization is a more formal bureaucratic or mechanistic organizational structure and management system.
    • Tall organizations have several tiers in their structural hierarchy and multiple levels of management control with regard to the daily operations of the organization.
    • Flat organizations follow the decentralized approach or organic system of organization and management.
    • Internally, the organization as a whole encourages more participation between all levels within the organization, promoting closer working relationships that potentially lead to better communication and creativity.
    • Various factors, both internal (i.e. management style, culture, etc.) and external (i.e. competition, regulation, etc.) to the organization, influence what type of structure an organization assumes.

  • Overview of Organizational Structure

    • This structure is most common in smaller organizations and is best used to solve simple tasks.
    • They are better suited for more complex or larger scale organizations, usually adopting a tall structure.
    • The tension between bureaucratic structures and non-bureaucratic is echoed in Burns and Stalker's distinction between mechanistic and organic structures.
    • However, it could also lead to a lack of communication between the functional groups within an organization, making the organization slow and inflexible.
    • Independent from their legal and internal structures, organizations can also behave differently.

  • Classical Views on Social Change

    • Bureaucracy is a complex means of managing life in social institutions that includes rules and regulations, patterns and procedures that both are designed to simplify the functioning of complex organizations.
    • In another work, The Division of Labor in Society, Durkheim proposed that pre-industrial societies maintained their social solidarity through a mechanistic sense of community and through their religious affiliations.
    • Whereas social solidarity was maintained in pre-industrial societies through a mechanistic sense of similarity and dependence along with communal religious affiliations, in industrialized societies, social solidarity would be maintained by the interdependence of specialists on one another.
    • This would force a type of organic solidarity — organic in the sense that the parts were interdependent like the organs of an animal are interdependent for their survival.
    • Thus, for Durkheim, the answer to the decrease in mechanistic solidarity and the increasing anomie was organic solidarity and solidarity pursued within one's specialty occupation.

  • Mechanistic Background

    • Giacomo Ciamician, regarded as the "father of organic photochemistry", used sunlight for much of his research at the University of Bologna in the early 1900's.
    • Virtually all organic compounds have more than two atoms, so the potential energy state diagram of X2 must be adjusted for the increased number of bonding relationships.
    • The electrons in most non-metallic organic compounds are paired (opposite spins) in bonding and non-bonding orbitals, resulting in a net zero spin diamagnetic molecule for the ground state.

  • Nonribosomal Peptide Antibiotics

    • Nonribosomal peptides are also found in higher organisms (such as nudibranchs) but are thought to be made by bacteria inside these organisms.
    • The NRPS genes for a certain peptide are usually organized in one operon in bacteria and in gene clusters in eukaryotes.
    • The enzymes are organized in modules that are responsible for the introduction of one additional amino acid.
    • Due to these structural and mechanistic similarities, some nonribosomal peptide synthetases contain polyketide synthase modules for the insertion of acetate or propionate-derived subunits into the peptide chain.

  • Combustion

    • The alkanes and cycloalkanes, with the exception of cyclopropane, are probably the least chemically reactive class of organic compounds.
    • The practical importance of this reaction cannot be denied, but the massive and uncontrolled chemical changes that take place in combustion make it difficult to deduce mechanistic paths.

  • The Alkyl Moiety

    • Other investigations have shown this to be generally true for reactions carried out in non-polar organic solvents, the reaction of (S)-2-iodobutane with sodium azide in ethanol being just one example ( in the following equation the alpha-carbon is maroon and the azide nucleophile is blue).
    • This mechanistic model explains many aspects of the reaction.

  • A Useful Mnemonic Rule

    • Before pericyclic reactions can be put to use in a predictable and controlled manner, a broad mechanistic understanding of the factors that influence these concerted transformations must be formulated.

  • Halogenation

    • Halogenation is the replacement of one or more hydrogen atoms in an organic compound by a halogen (fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine).
    • Since only two covalent bonds are broken (C-H & Cl-Cl) and two covalent bonds are formed (C-Cl & H-Cl), this reaction seems to be an ideal case for mechanistic investigation and speculation.