Balancing Mechanistic and Organic Organizations

The following is focused on balancing the characteristics of mechanistic and organic organizations,
triggered by the rates of change that an organization faces.
To begin, let us put mechanistic and organic structures on opposite sides of a black and white spectrum,
and let us recognize that some organizations share both mechanistic and organic organizational
features, denoted in shades of grey. Every organization has a different optimal combination of these
organic and mechanistic traits, and so “one size does not fit all”.
Mechanistic organizations adapt well to slow-changing environments, but do not adapt well to fast
changing environments, like an organic organizations. Accordingly, organic organizations facing
slower rates of change need to balance by becoming more mechanistic, and mechanistic organizations
facing faster rates of change need to balance by becoming more organic, as follows.
Mechanistic organizations tend to have simple structures and organic organizations tend to have more
complex structures. A functional structure, that of a small business owner, is relatively simple, where
one person tells their employees what to do.
These types of structures tend to support one product or service type, one geographic location, and one
customer or market type.
As the organization grows it becomes more complex and must change into a divisional structure to
separate the leader/manager role of the owner into two different roles for two different people, one for
leading and one for managing, using shared resources.
These types of structures tend to support more than one product or service type, geographic location,
or customer type, and therefore choose to form a product, geographical, or market divisional structure.
As the organization continues to grow and becomes more complex, the organization grows into a
multidivisional structure, which is led by a corporate office, and each division no longer shares
resources.
These types of structures tend to support multiple product and service types, multiple geographic
locations, and multiple customer types.
Simple mechanistic structures have employees occupy one role or job title with multiple tasks, but
complicated structures, like matrix structures, may find employees in multiple roles performing
multiple tasks.
Simple structures tend to be less differentiated than more complicated structures, as there is less work
to be done, and fewer employees available to fill new roles.
Mechanistic organizations tend to be taller with more layers from top to bottom, whereas organic
organizations tend to be flatter, given an equal number of employees.

Mechanistic organizations with vertical structures use centralized decision-making, where decisions
and ideas flow from the top to the bottom. However, as the organization grows past 7 vertical layers,
communication costs soar exponentially, because the large number of decisions that need to be made
exceed the ability of the top to make them, requiring organic decentralized decision- making, where
decisions are made at every level of the organization. Three to five vertical levels is ideal.
Taller mechanistic organizations with centralized decision-making don't need to integrate as much as
flatter decentralized organizations, as directions flow down from the top, but organic structures require
more collaboration, and thus more integration.
Mechanistic organizations that operate in slowly changing environments can afford to develop
standardized procedures, whereas a rapidly changing organic environment may not be able to develop
standardized procedures faster than those procedures need to change.
Mechanistic organizations are inflexible to rapid change, and thus are really best suited to incremental
innovations for incremental adaption, whereas organic organizations are very flexible or fluid and can
readily adapt to slow and radical change using slow and radical innovation. Incremental changes
increase short-term revenues, and radical innovations increase long-term revenues, and so organic
organizations are more innovative than mechanistic organizations.

To summarize, some organizations face rapid rates of change and others face slower rates of change,
and to be able to adapt to survive and grow, organizations that face faster rates of change need to
become more organic in nature, whereas organizations that face slower rates of change can afford to
become more mechanistic in nature. There is no “one size fits all model” and so organizations need
to find the optimal combinations of organic and mechanistic components, to best be able to adapt to
change to survive, and grow.

All rights reserved, Frederick Janson, 2012.