Organizational work, Part I. The theory

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Mackenzie, Kenneth D.^{a; b}

Affiliations: [a] School of Business, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA | [b] Mackenzie And Company, Inc., 700 Massachusetts Street, Lawrence, Kansas 66044, USA

Abstract: This paper begins with a brief review of research on the nature of organizational work. While there are many proposed measures of properties of work, one cannot find a systematic and integrated set of concepts for describing and analyzing organizational work itself. Organizational work takes place within a larger context described by the ABCE model. Defining organizational work begins with defining the concept of a process. There are two, interdependent hierarchies of task processes. The first is a hierarchy of task process aggregation. The second is a hierarchy based on the type of process. An example is presented illustrating the interdependence of the two types of process hierarchies. Part II of this paper examines the distribution of work and Part III presents empirical results from 17 organizations.

Keywords: Hierarchy, interdependence, organizational logic, process, tasks, work

DOI: 10.3233/HSM-1997-16103

Journal: Human Systems Management, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 9-26, 1997