DISSIMILAR STRUCTURAL AND CONTROL PROFILES OF EDUCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL ORGANIZATIONS[1]

This article contrasts the characteristic structural and control profiles of educational organizations with those of technical organizations. A group of primary and secondary schools and the operating units of an industrial firm differed both in structural variables and in three activities of control: buffering, smoothing, and forecasting. the article suggests that educational organizations emphasize modes of control that operate on components peripheral rather than central to the organization's technical core.     

Adaptive Latitude: Environment, Organization, and Individual Influences

This study examines a hierarchy of adaptive latitude and the influence of environmental, organizational and managerial characteristics on firm adaptation across three industries (aerospace, electronic components, and paper products). Results show that environmental characteristics had the greatest impact on adaptive latitude, followed by organizational characteristics.