ABSTRACT
The analysis here points to the character of Luther Midelfort as a smartly designed socio-technical system, attending equally to the social aspects of the organization (its culture, the commitments and motivations of staff, the formal roles and informal patterns of relationships among groups), and to the technical aspects of its work systems (the transformation of effort and resources into products and services, the transfer of information, and the use of technologies). All organizations, to varying degrees, need to maintain this dual focus, but Luther Midelfort is distinguished in the extent to which the interactions between the two dimensions in different areas and levels of the organization have been deliberately cultivated to achieve a synergy that furthers the organization’s goals, particularly with regard to quality of care.
