ABSTRACT
In this book I have emphasized tasks and constraints on their performance. I have treated enterprises as living organisms that must be related to their physical and social environments if they are to survive. I have been concerned to show that the organization of an enterprise, be it industrial or non-industrial, should provide a framework that fits task performance, taking into account the constraints imposed by the environment on both definition of task and resources for its performance. I have tried, so far as I have been able, to avoid the introduction of arguments about the rights of those who man an enterprise to determine either its tasks or its methods of work. I have included human social and psychological needs among the possible constraints. I have not, however, forgotten that, in practice, any organization, however flexible, must be applied to a living system that has social as well as technological dimensions. The social system that is associated with any ‘task-fitted’ organization must of necessity, if it is to be viable and contribute to the effective use of technology, also satisfy the basic needs of those who work within it.
