ABSTRACT
This chapter shows why particular activities are assigned to particular individuals and groups in the pyramid of familiar organization chart. The pyramidal form typical of organizations is a consequence of: the need for coordination of individual activities, the effectiveness of the individual nervous system as a coordinating mechanism, and the limits upon the effective span of this mechanism. To understand what is involved in the division of work, the chapter considers to what extent, with a given set of tasks and a given group of employees, can different schemes be devised for the division of the work among the employees?; and What consequences may follow from dividing work in one way rather than another? A machine that possesses a wide variety of skills—can perform many jobs—is either more costly or less skilled than a machine designed to do a specific task repetitively.
