ABSTRACT
Permeating the organizational literature, sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly, are two contrasting views of what constitutes the warp of organization. One view interprets organizations as rational instruments for achieving some goal or set of goals. Structural mechanisms act as tools deliberately established for the realization of collective purposes. This goal-oriented or instrumental view of organizations is referred to by Gouldner (1959) as the “ rational model” and it directs our attention to those characteristics which distinguish organizations as entities in their own right: as something distinct from mere agglomerations of personnel with diverse purposes. Durkheim (1933) might have referred to the structural embodiment of such instrumental rationality as organization “ sui generis.”
