ABSTRACT
No-one doubts that organizations change. Sometimes the change is in the nature of an upheaval and at other times it happens gradually. Change can be deliberate and planned but it can also be enforced and reactive. Not too many years ago the academic discipline of organization theory used to concern itself with two broad modals, the bureaucratic form with its rules and defined roles and the organic form which was less rigid. To a large extent these forms are still the basic currency of organizational structure, but the plot has changed. It has become more complicated. The idea of thinking of organization structure as the result of influence by other factors has not changed, but our thinking about what constitutes 'structure' has changed. It can no longer be confined to elements such as hierarchy, roles, power, authority, groups. Now we must also think of less tangible dimensions such as culture, leadership, information, behaviour. Structure, meaning form, is now only one of many ways of perceiving organizations. Indeed, change itself has become a focus of attention, suggesting that organizational change is the result of larger changes in the social and industrial worlds.
