The Task Analysis Framework in Organizational Analysis

In recent years a number of authors, Woodward,[ ¹ ] Perrow,[ ² ] Thompson,[ ³ ] Lawrence and Lorsch,[ ⁴ ] – to name but a few -have become associated with a general orientation to organizational analysis which gives primacy to the concept of organizational task in ‘explaining’ many features of organizational structure. Although there are differences between the various authors, there is sufficient intellectual unison to enable one to speak of the ‘task analysis framework’. In concise form we want to try to lay bare its basic logical structure, raise some queries, and interpret the ideas connecting task to organizational shape.