ABSTRACT
Mechanistic and organic systems theory has much in common with Likert’s differentiation of systems 1 to 3 as opposed to system 4 (see Chapter 8). Since the theory’s original publication in 1961 by Tavistock, Tom Burns (in Burns and Stalker 1994) has credited his theory with close parallels to the theoretical positions developed by Woodward (see Miner 2002a) regarding various technologies, to Crozier’s (1964) analyses of political processes in bureaucracies, and to March and Simon’s (see Chapter 3 in this volume) treatment of programmed and nonprogrammed decision making. Yet Burns indicated that at the time of its formulation the theory was uninformed from any of these sources. It does, however, appear to be a product of many forces that were “in the air” during the 1950s and early 1960s when the theory was developed, particularly forces of this kind that existed in the social science intellectual community of Europe.
