ABSTRACT
Most of the constraints involving an implementing organization occur within the structure itself, and are part and parcel of its own nature. However, there are also some constraints that emerge in the linkages that join an organization to its social environment. This chapter focuses on four organizational constraints. The first two have proven to be problems in a great many rural development (RD) programs. The transition from pilot project to full scale effort, and the problem of centralization vs. decentralization, both appear to be inherent in the nature of bureaucracy itself, or at least almost inevitably present in RD enterprises. The third theme – past success as an inhibitor of future change – is also a common one, though perhaps less serious than the first two. The final intra-organizational constraint concerning the contradiction between regulation and extension is one that affects only some RD efforts but which has a special meaning for forestry.
