ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to provide a conceptual or theoretical orientation, which is reflected in the study of marketing organisation where certain of the theories introduced here are applied to the specific setting of marketing. Before proceeding to the main body of the analysis of marketing organisation, it is necessary to place information-processing models of organisation in the context of the more traditional classical and contingency theories, and to examine the related political model of organisational decision making. Clearly, it would be somewhat over-ambitious to attempt an exhaustive review of organisation theory within the confines of this present work. In particular, two aspects of this model are pursued here: first, the contingency approaches, which relate structure to environments, technologies and other situational factors; and second, the concept of the 'informal' organisation of relationships that influence the communication of information and the making of decisions.
