Organic vs. Mechanistic Businesses Need

Organic vs. Mechanistic

Businesses need to understand how they operate before they can align their strategy to the environment that they find themselves operating within. Two basic modes of organization tend to form when developing strategies to deal with this problem. As a result, companies find their organizational structure either mechanistic or organic. The purpose of this essay is to highlight and describe the differences between a mechanistic organization and an organic organization within the business world and discuss the qualities that both of these formations allow for business leaders.

Mechanistic organizations are classified by more routines and specific modeling practices. The focus for a mechanistic organization is on eliminating and decreasing costs within the profit / revenue exchange. This philosophical stance aligns itself with elimination of unknowns and requires formalized and centralized control points. These types of environments are limited in freedom, scope and creativity. The mechanistic organization is a manifestation of the left-brain thinking that models and sets boundaries in human thinking.

Institutions, such as colleges and universities are formal examples of mechanistic organizations. Hierarchies are explicitly laid out in a college or university setting and rules are put firmly in place. Creativity is limited and often met with disdain and contempt from leadership branches within these organizations. Zeveloff (2013) reported on a cheating scandal at Barnard College recently. This report demonstrates the mechanistic qualities that this organization exhibits by the way it is handling such a problem. The author wrote " the College takes all allegations of cheating seriously. In this particular situation, college procedure was followed in that the professor, in consultation with relevant committees and her department chair, discounted quizzes because of a serious concern that academic integrity may have been compromised."

Organic organizations are considered more hands off and let things occur instead of forcing them to happen. Command and control over an organic organizations is widespread and distributed amongst its components. Trust and faith are more a part of the practices in this type of firm where creating revenues, instead of focusing on costs is a more important practice. The word "organization" and "organic" are nearly the same and it appears that organizations work better when utilizing an organic approach.