Why Is Technical Complexity Greatest With Continuous-Process Technology?

¶ … technology complexity affects organizational structure? What role does technology in the form of knowledge play in the production of the organization's goods and services? Technology complexity is the extent to which a programmed process can be made predictable and controlled. High technological complexity is when a process can be rendered fully automatic while low technological complexity is when this is impossible (Jones 2010). A comparison might be made between industrially produced foods (such as frozen pizzas on an assembly line) as an example of high technological complexity vs.

artisanal pizzas hand-tossed and made custom-ordered to a patron's desires in a restaurant. When an organization must use 'small batch' technology, it usually must use highly-skilled, highly knowledgeable workers who must be able to work together (Jones 2010). There is no way to preprogram creativity and being overly directive will stultify the dynamic, personal input needed from employees. Conversely, organizations which are dependent upon high technological complexity to produce a standardized product do not need many highly-skilled employees working together.

Once the process has been created and 'set' that is enough, and so long as the cogs of the machine are working in proper order, the mechanisms needed to produce the output can continue indefinitely. Workers can labor without necessarily relating to one another in a meaningful fashion. Thus, the organizational structure in an entity with low technological complexity must foster communication with an organic structure.

In contrast, an organization with high technological complexity can afford to use a mechanistic structure to minimize error and deviations from effective systematic operating procedures. Q2. Why is technical complexity greatest with continuous-process technology? How does technical complexity affect organizational structure? Continuous process technology means that the process of producing goods or services is continuous, with no abatement, based upon a predetermined process. There is no pause for creative input, customization, or consultation with other organizational actors. This requires a high degree of mechanistic influence in the organizational structure.

Technology rather than individual human input governs the output. There is a low level of variability and a high level of task analyzability (in other words, tasks can easily be broken down into component parts). A good example of continuous-process technology is mass-producing components in an assembly line. In contrast, non-continuous process technology resembles tasks like crafts, where a skilled artisan spends a great deal of time customizing the final product and using his or her expertise and previous knowledge to create a unique product.

Some of the most non-continuous and lowest-tech products are purely 'mental' products such as skilled.