19. "Task Dependency of Organizational Centrality: Its Behavioral Consequences"

ABSTRACT

This experiment aims at demonstrating the task dependency of organizational structure and the intervening nature of organizational variables between task and structure. Two types of tasks are used. Task A is routine and deductive and Task B is nonroutine and has some inferential components. Each group is given a series of both tasks. Half of the groups started with Task A and half start with Task B. The measured variables are shown to be different for the two tasks and to be not dependent upon the order in which the tasks are performed. The nature of the task, in this experiment, dominates the behavior of the groups. The results support the conclusion that organization structure is a dependent variable intervening between task and behavior.