Organization Theory - 40 (Woodward's Topology of Technology)

In the last blog, we began our discussion about technology. In today's blog we discuss one of the initial classifications of technology done by - Woodward.

Woodward began attempting to find a relation between structure and performance; however no significant relation was found. That is when she began classifying the companies based on the level of technical complexity; she began seeing patterns and relation between structure and performance. 

She classified the technologies into 3 basic technologies:

1. Unit or Small Batch
2. Large Batch or Mass production
3. Continuous Processing

The following diagram summarizes the various topologies.

Woodward’s study showed that organizations using unit and small technologies are more successful when they have smaller spans of control, fewer levels of management and when they practice decentralized decision making.

The study also showed that organizations that use larger batch and mass production technologies are more successful when their managers have larger spans of control and when they practice centralized decision making. 

The successful continuous processing organizations are similar to those for unit and small batch processing technologies, they have smaller spans of control and decentralized decision making. However they have more levels of management than either of the earlier discussed technologies. 

Though this was breakthrough in classifying companies based on the type of technology, the study was not without limitations. The 2 major drawbacks are:

1. The study mainly focused on small and medium sized organizations - the relation discovered between structure and performance is less significant when the organizations are larger and more complex
2. Non-manufacturing firms were not part of the study