Engineering and Administrative Phases of Organizational Adaptation

In the last blog we looked at the Entrepreneurial problem phase of the organizational adaptation process. In today's blog we look at the next 2 phases- Engineering Problem and Administrative Problem.

Engineering Problem

The entrepreneurial problem when addressed would involve operationalization of the management's solution - the creation of such a system is what the Engineering Problem summarizes. 

The management would have to select an appropriate technology (in the management sense of the word, i.e. input-transformation-output process) for producing and distributing chosen products and services and to form new information, communication, and control linkages to ensure proper operation of the chosen technology  - These are what the system would encompass.

One should also note that, the three problems don’t wait for a solution of the other to reach and then move it, Even as the Entrepreneurship Problem is in motion, the management would try to adapt a system giving rise to the Engineering Problem which when achieves some progress would attract the implementation of the Administrative system.  It is during the administrative phase that the actual form of the organization's structure will be determined as the relation between the management - environment is formalized through formal processes for coordinating and controlling internal operations.

In the TV case again, we find that the company's redefinition of its domain required a change in its technology from mass-production technology to unit/small-batch technology!

Administrative Problem

The primary goal of most organizational administration is to reduce the uncertainty within the organizational system. It could also aim at rationalizing and stabilizing those activities which successfully solve problems faced by the organization during the other two phases. 

The challenge at this phase doesn’t stop at rationalizing a model, to really succeed in the long run, the company would have to formulate and implement processes which would enable organizations to continuously innovate. 

In the next blog, we shall look at this rationalization and Articulation process in a greater detail.