The contemplation of the reorganisations of
the Australian Defence Group of departments over the
past 34 years led to a notion that for organisations
operating in turbulent environments there may exist a
hypothetical re1ationship between perceived
environmental uncertainty and organised complexity.
This hypothetica1 relationship is described as 'coping'
and is based on an assumption that in an organisational
setting, individuals make some form of response to
changes in their environment and this response is
manifest in organisational change.
The notion of this hypothetical relationship
also led to the development of two 'ideal type' models -
the Coping Model and the Overload Model. The
application of contingency theory through the Overload
Model showed that the State of an Organisation could be
defined acccrdicg to its mode of existence in relation
to some optimal level of information processing and some
optimal level of organised complexity. A typology of
ths States of Organisations has been derived from the
Overload Model and design strategies which are appropriate
to each state have been ranked according to an ordinal
preference scale. The 'ideal type' models have allowed
subjectively weighted judgements to be made about the
present state of the Defence organisation and the ranking
of design strategies to avoid the perceived undesirable
state of overload.
The Department of Defence is now imputed to
be in a state of 'disorganisation'. The Overload
Model suggests that there has been an over-investment
in vertical information systems at the expense of
lateral relations. The policy-making implication of
this suggestion is that the state of 'overload' can be
avoided through a reduction in organised complexity and
the creation of lateral relations. This can be
achieved if the Central Office is restructured to reduce
the number of committees and if appropriate co-ordinating
representatives are placed in the Service Offices.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218650 |
| Date | January 1979 |
| Creators | Sunderland, R A, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Administrative Studies |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright R A Sunderland |
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