Results of recent surveys conducted among managers of major corporations show that appropriate organizational design is valued as one of the four key criteria for business successes in the twenty-first century [1]. Senior executives give high priority to the issue of organizational design because it represents the process of determining the best overall macro structure for the organization and its subcomponents. It also characterizes such structural elements as span of control and departmentation [2, p. 354].Most researchers of the modern organization point out the interdependence between organizational structure and strategy, along with the tight link of both elements to the external environment. If strategy can be viewed as a direct function of the environment, and organizational structure, as a function of strategy, then there is an indirect relationship between the structure and the environment [3].Research into modern companies indicates that organizations respond to external environmental factors by assuming one of two models. In stable environments where the amount of change is relatively low, firms tend to use a mechanistic model characterized by rigidity, bureaucracy, and a strict hierarchy. In dynamic, unstable environments, firms tend to apply an organic model which is characterized by openness, responsiveness, and lack of hierarchy [2, p. 358]. It will be shown later that the dynamics of the modern market-place result in more companies adopting the organic model. An important consideration for a company of the 1990s is its historical dependence on specialization and resulting organizational design based on functions such as marketing, purchasing, operations, advertising, and finance that structured the modern company vertically.This vertical form of organizational design has prevailed for a rather long period of time due to the relative stability of external environmental factors. However, the development of global competition and multinational corporations coupled with (and, in part, fuelled by) the fast pace of technological change, has made the external environment both more complex and more unpredictable. Out of competitive necessity global structures have started to emerge.
ZusammenfassungDie zunehmende Komplexität von manuellen Montageprozessen wirft in Unternehmen die Frage auf, wie die damit verbundenen Anforderungen an die Verarbeitung größerer Informationsmengen und die damit einhergehenden Zuwächse an kognitiven Beanspruchungen infolge zunehmender Unsicherheit seitens der Beschäftigten zu bewältigen sind. Eine Antwort hierauf liegt in der Integration von informatorischen Assistenzsystemen in bestehende Montagesysteme. Erklärtes Ziel solcher Assistenzsysteme ist die informatorische Unterstützung der Beschäftigten in der Form, dass in der Summe eine kognitive Entlastung erfolgt, die zu weniger Zeitverlusten und Montagefehlern und damit zu einer höheren Produktqualität führt. Dies setzt voraus, dass informatorische Assistenzsysteme nach kognitiv-ergonomischen Gesichtspunkten gestaltet sind und ihr Einsatz durch eine möglichst objektive Erfassung von kognitiven Beanspruchungen vor Ort am konkreten Arbeitsplatz begleitet wird.
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