through to a new structure for science, technology, 

 and production. In general, old managerial forms 

 were mechanically carried over to new organizational 

 structures without eliminating their deficiencies or 

 examining their suitability under changed conditions 

 and goals. To perform these tasks today, Boris Mil- 

 ner, the foremost Soviet authority on industrial de- 

 sign, insists, "trained organization specialists are 

 needed, not reorganizers who are able only by intui- 

 tion to put together new combinations from old admin- 

 istrative elements." Indicating there is political 

 support for this view, Brezhnev has also emphasized 

 the need for a more scientific approach to organiza- 

 tion-building and administrative restructuring. Talk- 

 ing about these issues in Alma Ata in March 1974, he 

 said, "We must act not by eye, not by intuition but 

 be led by experience, experiments, and the conclu- 

 sions of modern management science."- 5 



Above all, a change of focus is called for. In the 

 past those who worked on problems of structural de^- 

 sign concentrated on current tasks. They dealt, as 

 Milner puts it, "in statics, not in dynamics." Struc- 

 tures were interpreted predominantly as variations on 

 a common theme, namely the division and evolution of 

 line and staff functions. To quote Milner, struc- 

 tures were regarded "as a permanent collection of 

 line and staff services, formed over a period of 30 

 years without showing any developmental tendencies 

 or taking into account new tasks." "The basic focus," 

 he adds, "was on the differentiation and specializa- 

 tion of functions, not on their integration and joint 

 actions with respect to common goals. "32 



The "new school" of organization theorists, on the 

 other hand, adopt a systems approach to structural 

 design. They see structure not as an aggregate of 

 universal functions carried out by separate and dis- 

 tinct agencies but as a means for achieving organiza- 

 tional goals. Goals are to be made the chief deter- 

 minant of organizational structure and processes by 

 which tasks are allocated and performance motivated, 

 rewarded, and controlled. As Milner says, "Thus, in 

 the beginning is the goal; then comes the mechanism 



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