need to separate strategic and coordinating functions 

 from operating management and control . The failure of 

 existing management structures to incorporate and 

 maintain this division of tasks has caused them "to 

 freeze the development of technology and the effi- 

 ciency of production," writes Milner. In practice, 

 both strategic and operational functions are concen- 

 trated at the highest levels of management. Conse- 

 quently, the command channels become overloaded as 

 problems are constantly referred upward. Top execu- 

 tives become absorbed in current operations and di- 

 verted from strategic concerns. 



Second, there is need to formalize and expand hor- 

 izontal patterns of management as well as to combine 

 vertical and horizontal channels of administration. 

 Integration can take place only at the apex of the 

 organizational pyramid. Thus, top management becomes 

 heavily involved in securing horizontal joint actions 

 and coordinating goal achievement by various func- 

 tional units at lower levels. Again the result is 

 the overload described above and the failure of or- 

 ganizational leaders to conduct strategic planning 

 and decision making for the future. At the same time, 

 the number of complex problems demanding team work 

 and joint effort is growing daily. Numerous attempts 

 have been made at plants and associations to create 

 special bodies responsible for coordinating and har- 

 monizing lateral ties at all levels of management. 

 However, they have proven to be ineffective, Milner 

 points out, "because they try basically to adapt the 

 line and staff structure to solve tasks for which it 

 is not suitable." Such problems can be solved most 

 effectively, he adds, "within the framework of a spe- 

 cial structure, one that cooperates with a line and 

 staff structure, supplements it but is not identical 

 to it. "65 



Basically, the Soviet structural response to these 

 needs has followed closely the pattern of organiza- 

 tional and managerial adaptation in the United States. 

 During the 1960s many American business firms found 

 that well-known and well-tested structural designs 



278 



