System 4 Design
As the human relation school of thought emerged, new ideas or organization design naturally also emerged, one of which has come to be known as system 4 design. System 4 design has been developed mainly to reduce the many drawbacks and deficiencies of the bureaucratic model.
The proponents of system 4 design argue that organization design can be described as a continuum. At one end is bureaucratic design called system 1 and at the other end is system 4 design that has more openness, flexibility, communication and participation.
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SYSTEM 1
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SYSTEM 4
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(a)Leadership—includes no perceived confidence and trust—subordinates do not feel free to discuss problems with their superiors.
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(a)Leadership—include perceived confidence and trust between superiors and subordinates. Subordinates discuss problems with their superiors.
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(b)Motivational process taps only physical security and economic motives through the use of fear unfavourable attitudes prevail among employees.
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(b)Motivational process taps a full range of motives through participatory methods employees have favourable attitudes.
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(c)Communication process is such that information flows downward and tends to be distorted inaccurate and viewed with suspicion by subordinates.
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(c)Communication process is such that information flows freely upward, downward and laterally. The information is accurate and undistorted.
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(d)Interaction process is closed and restricted subordinates have little effect on goals, methods and activities.
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(d)Interaction process is open and extensive superiors and subordinates affect goals, methods and activities.
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(e)Decision process occurs only at the top of the organization, it is relatively centralized.
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(e)Decision process occurs at all levels through group processes. It is relatively decentralized.
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(f)Goal setting process is located at the top of the organization—discourages group participation.
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(f)Goal setting process encourages group participation in setting high realistic objectives.
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(g)Control process is centralized and emphasizes fixing of blame for mistakes.
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(g)Control process is dispersed and emphasizes self control and problem solving.
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(h)Performance goals are low and passively sought by managers who make no commitment to developing the human resources.
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(h)performance goals are high and actively sought by superiors who make a commitment to developing through training, human resources.
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