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Creating a Bureau-Adhocracy: Integrating Standardized and Innovative Services in a Professional Work Group

Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7164.

Eric H. Neilsen

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7164.

This paper explores the organizing dilemmas of professionals who work in small organizations that attempt to provide standardized and innovative services with the same staff. Mintzberg (1979) suggested that the bureau-adhocracy would be the most appropriate form for coping with such conditions but did not elaborate on how it might develop or be maintained over time. The longitudinal the case study reported here supports this claim and goes further in two fundamental areas with respect to the smaller professional enterprise: First, it describes some of the learning processes involved in the creation of this hybrid, and second, it suggests the existence of two definable stages in the form's development, i.e., naive and mature.

Key Words: professionals • bureaucracy • adhocracy • innovation • group development • case study

Human Relations, Vol. 45, No. 7, 687-710 (1992)
DOI: 10.1177/001872679204500703


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