Similarities between the Machine and Professional Bureaucracies
Even though they are different in the respects noted above, the machine and professional bureaucracies are similar in one important way: both are inherently nonadaptable structures because they are premised on standardization . All bureaucracies are performance organizations; that is, structures that are configured to perfect the programs they have been standardized to perform. Of course, the standardization of skills is intended to allow for enough professional thought and discretion to accommodate client variability. However, even with adequate discretionary space, there is a limit on the degree to which professionals can adjust their standard programs and, moreover, they can only adjust the standard programs that are in their repertoires. In a professional bureaucracy, coordination through standardization of skills itself circumscribes the degree to which the organization can accommodate variability. A fully open-ended process of accommodation requires a problem-solving organization, a configuration premised on inventing new programs for unique client needs. But the professional bureaucracy is a performance organization; it screens out heterogeneity by forcing its clients' needs into one of its existing specializations, or by forcing them out of the system altogether (Segal, 1974).
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