Centralized control is provided for in a number of different ways: - Ernest Dale

Organization studies usually are devoted to the study of large-scale enterprise because information about larger companies is generally more widely recorded and more readily available. Because of this, more emphasis needs to be placed on organization planning in the smaller firms. It was at the suggestion of Lt. Colonel Lyndall Urwick that AMA undertook this study of companies of different sizes, as a means of improving our knowledge of organization—a field in which he has made major contributions. Many of the larger companies face small-scale problems in their subsidiaries and small units. However, those starting work in the large firm find it difficult to visualize the evolutionary process on which their company's present operation is based. Therefore, it may be of interest even for large companies to study the various stages of growth, up to and including, of course, their own present stage of development.

The major problems of organization can perhaps best be studied in dynamic terms, i.e., as they arise and change with the evolution of the company. In this dynamic setting the causes and nature of organization problems can be recognized most easily. Each major problem can be analyzed at the stage of the company's growth when it typically arises, when there are few complications and the organizational problem is centered about just one factor or change in the company's mode of operation. Just as it is easier to study the workings of democracy as they arise in one of the small towns of New England rather than in the United States as a whole, so it appears to be desirable, in dealing with a subject of such scope as organization, to isolate and study the major problems individually.

The following basic characteristics of organization should be kept in mind in any discussion of organization planning: