Bureaucratic Organization: Selective or Saturative.

A psychodynamic analysis of the selective character of traditional organizations— (1) Anglo-American governmental agencies, (2) the Roman Catholic church, and (3) the armed services—suggests that our precedents do not imply any single superior form and that the critical basis of analysis of an organizational form changes as we move from a selective to a saturative use of it. With a bias toward political democracy, we suggest that private practice is one form suited to the mature role sought by most citizens. Finally, we conclude that diversity of form need not preclude valid generalization but that generalizations, to be universal, must be drawn from universal human experience rather than from selective sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]