The document summarizes the IT department structure of American University based on classical organizational theories. The AU IT department is divided into four teams: Help Desk, Technical Support, Training, and Service Management. While the department structure follows classical theories, the work itself does not strictly adhere to top-down management or standardized procedures due to the complex nature of technology problems. The document questions whether a purely classical approach could effectively manage an IT department compared to a human resources structure.

1. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
AND CLASSICAL
ORGANIZATIONS
BY: DEAN WINTERS

2. THE ARTICLE REFERENCED
• I didn’t actually find an article that pertains to the topic,
however I did find the IT department responsibility page of
American University which will work perfectly for this
presentation.

3. AU’S I.T. DEPARTMENT
• Their department is split up into 4 different categories:
• IT Help Desk Team- Who you would call when you first encounter a problem.
They would deal with most of the quick fix problems that most people would
encounter from day to day.
• IT Technical Support Team- These are the people that come out to your site
and resolve any hardware issues or problems that need to be completed by
an expert.
• IT Technical Training Team- The part of the department that trains and
appropriates the employees.
• IT Service Manager- The person in charge of the department overall that
would handle the big decision making and extremely difficult problems.

4. CLASSICAL THEORIES OF ORGANIZATIONS
• The organizational systems that I’m comparing AU’s IT department to
are those covered by the theorists Fayol, Weber, and Taylor’s theories
of organizations.
• These organizations follow the Machine Metaphor, which compares
an organization to a machine in the sense that the primary goal of
the machine is to perform a task and to perform it both quickly and
efficiently.
• The most crucial part of the Machine Metaphor is that any part of the
machine is replaceable, so if one part starts to not work as
effectively, just take it out and replace it with a new one.

5. MANAGEMENT IN CLASSICAL
ORGANIZATIONS
• The relationship between the managers and the employees is a top-
down only system where the manager says what to do, exactly how
to do it, and if you question it, then you’re out.
• An example of a pure classical system in today’s organization would
be the shipping company UPS. UPS has a strict system of how to
drive, how to walk out of the truck, and how to place packages.
• If an employee’s delivery time length gets too long, then they must
be corrected to using the standard methods or that employee is
simply no longer a part of UPS.

6. SO WHERE DOES AU’S IT DEPARTMENT
FALL?
• In reality the only part of the classical theories that is found in
their IT department is the structure of it.
• The general nature of IT and computers in general is that there
are countless ways to solve any of the problems that anyone
would encounter.
• Except for standards on how to talk to customers, the
procedure for fixing the actual problems would be mainly left
up to the employee.

7. AU’S STRUCTURE
• They have a pretty simple structure that places one person at
the top that covers the big picture decisions followed by the
training team that makes sure the employees are fit to serve
their customers.
• The technical team and the help desk team would be on the
same level and would be considered the main work force of the
department according to the classical organizational systems.

8. FOOD FOR THOUGHT
• Would a completely classical system work better for IT than a human
resources approach? (probably not)
• Is someone from AU going to see this and get startled that a random
student made a presentation on their IT department’s organizational
structure? Let’s wait and see.
• If a computer automatically updates during a nearly completed
document that hasn’t been saved, does it make a sound? (yes, the
user’s soul cries out in anguish)

9. WORK REFERENCED
• Office of Information Technology. (n.d.). Retrieved February 08,
2016, from
http://www.american.edu/oit/about/Organizational-
Chart.cfm