Conflicting Ideologies: Structural and Motivational Consequences

Abstract

Conflicting ideologies are revealed in different beliefs about how to design organizations. Beliefs regarding, for example, the extent of centralization of decision making and specialization of roles and tasks, in turn, influence motivation and behavior. This paper demonstrates how ideology influences organizational structure and the behavioral consequences by comparing the "medical" and "community" models of mental health care delivery. Although rational arguments would suggest that organizational structure, in terms of degrees of centralization and specialization, should be determined by goals and technologies, the ambiguity of these goals and technologies encourages organizational structure to be driven by ideology. Conflicting ideologies need to be incorporated so that the tension thus created will encourage the emergence of a different perspective on mental health service delivery.