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The study examined the relationships between four career concerns (Personal Success, Organizational Involvement, Skill Development and Autonomy) and two categories of political tactics in organizations (Hierarchical Tactics and Networking Tactics) in a sample of management school alumni. Career concerns were not related to the employment of hierarchical tactics but were strongly related to the use of networking tactics. ‘External’ career concerns of personal success and organizational involvement were more strongly related to political behavior than ‘internal’ career concerns of skill development and autonomy. Organization size was significantly related to the use of hierarchical tactics but not to the use of networking tactics. Type of organization structure (mechanistic versus organic) did not have a direct effect on political behavior but moderated the relationships between career concerns and political tactics. These relationships were stronger in organic than in mechanistic organizations.

This study compares two units within a major public accounting firm in order to determine their organichechanistic tendencies and establish the variables most closely related to these organizational characteristics. Results from a sample of 67 professionals balanced by unit and hierarchical level indicate that the process-oriented elements of an organization are the more relevant indicators of organizational development and provide a system for evaluating an organization on an organic/mechanistic continuum. HOW ORGANIC IS YOUR ORGANIZATION?The concept of organic organization has been the underlying assumption for organizational behaviour practitioners and researchers during the past two decades. Both structural and process-oriented approaches to organizational behaviour have been based on the assumption of the existence and/or desirability of organic forms of organizations which represent adaptive evolution to an unstable environment of pre-existing mechanistic models.The ideas of a reactive, flexible, process-oriented organization have presupposed such currently familiar applications as organizational development () to cite just a few.The ability to determine how organic an organization is or, in other words, to position an organization on a mechanistic/organic continuum, is particularly relevant in a contingency application either at the structural level, c.g. determining the structural fit with the environment (Lawrence and Lorsch, 1969), or when determining the appropriate form of organizational development Address for reprinfs: Albert0 Zanzi,

The explosive growth of the consulting industry in recent years and the controversy surrounding the quality of the consulting function stresses the needs for a better preparation and training of consultants. This article examines the contribution that academia can provide in furthering the development of consultants at different stages in their careers. The research indicates a scarcity of academic course offerings and a lack of comprehensive coverage of essential course elements such as client-based field projects. A template is provided to address the curricular deficiencies detected in the survey of current course offerings.