Technological Innovation and Theoretical Functions of Primary Groups and Bureaucratic Structures

Bureaucratic structures are ideally suited to deal with problems requiring technical knowledge or large-scale capital investments. Primary group structures are most able to handle problems requiring little thechnical knowledge, for example, where knowledge is so simple the ordinary person can do it as well as the expert, where knowledge is lacking so experts cannot be trained, where knowledge is so complex it cannot be put together in time to meke a decision. In principle, technology is as likely to take tasks now handled by experts and simplify them so the ordinary person can deal with them as it is to take tasks now handled by ordinary individuals and show how they can be more effectively handled by experts. Therefore, in principle, technology is not likely, after its first stage, to reduce functions of either the primary group or the bureaucracy. More characteristic will be stress on continous change.