Ralph R. Shaw

Organization of the U.S.D.A. Library as Indicated by Its Organization Charts

A N ORGANIZATION CHART represents the family skeleton of an institution. Like statistics it can be presented in many forms and is subject to widely varying interpretation. It is the reductio ad absurdum of a great mass of strictly human interrelationships (and, therefore, must show hierarchy) ; it is the blueprint for a quasi-engineering job of production in the field of public administration (and, therefore, must show flow of work) ; it is a graphic form for presenting the relative weight or importance of segments of the institutions fields of work (and, therefore, must show types of responsibility as distinguished from hierarchy or levels of responsibility) ; it must show where each type of work is actually performed and levels of administrative and functional responsibility; it should mirror the government of the institution, as well as its administration, its objectives, the nature or at least the composition of its clientele, and its relationship to other institutions, among other things.