The Staff Engineer's Path

Westrum classified organizations and their influence on information flows using three categories (see Table 2-1): Pathological A low-cooperation culture where power and status are the goal and people hoard information; in Westrum’s words, “a preoccupation with personal power, needs, and glory” Bureaucratic A rule-oriented culture where information moves through standard channels and change is difficult; the preoccupation here, Westrum writes, is with “rules, positions, and departmental turf” Generative A mission-oriented, high-trust, high-cooperation culture where information flows freely; Westrum calls this “concentration on the mission itself”