This study is an examination of the hypothesis that selected contemporary American novels offer vivid illustrations of modern problems and practices of management as seen in business and industry. Too often, university management courses treat management processes as isolated cases in limited and static settings. Novelists, on the other hand, treat these same processes in a broader context and often deal quite subtly and perceptively with everything from the mammoth corporation to the single proprietorship. Students proposing to become businessmen, therefore, should benefit from this novelistic perspective so frequently overlooked.

The purpose of the research effort was to investigate the relationships that exist between managerial functions and organizational structure with the specific objective of employing the managerial function of coordination as a design parameter in designing organizations.