People combine their skills and knowledge in an effort to produce and distribute goods and services. It becomes necessary to combine the various inputs in the work process: labour and capital (including raw materials and energy) in the context of the available technologies, such as equipment and buildings, then produce an output of goods or services. Work organization, or work systems, are the manner in which these variables are arranged.

Work organization determines the way that employees undertake their specific tasks. This usually involves the formation of a hierarchy which shapes the relationship between members of an enterprise, an arrangement for the division of labour and a set of explicit or implied work rules. Through these arrangements, certain individuals may be subordinate to and controlled by others. Types of work system include craft production, bureaucratic work organization, Taylorism/Fordism, human relations systems, sociotechnical systems and lean management.

David E. Simmons & Greg J. Bamber