The hard structure and soft structure of enterprises network - the case study on IT hardware industry in Dongguan

From the viewpoint of analysis, this paper puts forward that any organization has two structures: physical structure and interest coordination structure, which are described as hard structure and soft structure. Hard structure is not the departmental structure of an organization, but the relationship between all the activities which are required by its organization to complete its physical functions, and which does not consider the pursuit of people´s interests. Soft structure is the relationship among all the factors of interest coordination, which takes into account of the pursuit of people´s interests to support the hard structure functions. Hard structure is the prerequisite of the existence of soft structure, while soft structure is the indispensable condition for the operation of hard structure. They live on each other. Enterprises network is a new organizational form. This work defines hard structure and soft structure, then analyzes the features and relationships of the two structures in the network of Taiwanese-invested manufacturers of IT hardware industry in Dongguan, and finally discusses their use for reference.