Organisations secure compliance by coercion, by payment, or by shared values, and mismatching the type to the task produces strain.
Etzioni's 1961 typology. Prisons run on coercion, firms on payment, and churches and armies on values — and applying the wrong one produces alienation, indifference, or resentment.
In practice
- A charity that pays market rates for what was volunteer work finds the volunteers have gone and the staff need supervising.
- A school that runs on shared mission and adds a bonus scheme has two compliance systems and less of the mission.