Organizational implementation instruments include a broad range of governing tools which rely upon the use of government institutions and personnel to affect policy output delivery and policy process change. There is a wide variety of substantive organizational tools available to affect both the production and consumption/distribution of goods and services in society. However, these generally fall into two main types depending on the proximity of their relationship to government and hence the ability of government to control the effects of their utilization: direct government and quasi-governmental tools.

Procedural organizational tools generally involve the organization and reorganization of government agencies and processes in order to affect key parameters of the policy communities governments face in making public policies.

Each type of tool is closely associated with a different mode of governance. Direct government tools, for example, are a principle component of legal modes of governance, while quasi-governmental tools are a feature of corporatist modes, and procedural organizational tools are commonly used to construct network governance arrangements and architectures. Market modes generally eschew or discourage the use of these kinds of tools.