Knowledge that Transforms

There are two main approaches to the study of organizational structure and technology. One is at the organizational level and the other is at the job level. The conclusion that structure and technology are not significantly related is based primarily on the results of organizational level research. Alternatively, a persuasive case can be made that these results stem from lack of a common paradigm. Investigation of research at the job level provides one way of testing this assertion because it is based on a more or less unified framework. When results at the job level are compared a much better case is made for structural and technological covariation. A reasonable doubt must remain concerning the demise of the technological imperative.

T he beliefs about work of managers and blue‐collar workers in the U.S.A. and Scotland were determined through a questionnaire. Both managers and blue‐collar workers strongly endorsed humanistic beliefs and were indifferent to the work ethic. Blue‐collar workers endorsed more strongly than managers beliefs about worker exploitation and the value of participation. In Scotland, there was a wide difference in the perceived value of leisure between managers and workers. It appears that the Scottish respondents hold fewer independent beliefs than their U. S. counterparts.

Despite the common belief that greater worker participation in decision-making in industry will increase productivity and worker job satisfaction, the empirical evidence has been most contradictory. As a result, theories have been developed which now suggest that the degree of participation should depend on the particular problem or situation facing the leader. For the practising manager the problem has been the identification of the situation and the subsequent selection of an appropriate decision method. One answer to this problem is the Vroom and Yetton model which gives explicit directions to the leader as to how to categorize the problem and select the appropriate decision method. This paper describes our research to examine the external validity of this model. The sites chosen for the research were forty-seven owner-operated, small, non-unionized, franchised firms, where the leaders had the power and authority to effect organizational outcomes. On these various sites, there was relatively high similarity with regard to the technology employed, tasks performed, number of levels of hierarchy and the external environments. It was found that those leaders who were in high agreement with the Vroom and Yetton model had workers with higher productivity and higher satisfaction with supervision than those leaders who were in low agreement with the model. These findings give strong support for the Vroom and Yetton model. The implication of these findings on the training and selection of managers, and on further research, are discussed.

T he problem of which organization structure is most appropriate for current business conditions has perplexed managers for decades. Several management theorists have proposed that modifications of the firm's structural design were in response to changes in the organization's context. Recently, Child 2 suggested that senior executives in the firm may have the discretion to strongly influence their organization unit's structure. This paper discusses the development of a contingency theory of structural determination which incorporates strengths of past theories, managerial discretion, fourteen dimensions of structure, and organizational effectiveness. It also reports on preliminary research which supports the importance of managerial discretion in the structural determination process.

In studying organizational adaptation most researchers tend to draw sample- wide conclusions about the relationships among strategic, structural, and environmental variables. More often than not, the findings of different investigators are in conflict. Particular variables are said by some to covary positively, while different studies demonstrate a negative relationship. This paper attempts to show that the direction and significance of bivariate product-moment correlations may vary significantly, logically, and systematically according to the adaptive approach used by firms. A sample of firms is segmented into four parts, which are internally homogeneous in the evolutionary patterns among environmental, organizational, and strategy-making variables. The findings from a correlational analysis of each sub-sample indicate how some common discrepancies in the literature show the promise of being resolved when the differences in the contexts of the bivariate relationships are examined.

Explanation of the rapid rise to prominence in many government activities of the U.S.A. federal government inspired P.P.B.S. are considered. In too many situations P.P.B.S. was viewed as a revolutionary management technique and not an evolutionary development in resource allocation. The form of many of the publications by proponents of P.P.B.S. – often written from a military standpoint – were insufficiently related to the environment in which most public decision-making occurs. As a result, by promising much and achieving little, the search for better solutions to many of the management problems that P.P.B.S. highlighted has received little help from the enormous activity generated.