Organizational structure: a review of structural dimensions and their conceptual relationships with individual attitudes and behavior

Abstract

The paper reviews aspects of organizational structure and the conceptual relationships between organizational structure and individual attitudes and behavior. The review is separated into the following five parts: (1) the rationale underlying the development of organizational structure, (2) a synthesis of dimensions of organizational structure with emphasis placed on the identification of major explanatory constructs of structure, (3) a review of the interrelationships of the proposed dimensions of organizational structure, (4) a discussion of the conceptual relationships between organizational structure and individual attitudes and behavior, and (5) a summary and conclusions section. Major conclusions based upon the review included the need to identify the parsimonious constructs of organizational structure and the need to use more sophisticated integrating models in relating organizational structure to individual attitudes and behavior. A potential model is proposed, followed by speculative attempts to demonstrate applications of the model.