Impact of Technology, Environment, Size, and Decision- Maker's Beliefs on Organizational structure

Organizational structure has always been one of the most critical dilemma in the theory of organization. There has been tremendous research findings in this field. Structure-contingency models occupy a central position in the study of organization and as guides for organization design. These models hold that the structure of an organization is dependent on its context. Research has shown that variation in organization structure can be explained by variations in such nontextual factors as technology (Woodward, 1959), environment (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967), size (pugh etal, 1969). In this study literature pertaining to the structural influence of technology, size, environment and the decision-maker choice is reviewed. It has been shown that the structure - contingency models has neglected the decision-maker choice. We propose that an organization's structure is the result of an interaction of the decision maker's cognitive and motivational orientations, and the organization's context, such as technology, size and environment. Our research finding has supported the previous research findings.