Cross-sectional analysis of relationship between strategic orientation, structural arrangements and size of enterprises in Croatia

Objective: To investigate the relationship between the two basic constructs of organizational design, strategic orienta-tion, and structural arrangements, as well as to re-examine the role of enterprise size in the variations of both con-structs. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out by regu-lar mail in the first half of 2019, using already existing and empirically validated measurement instruments for the constructs of strategic orientation and organizational struc-ture characteristics. Management board representatives or managing directors of the contacted enterprises were asked for their views on the situation in their enterprise in rela-tion to the researched constructs. Descriptive and bivariate statistical analyses were performed. Results: On the sample of 37 enterprises, the strategic orien-tation ‘analyzer enterprise’ was predominant. In addition, organic organizational structure characteristics slightly prevailed over mechanistic characteristics. A regression analysis was carried out, establishing a positive relation-ship between strategic orientation and organizational structure characteristics (R2=0.160; P=0.014), especially with communication as a characteristic of mentioned organiza-tional structure (R2=0.239; P=0.002). T-tests confirmed the significance of the role of enterprise size for organizational structure characteristics (P=0.067). In other words, larger enterprises tend to foster mechanistic organizational struc-ture characteristics. Variations in the types of strategic ori-entation of enterprises were not related to the size of those enterprises (P=0.296). Conclusion: The design and adaptation of organizational and structural arrangements of enterprises are related to their selected strategic orientation. An increase in enter-prise size inevitably leads to more rigid mechanistic struc-tural arrangements, while the status of a small enterprise does not automatically imply the ‘prospector’ strategic ori-entation or the successful development and implementa-tion of innovations.