Organization Size, Individual Attitudes and Behavior: An Empirical Study

This research investigates the impact of certain structural characteristics of organization upon employee attitudes and behavior. It was formulated for two reasons: (1) the need recently suggested by administrative theorists to re-evaluate organization structure as a determinant of organization behavior, and (2) the need to provide suggestions to administrators of growing enterprises. Three hypotheses were formulated on the basis of theoretical speculations. These hypotheses describe the expected impact of organization size upon employee attitudes and how these, in turn, affect employee behavior. The areas investigated were: (1) the direction and extent to which size affects employee attitudes and the related mechanisms mediating this effect, (2) the area of work most affected by increasing size, and (3) the direction and extent to which employee attitudes at work influence behavior in the organization.' Sergio Talacchi is a faculty member at the Instituto Post-Universitario Per Lo Studio Dell'Organizzazione Aziendale and at the University of Turin, Italy.