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The present study establishes the reliability and validity of short forms for the measurement of four previously established dimensions of organizations: two contextual-technology and dependence-and two structural-structuring of activities and concentration of authority-based on information obtained from the chief executive in an interview lasting about one hour. A replication study was carried out using the abbreviated measures on a sample of 40 organizations in the English Midlands. The findings supported the relationships previously found between context and structure. Structuring of activities was found to be primarily related to organization size and to a lesser extent to technology; concentration of authority was found to be related to dependence. A restudy using these measures on 14 organizations after a period of four to five years generally supported the hypothesis that forms of workflow bureaucracy show a trend over time in the direction of increased structuring of activities coupled with decreased concentration of authority.
Inkson et al. (Tue,) studied this question.