Dimensional research on organization structure: meta-analysis and conceptual redirection

Abstract

A previous meta-analysis of dimensional structure research published during the latter half of the 20th century revealed significant intercorrelation among structural dimensions inspired by Max Weber's bureaucratic ideal type, providing support for continued research on dimensional structures and for the bureaucratic structural model that served as its theoretical foundation. A new meta-analysis reported in this article, motivated by questions regarding the continued applicability of bureaucratic dimensional models in the later era of new organization forms, indicates that many of the interrelationships among five structural dimensions (formalization, standardization, specialization, vertical differentiation, and decentralization) have weakened since the time of the earlier meta-analysis. The results of this study, conducted using a sample of 346 correlations from a collection of 155 published articles, are interpreted as failing to provide consistent evidence supporting a central tenet of the bureaucratic structural model, therefore, as indicating that dimensional structural research now lacks a viable theoretical foundation.