Sources of environmental structuring and participant responses

This study investigated the effects of four sources of environmental structuring on employee responses. These sources are job, technology, work unit, and leader behavior. Main, joint, and interactive effects were examined. Job structure had the strongest effect. It was demonstrated that technology, job, and work unit structure were found to be substitutes for leader structure. Leader structure had little unique association with employee reactions except when the other sources of environmental structure were weak. Two alternative theoretical interpretations of the findings are offered: reactivity and “closeness.”