Exploring Mediation between Environmental and Structural Attributes: The Penetration of Communication Technologies in Manufacturing Organizations

The relationship between organizational structures and information technology (IT) has been the subject of much discussion in IS research. While studies have not yielded conclusive results, the importance of examining the relationship between structure and technology is increasing in an environment...

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Published inJournal of management information systems Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 187 - 217
Main Authors Lee, Choong C., Grover, Varun
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 01.12.1999
M. E. Sharpe
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Business innovation
Business structures
Communication
communication technologies
Communications technology
Computer technology
Correlation analysis
environmental characteristics
Environmental technology
Formalization
Hypotheses
Impact analysis
Information management
Information storage and retrieval systems
Information technology
Manufacturing
mediation
Organizational structure
Regression analysis
Studies
Technological innovation
telecommunications
Telecommunications systems
Variables
Wide area networks
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Summary:The relationship between organizational structures and information technology (IT) has been the subject of much discussion in IS research. While studies have not yielded conclusive results, the importance of examining the relationship between structure and technology is increasing in an environment where organizations are using contemporary IT to redesign themselves in order to compete more effectively. This paper presents a study that examines the relationship between the use of an important class of IT, communications technologies, and organizational structural attributes within a broad contingency context. Hypotheses are proposed, based on theory from the information-processing paradigm examining the mediating role of communications technologies (CT) in the relationship between environmental characteristics and organizational structural characteristics. Data from 153 manufacturing firms are collected and analyzed. The results show that CT seems to play a direct role in reinforcing structures that emerge from environmental dictates. The expanded set of variables considered in this study and the results provide potentially strong implications for future work in this important area.
Bibliography:SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 14
ISSN:0742-1222
1557-928X
DOI:10.1080/07421222.1999.11518261