Adoption and abandonment of matrix management programs: effects of organizational characteristics and interorganizational networks.
Organizational design theorists argue that organizations adopt matrix (departmentalized) structures for technical reasons, to solve problems of internal coordination and information processing. Research on interorganizational networks suggests that organizations adopt new structures because of mimetic forces and normative pressures. We examined the effects of both sets of factors on the adoption of matrix management in a group of hospitals. Multivariate analyses revealed that matrix adoption is influenced not only by task diversity, but also by sociometric location, the dissemination of information, and the cumulative force of adoption in interorganizational networks. Such variables exert little influence on decisions to abandon matrix programs, however.
College of Business and Public Administration, University of Arizona.
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Burns
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Wholey
D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D006745:Hospital Bed Capacity, 300 to 499; D006748:Hospital Departments / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006754:Hospital Restructuring; D007324:Institutional Management Teams; D015274:Interdepartmental Relations; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D017146:Models, Organizational; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States