Relationship between Organizational Structure and ...

ijcrb.webs.com

APRIL 2012

INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS

VOL 3, NO 12

Relationship between Organizational Structure and Organizational Alienation Saeed Rajaeepour Faculty Member, School of Education, University of Isfahan, Iran. Mohammadisadr, Mohammad, MA Student, Educational Administration, University of Isfahan, Isfahan , Iran.(Corresponding author). Arbabisarjou, Azizollah, PhD, Faculty Member, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran. Zivarirahman, Mahmoud MA Student, Educational Researches, University of Shahid Bahonar, Kerman, Iran Shokouhi, Solmaz MA Student, Educational Researches, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between organizational structure and structural alienation in the schools of Kerman. Organizational structure includes three constituents of complexity, formality and centralization according to Bertz and Stucker (GreenbergJ, Baron RA,1995: 576-601). Moreover, the organizational alienation includes five constituents of the feelings of powerlessness, anomy, meaninglessness, seclusion and self-alienation due to Siman (Cozer and Rosenberg, 2010:408). It was an applied research conducted through descriptivecorrelation method. The statistical population consisted of 854 school principals in 2010 from whom 238 were selected via simple random sampling. In order to measure the organizational structure, a standard structure questionnaire (Robins,2002) has been applied which after being filled out by 35 principals its Cronbach alpha coefficient was calculated 0.79. The structural alienation questionnaire was designed and provided according to Siman by the researchers. Its reliability has been measured 0.79 through Cronbach alpha as well. The results of the current study showed there was a direct relationship between organizational structure and organizational alienation. Furthermore, considering the relationship between organization’s complexity, formality, and centralization with organizational alienation, assessed through regression variance it was observed that the organization’s centralization had the highest effect on the organizational alienation. Moreover, it was indicated that the educational level seniority don’t affect organizational alienation. Key words: Organizational structure, Organizational alienation, Organizational centralization, Organizational complexity, Organizational formality

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1. Introduction Manpower is a principal investment and the basic source in every organization and institution. Those employed in organizations should have job satisfaction and a favorable environment to be able to enjoy efficiency, spirit and maximum productivity. If these conditions do not exist, the loss of attempt motivation and the creation of desperation and discouragement will be the most natural outcome and finally its symptoms affects the organization as well as the individual him/herself. Therefore it is one of the keys of the organizations’ success in man power’s comfortableness and satisfaction from their job; likewise, one of the effects which cause the employee’s satisfaction and liability toward the organization is the structure in which they work. The organizational structure is a manifestation of systemic thought. Organizational structure determines the formal reporting communications and it represents the levels which exist in administrative hierarchy and also specifies the extent of the managers’ and principals’ control (Daft, 1998: 211). The organizational structure is a pattern and plan of communications besides interactions between parts and sectors of an organization (Cyert and March, 2007:951). The people’s formal communications, organizational job status, the degree of accessing to information, job descriptions, resource allocation, rules and regulations, compliance and enforcing the rules, coordinating between the activities, depend on designing organizational structure (Ergenli et.al., 2007:43). This making up of organizational structure would affect all the above factors and it causes perceptions and inferences from people who practice under this structure. Siman is one of the experts who attempted to functionally define the concept of alienation in a solid and systematic format through a psycho-social approach. According to his view bureaucratic structure of modern organizations leads to creation and retention of a condition in which people are not able to learn the manner of controlling the results of their acts and behaviors. In his view the manner of controlling the results and the organization management is in a way that people cannot make a connection between their behavior and organizational reward and they would feel alienation in this situation (Cozer &Rosenberg, 2010:408). Due to the fact that educational settings should have a healthy atmosphere and group work culture, those working there should be provided with appropriate job satisfaction to be able to get to their assumed goals. Therefore, the present study tries to answer the question of whether there is any relationship between organizational structure and the structural alienation.

2. Theoretical background and literature review Organizational alienation It happens when that the activities of an organization become an exterior affair for the person; that is, it is not a part of his nature; so he will not find himself satisfied with working in the organization but he would deny himself, feels futile and won’t experience happiness, won’t have liberal mental and bodily activities and finds himself tired and humble. Working in the organization is not a voluntary activity for himself; he rather looks at it as a


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compulsory activity. Conclusively, for every person the attribute of alienation from the activity is made clear from the fact that the practice and affair is not his/her own; and he does not belong to himself while working; he rather belongs to the organization (Moghimi, 2001:408). Siman attempted to identify various forms and aspects of the concept of alienation via reinvestigating it from social psychology approach. So he has studied five basic backgrounds in which the concept is applicable (Cozer and Rosenberg, 2010:408). These five backgrounds involve: the feelings of powerlessness, meaninglessness, anomy, seclusion, and alienation from oneself each of which will be debriefed below. Organization structure Organizations have different types of structure which are adapted according to the needs and the condition of that organization. Burns and Stalker believe that the most effective structure is the one conformed to settings requirements. In a general classification the organizational structure is divided into mechanical and organic structures (Greson and Drazin, 2007:428). Mechanical structure is identified through the attributes such as complexity and high formality, centralization, programmed behaviors and in the format of regulations. In this structure the manager is dependent on the organizations’ policy and functions as a response to unpredictable events (Ergenli. Aziz. et.al, 2007:824). On the other hand the organic structure is flexible and the degree of person’s influence is dependent on his skills and knowledge. The duties in this structure are flexible too; and interaction with is environment. The attributes of decentralized authorities, fewer rules and regulations, informal communication network and attending self controlling paves the way to higher conformity of organic structure with environment (Sarosslc.T, santorajc,2002). The difference among various kinds of organizational structures is rooted in the difference in their parts and constituents. The study conducted by Robins regarding the aspects of the structure (complexity, formality and centralization) is the criterion to study the organizational structure in the present study (Moghimi, 2001:78) Literature review In a research carried out by (Marshal Et.al. 2002) regarding the relationship between organizational structure and the feeling of organizational justice, the relationship between the aspects of organizational structure (complexity, formality and centralization) with the feeling of organizational justice was investigated. They found that the effect of organizational structure on justice perception is more powerful in people in low scale organizations comparing to high scale ones. The results of the study ropved their hypotheses, specially the fact that the aspects of organizational structure affect the procedural, distributive and interactional feelings significantly (ThomasG.,manring,2004). Nair and Vohra (2010) were to discover predictive factors of employees’ job alienation. They investigated various factors such as: the feelings of anomy, job communication quality, organizational perceptions and organization’s structural aspects (complexity, formality, and centralization). The data was collected from six Indian organizations with statistical population of 1142. It was indicated that the factors of job anomy, job inability and weakness of job communication have had the highest effect on job alienation.


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In another study conducted by Kakabads (2004) regarding organizational alienation and organizational structure, the aim assumed was to find a relationship between the aspects of organizational structure and organizational alienation. He concluded that there is a positive relationship between centralization, formality and the aspects of job inability with alienation. Cummings and Manring (2004) studied the relationship between job alienation and jobrelated behaviors; it was researched on five dimensions of job alienation involving individual inability, being nonstandard, anomy, the loss of self-assessment and alienation with four dimensions of job-related behavior including attempt, performance, job escape, and tardiness. The results indicated a positive significant relationship between the aspects of job alienation and job-related behavior which the feeling of job alienation is the result of weak attempt and performance besides tardiness. Due to the studies conducted, a point should be taken into account that the structure dominating the organization critically affects organizational and individual effectiveness to the extent that if the organization doesn’t assume an appropriate structure, it would lead to the creation of job dissatisfaction and job alienation in the employees and finally to the organizational alienation which causes the people to do their practices with less than full capacity. The issue that must be given the importance in schools and educational settings is the fact that through preventing this problem, the steps can be taken with more assurance and in a correct path to the considered objectives. Research hypotheses The aim of present study is to survey the relationship between the organizational structure and alienation in the schools. Primary hypothesis: There is a relationship between organizational structure and organizational alienation Secondary hypotheses: 1. There is a relationship between complexity and the organizational alienation 2. There is a relationship between formality and the organizational alienation 3. There is a relationship between centralization and the organizational alienation

3. Research method The present study is an applied research which has been conducted through descriptivecorrelation research method. The population included 854 principals in the schools. A sample of 238 principals was selected via random sampling. To measure up the organizational structure, a standard structure questionnaire (Robins,2002) including 15 items was provided. After filling up by 35 principals, its Cronbach alpha was calculated 0.91. The organizational alienation questionnaire was designed by the authors based on Siman’s model which was made up of 26 items. After administrating its reliability was computed 0.87 via Cronbach alpha coefficient. The validity of questionnaires was confirmed by the experts. The study’s statistical analysis was carried out through SPSS Version 17.00 software.


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4. Results The data analysis through Pearson test indicates that there is a significant relationship between organizational structure and organizational alienation (rxy=0.652, p