Psychological and Traditional Determinants of Structure.

A study was undertaken to examine the relationships of chief executive need for achievement--and the traditional contingencies of size, technology, and environmental uncertainty--with organizational structure. A number of models relating the structural constructs of formalization, centralization, and integration with their hypothesized determinants were examined using LISREL and multiple- regression analyses. CEO need for achievement and size were found to have the strongest relationships to most structural constructs; technology and uncertainty had very little impact on structure. The relationships between need for achievement and structure were usually highest in samples of small and young firms, suggesting that CEO personality might be influencing structure, rather than the reverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]