Criticism of "Effects of Flat and Tall Organization Structure"

Abstract

Rocco Carzo, Jr. and John N. Yanouzas proposed to study effects of tall and flat organization structure on organization performance. Methodological errors were detrimental to findings of their study. Problems of experimental control and statistical analysis are reported and discussed. Also, questions are raised as to appropriateness of experimental design. The experimental tall and flat organizations differed in several ways from tall and flat organizations authors presented in their theoretical discussion. Carzo and Yanouzas (1969:178) wrote that the purpose of this study was to test effects of organizational structure in a laboratory experiment, specifically, tall and flat structures and their effects on organization performance. A secondary purpose was to analyze learning-curve patterns in performance of organized groups. The study was a business-oriented simulation involving 4 organizations of 15 members each. The 2 tall organizations contained 4 levels with span of control of 2, and 2 flat organizations had 2 levels with span of control of 14. The tall organizations were seated spatially like an organization chart, while flat organizations were seated in a