Organization structures and contingencies in different nations: Algeria, Britain, and France

Abstract

On the basis of a sample of 181 organizations from Algeria, Britain, and France, this paper examines patterns of organization structure and associated contextual characteristics. Analyses of variance showed significant differences on both structure and context. These differences were most prevalent when comparing Algerian organizations to British and French equivalents and relatively less pronounced when these latter were compared. Among other structural differences, Algerian organizations are found to be significantly more centralized and British organizations are (on average) relatively less centralized than French ones. Differences on aspects of technological advance and use of computers provide a significant highlight of relative patterns of national socioeconomic development. Despite their strong support to the size-imperative, relational findings raise the important question of variations in the strength of the size-structure as opposed to the technology-structure nexus across the three nations. That is, in support of previous research involving developing nations, both correlational and regressional differences in this respect were less pronounced in the case of Algeria. From a methodological standpoint, different types of comparisons provided different types of results. While analyses of traits and degrees highlighted strong differences, the “culture-free” argument was supported only by relational findings.