Tolbert & Hall, 2015

Horizontal complexity = the ways work tasks performed in an organisation are subdivided into different jobs and groups. Associated with specialisation in the skills and knowledge among the members. E.g., one office versus separate offices for career counselling, academic counselling, and psychological counselling → latter is more complex.

→ consequences:

}}greater efficiency in carrying out work activities, more innovation,}}

[[control/coordination problems across subunits or specialists, higher levels of organizational conflict,less control over subunits.[[

 \n Vertical complexity = the division of decision-making tasks and supervisory responsibilities.

count of the number of job positions between the chief executive and the employees working on the output.

Spatial complexity = geographical disperson; extent to which organizations have different sites in different physical locations.

→ consequences:

}}allows (service-based)organizations to expand, adaptation to the local environment, and taking advantage of different labour markets and local resources.}}

[[Coordination/control problems.[[

Formalization = the extent to which task assignments, procedures for carrying out work, and other prescribed aspects of organizational operations are codified.

codified = making something relatively permanent in a written record.

organizational control over the individual.

→ organizational consequences:

}}less variable behaviours by org. members, lower variability in outcomes, easier to train new members/transmit expectations about work behaviours, enhance equity in treatment of org. members.}}

[[vicious cycle where managers seek control of workers by creating more and more explicit rules, which limit managers’ ability to influence the workers beyond rule enforcement, rule-bound/rigid organization, no flexibility to deal with changes (prevents effective responses to new problems), slows work process, reduced innovation.[[

→ individual consequences:

[[trained incapacity, oveconcern with strict adherence to regulations, inability to operate on one’s own initiative → seeking to reduce freedom (bureaupathic).[[

Centralization = the level and variety of participation in strategic decisions by groups relative to the number of groups in the organization; the degree to which decision-making responsibility and power in an organization are closely held by a few elites, or widely distributed among different organizational members.

→ consequences:

}}greater coordination, faster decision-making.}}

[[poorer quality decisions when those in the higher level (making the decisions) do not possess the necessary information while those on the lower levels do, limited communication between levels, lack of control over work negatively impacts attitudes and org. commitment.[[