Interdependence Among Organizational Variables

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the interrelationship between a set of organizational variables. It used a matrix analysis whereby fourteen work organizations or Sections within a company were assessed with respect to ten variables - production, quality, costs, job satisfaction of operatives, job satisfaction of supervisors, work anxiety, accidents, absence, labour turnover and industrial unrest.

When the Sections were ranked on the individual measures it was found that wide and consistent differences existed between the Sections; within the Sections the variables were clearly interrelated. This effect could be called the interdependence phenomenon of organizational behaviour.

This property was most pronounced in one group of Sections characterized by high performance achievements, favourable attitudes and organizational stability, and in another group of Sections characterized by low achievements, considerable dissatisfaction, and organizational instability involving high levels of accidents, absence, labour turnover or industrial unrest.

The data illustrated how processes operating within the functional and dysfunctional work organizations tended to be self-reinforcing and the situations self-perpetuating. The psychological impact of being a member of the different work organizations was marked, and the more dysfunctional the work organization the more prevalent were the manifestations of withdrawal behaviour.