Adaptive Communication Patterns in Different Organizational Structures

Abstract

How do organizations cope with missions that are not well matched to their architectures, and consequently, what behaviors signal the need for structural adaptation? To explore this issue, we used model-based organizational design techniques to create mission scenarios that were either congruent (matched) or incongruent (mismatched) with two organizational structures. We focused our analyses on the role of communications by comparing the communication patterns occurring in the congruent conditions to those produced in the incongruent conditions. Results indicated that, for both functional and divisional organizations, communications increased when faced with incongruence. However, beyond volume of communications, there were differences in communication patterns. In the functional organizational structure team members changed their communication patterns (i.e., who talked about what), while in the divisional organizational structure team members did so to a much lesser degree. These data showed that strategy adaptation depends on the nature of organization's structure operating within particular mission environments.