IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v28y1982i8p854-868.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Size and Administrative Intensity in Organizational Divisions

Author

Listed:
  • Spyros K. Lioukas

    (London Business School, England)

  • Demitris A. Xerokostas

    (National Technical University, Greece)

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between the size of an organization and the number of its administrative personnel drawing upon information from 46 local electricity distribution divisions. Traditionally size has been treated as a uni-dimensional concept, and various single measures/indicators have been used to represent it. In contrast to this view the present study considers size as multi-dimensional. An array of indicators is used and factor analysis is employed to uncover underlying distinct dimensions. In a further step the relationship between the administrative component, i.e., the number of administrative personnel, and the revealed distinct dimensions of size is examined. Results show that the administrative component increases less than proportionately with output-related dimensions of size, thus suggesting that here there are economies of scale. On the other hand the administrative component appears to be weakly related or unrelated to other dimensions expressing fixed assets, market characteristics and growth. Theoretical and practical implications of the analysis are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Spyros K. Lioukas & Demitris A. Xerokostas, 1982. "Size and Administrative Intensity in Organizational Divisions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(8), pages 854-868, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:28:y:1982:i:8:p:854-868
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.28.8.854
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.28.8.854
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.28.8.854?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    organizational studies: design;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:28:y:1982:i:8:p:854-868. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.