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This paper offers a model that illustrates the relationship between organizational structure, work stress and perceived strain based on the concept of bureaucratic orientation.

After a brief review of the stress and structure literatures, a number of propositions are developed concerning organizationally‐induced stressors that are fostered by mechanistic or organic structures. Next, a model is presented illustrating the impact of members' bureaucratic orientation on the organizationally induced stressor‐strain relationship.

It is argued that highly‐mechanized structures manifest different stressors for employees from highly organic structures. The model also demonstrates how organizationally‐induced stressors such as role conflict and ambiguity mediate the relation between structure and strain. However, the extent to which these stressors result in perceived strain is also dependent on employees' predisposition toward dominance, autonomy, achievement, ambiguity and control. Based on the model and propositions presented, conclusions and suggestions for future research are provided.

Noted implications include more flexible workplace rules for female executives to eliminate stress associated with work‐family conflict as well as improved effectiveness of social support and person‐organization fit based on individual bureaucratic orientation.

This paper uniquely advocates consideration of employee bureaucratic orientation and organizational structure in relation to person‐organization fit and work stress. The propositions offered are of value to practitioners and researchers due to their implications for fostering person‐organization fit and reducing work stress.

Being mindful of the importance of organizational structure and organizational culture for knowledge management in companies, the purpose of this study is to investigate the organizational prerequisites for creating and sharing knowledge. The goals are to determine whether and to what extent the attributes of organic structure contribute to the creation and sharing of knowledge and to show that an organizational culture which supports knowledge stimulates the processes of knowledge creation and sharing.

The data for the empirical study was obtained through a survey of 150 respondents, employed in 30 companies from several industries, in the Republic of Serbia. The questionnaire was adapted to the needs of the study and was developed based on the theoretical knowledge and findings of several previous studies on processes of knowledge creation and knowledge sharing. A regression method was used to test all hypotheses.

The results show that both the organic structure and the organizational culture that support knowledge have positive effects on knowledge creation, while knowledge sharing is positively influenced only by the knowledge supporting culture of an organization.

This study contributes to organization studies and knowledge management theory because of the holistic approach taken with regards to the issue involved and the fact that it takes into account a large number of the significant characteristics of organizational structure and culture that are relevant to knowledge management processes. The findings could prove useful to managers when structuring an organization and shaping its culture to enhance knowledge management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors affecting anti-consumption behavior of the consumers toward organic food purchase: in particular, how do individual beliefs about trustworthiness of organic foods, normative structure of social pressure and self-efficacy affect individual intentions to make organic food purchases and actual purchasing behavior? To answer this question, a theoretical framework of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as its foundation has been established. Using measurement scales in order to measure different aspects of trustworthiness, normative structure, self-efficacy, attitude, perceived behavioral control (PBC) and subjective norms, a survey instrument has been developed to examine the several associations implied by the model of TPB.

In doing so, data on a structured questionnaire were collected from various parts of a city based on convenience random sampling procedure. The respondents were interviewed face-to-face to collect information on a structured questionnaire. Data (n=337) were analyzed using a research framework formulated based on the TPB through the structural equation modeling procedure.

The findings of the study indicate that among the seven independent variables of trustworthiness, normative structure, self-efficacy, attitude, subjective norm and PBC, only subjective norm has not been statistically significant to influence organic food purchase behavior.

The result implies that various sociopolitical forces and skewed monthly incomes are inhibiting the consumers (anti-consumption) to increasingly buy the organic food products.

In this regard, government, policy planners, academia as well as media have profound roles to play to encourage people to buy more organic food for their health safety and overall consumer well-being.

This research is based on primary data collected from the respondents of a sub-urban areas of a metropolitan city. The findings will help formulate a sound food policy for ensuring social well-being of the consumers.

The purpose of this study, which consists of two parts, is to bring together literature on organizational design and learning of individuals in organizational settings. The literature suggests that learning takes place in organic and less-structured organizational designs, whereas empirical research provides conflicting evidence. This first part theorizes about the influence of mechanistic vs organic designs on three different aspects of employees’ learning behavior: knowledge sourcing, learning styles and learning loops.

This paper is built on previous research on the impact of structure on learning and theorizes about the relationship between mechanistic/organic design and specific learning behavior at work.

Four propositions are developed in this paper, regarding how a different structure leads to a different learning behavior. Mechanistic structure is associated with internal learning, independent learning and single-loop learning, whereas organic design leads to external learning, collaborative learning and double-loop learning.

Because the paper is conceptual in nature, the propositions are in need of empirical validation. Some directions for empirical testing are proposed.

For an organization design practice, managers should be aware of the distinct impact different structures have on individual learning at work. Furthermore, the appropriate organizational structure for learning must be considered in the broader context of contingencies.

This paper contributes to the organizational design literature and to the organizational learning theory by conceptualizing the relationship between structure and learning of individuals at work.

The management of intellectual capital (IC) within organizations depends on appropriate organizational structures and characteristics. This paper seeks to argue that certain structural, cultural, and climate characteristics will lead to more effective IC management.

The paper reviews the theoretical and empirical IC literature, as well as the literatures regarding organic environments, trust, participative decision making, and creative renewal processes, to develop a model relating to the antecedent conditions necessary for the management of IC.

The model developed will assist researchers in the identification and exploration of variables linked to the effective management of IC within organizations.

It is concluded that managers of organizations need to create organic structures, build trust with employees, encourage creative renewal, and develop participative decision‐making processes.

By integrating several fields of the literature that relate to IC management, the paper suggests propositions that deserve future research consideration.

The significant performance implications of individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership have been documented for established firms, but the issue of whether they are complementary or substitutive still remains a puzzle, and whether their relationship differs in new firms remains unanswered. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership in different organizational structures in new firms.

The study draws on survey data of 209 questionnaires from 63 teams in 63 new firms in China.

The results suggest that individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership are substitutive when the organizational structure is mechanistic, and are complementary when the structure is organic.

The study contributes to the debate on the relationship between individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership by comparing organizational structure characteristics and offering a comprehensive understanding of the issue.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize and operationalize the concept of market-sensing capabilities and analyze its relationship with new product development (NPD) success and organic organizational structures. To the authors' knowledge, past measures of market-sensing capabilities have never included opportunity interpretation, through business experience and organizational articulation, as part of the concept.

Based on a sample of over 180 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), market-sensing capabilities constructs and their relationships were tested through academics' and managers' perceptions. The measure was tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Findings reveal theoretically sound constructs based on four underlying market-sensing capabilities components: analytical processes, customer relationship, business experience and organizational articulation. Results demonstrate reliability, convergent, discriminant and nomological validity. All four dimensions are positively associated with NPD success and are more likely to appear in organic organizational structures.

The resulting instrument provides managers with a valuable tool to measure firms' abilities to address environmental uncertainty. By using this instrument, managers can assess internal organizational structures and resources allocated to sensing capabilities. By developing sensing capabilities, managers might ultimately influence their NPD strategy. Findings also reveal that sensing capabilities are positively and significantly associated with organic organizational structures.

Existing sensing capabilities measures are focused on environmental scanning, and the essence of the concept is not fully expressed by the traditional measures of analytical processes and customer relationship. The authors' new measure includes opportunity interpretation through business experience and organizational articulation.

This paper aims to create and validate a scale that will serve to measure the construct “organic structure”, currently of great utility for the competitive analysis of firms. On the basis of the literature, eight dimensions, corresponding to the parameters technical system, formalization, centralization, structural complexity, planning and control systems, training, information flows, and culture, form this construct. To verify the reliability and the validity of this measuring instrument we used a sample of 150 large Spanish firms.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss characteristics of organic food value chain governance and policy tools that can increase the supply of good quality of agri-products.

This paper discusses a national organic food supply system in China, identifying the link between an organization form with a social confidence crisis and information asymmetry as the main challenges. It develops an analytical model of the market structure of organic certification based on the contract theory, which considers the certification incentive driven by both farmers and processors. Two cases of raw milk producers and processors provide empirical data.

The argument which is brought forward is that product information asymmetry together with strict requirement for ensuring organic food integrity brings the organic milk value chain into a highly integrated organization pattern. A tight value chain is effective in the governance of organic food supply chain under third party certification (TPC), while a loose value chain discourages producing organic products because of transaction costs. TPC is found to be a positively correlation with a tight value chain, but it brings high organizational cost and it raises cost for consumers.

This is the first paper discussing the governance of organic food value chain in Chinese milk industry.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of competitive strategies and organizational structure on hotel performance and to explore whether organizational structure has a moderating effect on the relationship between competitive strategies and hotel performance.

This study employed a causal and descriptive research design to determine the cause‐and‐effect relationships among competitive strategies, organizational structure, and hotel performance based on previous studies. A 28‐question self‐administered questionnaire comprising three sections was employed. The target population for this study was US hotel owners and general and executive managers whose e‐mail addresses were listed on a publicly available database. A census survey was carried out and e‐mails were sent to all of the hoteliers listed in the database.

The results show a competitive human resources (HR) strategy to have a direct impact on a hotel's behavioral performance, and a competitive IT strategy to have a direct impact on a hotel's financial performance. Organizational structure is found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between both of these strategies and behavioral performance, a result similar to those reported by Jogaratnam and Tse and by Tarigan. However, the results of the current study show that organizational structure has no influence on the relationship between a brand image strategy and a hotel's behavioral performance, nor does it have any moderating effect on the relationship between a hotel's financial performance and its competitive brand image, HR or IT strategy.

When hoteliers face an uncertain environment, they need to select which form of organizational structure to adopt with care. Hotels that adopt an organic structure allow greater flexibility in the workplace, meaning that they may lose control of their employees and productivity. A mechanistic organizational structure, in contrast, gives hoteliers the power to monitor employee behavior and productivity, which may help them to achieve goals and boost financial performance.

The paper provides further evidence of how competitive HR and IT strategies help to explain hotel performance, whereas a brand image strategy and organizational structure are not good explanatory factors in this regard. Hotels with a mechanistic such structure enjoy a greater relationship between a competitive HR strategy and behavioral performance than their organically structured counterparts. With regard to IT strategic implementation, in contrast, hotels with an organic structure enjoy superior behavioral performance to those with a mechanistic structure.