How Competitive Strategies Affect Organizational Structure

Abstract

Organizational structures can change according to the strategy determined by the businesses. The purpose of this chapter is to extend that research by analyzing the relationship between Porter's competitive strategies and Burns and Stalker's structure types. The authors conduct their research on the enterprises in Technology Development Zones in Istanbul, Turkey. One hundred sixty of 5,506 enterprises participated in the research. Then, to search deeper, the authors conducted a qualitative research on the 25 enterprises in Technology Development Zones. Results show that, while the mechanical structure tendency is observed in the enterprises following the cost leadership strategy, the mechanical or organic structure tendency is not observed in the enterprises following the differentiation and focus strategies. Also, according to the interviews, results show that the organizational structures in the enterprises in Technology Development Zones are affected by the size of the organization or the strategic awareness level of the senior managers rather than the competitive strategies.