Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
STRATEGY, STRUCTURE, EFFICIENCY, AND EFFECTIVENESS IN VARYING SUBUNIT ENVIRONMENTS
Abstract
In this study of 166 universities (58.4% response rate), subunit strategies, structure, along with school and university demographic characteristics are used to predict subunit effectiveness. Schools of business and education were sampled. Business schools were chosen to represent favorable or inviting environments. Education schools encountered hostile circumstances during the time from 1973 to 1985. Subunit (school), rather than organizational, effectiveness is the level of analysis. Five measures of effectiveness are (1) survival, (2) growth, (3) system development of inputs (resource attraction), (4) system development of the transformation process (efficiency), and (5) subunit prestige. Multiple indicators of each are utilized. Survival was dropped later due to an insufficient sample. Cross sectional and temporal regression analyses are used to discover relationships across five waves of data, including 1973, 1976,1979, 1982, and 1985. All information was collected using a questionnaire instrument except for decision-making configuration (structural) data, which were taken from a previous study. School and university demographics including age, size, public affiliation, and graduate programs were expected to predict effectiveness. These relationships were found. Size was the strongest predictor variable. The presence or use of strategies were hypothesized to indicate effectiveness. The data do not support this contention. Efficiency strategies in schools of education (hostile environments) also did not explain new effectiveness variance. Concerning structure, it is proposed that centralized schools of education would be effective while decentralized business schools would succeed. Both relationships are supported, highlighting the structural-contingency approach to effectiveness. Main effects of structure are noted with confidence, since there were no significant interaction effects of strategies with structure. In an exploratory analysis, the tradeoff between efficiency and effectiveness during periods of growth and decline were examined. It appears that inefficiency often accompanies effectiveness due to the presence of slack resources. It was concluded that the efficiency-effectiveness relationship may be more complex than previously suggested, and a new approach is recommended.
Subject Area
Management
Recommended Citation
BAACK, DONALD EDWARD, "STRATEGY, STRUCTURE, EFFICIENCY, AND EFFECTIVENESS IN VARYING SUBUNIT ENVIRONMENTS" (1987). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8719772.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8719772