W. Finlay et al., ORGANIZATIONAL-STRUCTURE AND JOB-SATISFACTION - DO BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATIONS PRODUCE MORE SATISFIED EMPLOYEES, Administration & society, 27(3), 1995, pp. 427-450
Popular and social scientific critiques of the bureaucratic model of o
rganizational behavior argue that employment in highly structured bure
aucratic work organizations adversely affects worker attitudes and beh
avior. In particular these critics suggest that bureaucratic structure
is associated with lower employee job satisfaction. Several empirical
studies, however have yielded an unexpected positive relationship bet
ween bureaucratic structure and satisfaction. In this research, the au
thors argue that this paradoxical pattern is the result of these studi
es having used measures of organizational structure that conflate job
and organizational characteristics. The authors show that among member
s of an emerging profession, highly structured organizational activiti
es have a negative effect on employee satisfaction when job characteri
stics are controlled.