A FRAMEWORK FOR THE STUDY OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION

This paper presents a taxonomy of organizational characteristics that was developed as part of a large scale job analysis project conducted for the Department of Labor (DOL). Based on research and theory relate d to organizations, a hierarchical taxonomy of organizational characte ristics was developed with six construct domains at the highest level: organizational structure, leadership, human resources (HR) systems an d practices, goals, and organizational values. The taxonomy has been e mpirically tested using data from over 300 organizations, and a summar y of these results is presented. This taxonomy is then used to organiz e and review research on the relationships between organizational vari ables and innovation. Implications of the taxonomy for understanding r elationships between organizational size, industry type, ''high-perfor mance'' practices, and innovation are discussed.