Exploring mediation between environmental and structural attributes: The penetration of communication technologies in manufacturing organizations

The relationship between organizational structures and information technolo gy (IT) has been the subject of much discussion in IS research. While studi es have not yielded conclusive results, the importance of examining the rel ationship between structure and technology is increasing in an environment where organizations are using contemporary IT to redesign themselves in ord er to compete more effectively. This paper presents a study that examines t he relationship between the use of an important class of IT communications technologies, and organizational structural attributes within a brand conti ngency context. Hypotheses are proposed, based on theory from the informati on-processing paradigm examining the mediating role of communications techn ologies (CT) in the relationship between environmental characteristics and organizational structural characteristics. Data from 153 manufacturing firm s are collected and analyzed. The results show that CT seems to play a dire ct role in reinforcing structures that emerge from environmental dictates. The expanded set of variables considered in this study and the results prov ide potentially strong implications for future work in this important area.