Abstract:
Leaders of organisations are faced with a challenging, rapidly changing business
environment that results in increasing complexities. To deal with these complex
environments the matrix structure, even though problematic, is often cited as the preferred
structure to leverage from the efficient information flow. Organisational structure should
facilitate strategy implementation and is often referred to as strategy-structure paradigm.
The concept of organisational structure has been extensively researched. However there
exists a gap in determining and relating the factors that influence the flow of information
through organisational structure. Therefore further research into organisational structure is
needed. This study contributed to the field of organisational structure by comparing matrix
structure with hierarchical structure in an effort to determine the impact on evidence-based
decision making.
The research method adopted for this study was a quantitative cross-sectional study. Data
was collected through a self-administered questionnaire that was adapted from constructs
presented in the literature review. The questionnaire was distributed employing
convenience and snowballing sampling which resulted in 189 responses from 16 diverse
industry sectors.
The pertinent findings of the study were that organisational structure has no impact on
evidence-based decision making when comparing matrix organisations to hierarchical
organisations. The comparison revealed that there is no significant relationship regarding
information flow and evidence-based cultures. The study found that organisational culture
is the main driver of evidence-based decision making.
