Impact of organisational structure on evidence-based decision making : the matrix versus hierarchical

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.