IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/scaman/v16y2000i3p249-267.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Formal structure and intra-organisational networks. An analysis in a combined social and health organisation in Finland

Author

Listed:
  • Johanson, Jan-Erik

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study the interplay between formal structure and social relations in a combined social and health organisation in Finland, using of social network analysis. Two features of formal structure were considered, namely hierarchy and the division of labour. The social relations were studied in three networks: collaboration, advice and friendship. The results show that formal organisation impacts powerfully on the patterns of interaction, including affective relations. Further, middle management has a restricted role as a buffer between top management and information flowing upward from the lower hierarchical levels, while the staff unit holds a peripheral position among the horizontal units. In conclusion, the approach adopted here offers a viable way to test theoretical constructs in other organisations and to trace relational problems before they become serious obstacles to the functioning of the organisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Johanson, Jan-Erik, 2000. "Formal structure and intra-organisational networks. An analysis in a combined social and health organisation in Finland," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 249-267, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:scaman:v:16:y:2000:i:3:p:249-267
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956522199000275
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marcel Maurer & Norbert Bach & Simon Oertel, 2023. "Changes in formal structure towards self-managing organization and their effects on the intra-organizational communication network," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 12(3), pages 83-98, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:scaman:v:16:y:2000:i:3:p:249-267. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/872/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.