Measuring Organizational Structures and Environments

This article provides a descriptive overview of the work establishments in the National Organizations Study (NOS). It begins by reviewing their auspices, industry settings, and composition. Next, it introduces the survey items and scales used to measure coordination and control structures including structural differentiation, formalization, decentralization, and the presence of internal labor markets. Other items and scales refer to aspects of the technical and institutional environments. The NOS includes a quite diverse set of establishments, most of which provide services rather than produce goods. The public, nonprofit, and private, for-profit sectors are well represented. A sizable fraction of the workplaces are parts of larger organizations. Differences between descriptive statistics for the unweighted and weighted NOS samples highlight differences in the structures and environments of larger and smaller establishments.