Organizational structure, demographic characteristics, and employee responses

The study tested an hypothesis about the sources of variance associated with employees' responses to their work environment. Objective profiles of employees' positions in the organizational structure and their demographic background were developed for 392 employees in a printing plant. Canonical analyses showed that profiles of organizational structure and demographic characteristics were related to employee responses. Part canonical analyses established that there was a substantial joint relationship between both demographic and organizational structure characteristics and responses due to the covariance between the two sets of characteristics. In addition, the organizational structure characteristics had an important unique relationship to employee responses. Results are discussed in terms of possible psychological explanations for the relationships between objective index variables and responses.