Development and Test of a Contingency Framework of Coupling

Abstract

Though the concept of loose coupling permeates organizational science, it has stagnated because of definitional and operational issues. In this study, a contingency framework of coupling was developed and tested. Using an organizational simulation, the pattern of covariation between cultural and structural coupling was tracked across two different stages of the organizational life cycle and two levels of technological routineness. Quantitative, network measures of cultural and structural coupling were used. As organizations evolved from the infancy to the maturity stage of their life cycle, both structural and cultural coupling among participants became tighter. Unexpectedly, individuals involved with a nonroutine technology were more tightly coupled structurally but less tightly coupled culturally when compared to individuals engaged in a routine technology.