A new approach to measuring the correlation of organizational alignment and performance

Abstract

Research Questions: This paper focuses on measuring the alignment of organizational elements. Motivation: Although several authors have analyzed this topic, there are few papers in which a concept for measuring the alignment of key elements of the organization is proposed (Simons, 2005; Sadeghi, 2011; Trevor & Varcoe, 2017). In previous research, the concept of alignment is usually defined through categorical variables and different organizational configurations are suggested (Mintzberg, 1980). Thus, this paper aims to propose a new approach to measuring organizational elements and their alignment. Idea: Based on the literature review we determined the organizational model for conducting the research in companies listed on the top 300 companies in Serbia. Data: On the sample of 57 respondents the results confirmed the defined hypothesis by which the alignment of the organizational elements has a positive correlation with the organizational performance. Tools: In order to measure the organizational elements we defined the 7-level scale which enables measuring the alignment of organizational elements. Findings: The research results confirm that it is necessary to look at the solutions based on some organizational elements simultaneously. However, in order to confirm the validity and reliability of the results, it is necessary to conduct a research on a larger sampling frame, since the sample from this research is relatively small in comparison to the total population. Contribution: The defined scale can be used as a control tool for checking the proposed organizational design solutions in practice. Also, the rules of alignment of organizational elements can be applied at different hierarchical levels in the organization, which will be the subject of future research of the authors.