Output Control: An Organizational Response to Large Size

Organizations can achieve control either through the evaluation of behavior or through the evaluation of outputs. This “behavior-output” dimension is not the same as the familiar “personal-impersonal control dimension. Data collected in 78 retail department store companies support the hypothesis that the use of output measures for control occurs in response to large organizational size. The effect of size on the use of output measures is mediated by vertical differentiation, horizontal differentiation, and intra-department task homogeneity.