Size and Growth as Determinants of Administrative-Production Ratios in Organizations

Abstract

Previous research has usually found a negative relationship between organization size and the ratio of administrative to production workers. That research has almost always relied on cross-section data, so that the effects of growth over time could not be considered separately from the effects of size at one point in time. This study uses data on U.S. school districts at two points in time to investigate the interrelationships of size, growth and administrative-production ratios. We find that both size and growth have small but significant negative relationships to administrative-production ratios.