Works
- Organization structure and strategies of control: a replication of the Aston study, Administrative Science Quarterly 17(2), 163 to 177, 1972
- Technology, size, and organization structure, Sociology 6(3), 369 to 393, 1972
- Organizational structure, environment and performance: the role of strategic choice, Sociology 6(1), 1 to 22, 1972
- Predicting and understanding organization structure, Administrative Science Quarterly 18(2), from p. 168, 1973
- From fiefs to clans and network capitalism: explaining China's emerging economic order, Administrative Science Quarterly 41(4), from page 600, 1996
- Strategic choice in the analysis of action, structure, organizations and environment: retrospect and prospect, Organization Studies 18(1), 43 to 76, 1997
In Organizational Structures
Known for
Strategic choice
Ideas
Size over technology. In 82 business organizations, size related to structure much more strongly than technology did, and earlier technology measures may have stood in for industry differences. Caveat: Cross-sectional.
Strategic choice. Child argued that structure reflects the strategic choices of power-holders within organizations, which include structural forms, the manipulation of the environment, and the choice of performance standards, a political process that contingency models left out. Caveat: Largely conceptual.