Navigating Organizational Structures: How Formalization, Complexity, and Centralization Affect Adaptive Performance in the Workplace

Abstract

The way an organisation is structured greatly influences how well its workers perform, especially when it comes to encouraging flexibility in fast-paced work settings. The influence of formalisation, complexity, and centralization-three essential components of organisational structure-on adaptive performance is examined in the present study. A descriptive survey approach was employed to gather information from 120 Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) personnel, including senior, intermediate, and junior staff. A 5% significance threshold was used for both descriptive statistics and inferential analysis, which included regression analysis using SPSS v25. The results were further contextualised and external factors influencing workplace adaptation were examined using SWOT and PESTEL analyses. The results reveal that organizational formalization (R = 0.741; R² = 0.549; p < 0.05), complexity (R = 0.754; R² = 0.569; p < 0.05), and centralization (R = 0.740; R² = 0.548; p < 0.05) each significantly and favourably impact on adaptive performance at FRCN. The study comes to the conclusion that these structural components are essential for increasing employee adaptability and suggests that companies such as FRCN establish a collaborative environment, empower lower management levels to make prompt decisions to improve adaptability in changing environments, and maintain clearly defined policies while guaranteeing flexibility.

Keywords: Organizational Structures, Formalization, Complexity, Centralization and Adaptive Performance