There is a perennial need for structural changes in organizations to keep pace with technological advancements and improvement in the competency levels of employees. The basic purpose of this study is to pinpoint the type of changes which have occurred in the structural components of production organizations. A questionnaire on the perceived institutionalized structures is given to 262 managers working in five well-established, ISO-certified, production organizations of Lucknow. On the basis of the Principal Component Analysis, five components of perceived institutionalized structures have emerged, namely, systems, role of top management, rule-bound approach, role of first-line supervisor, and environmental uncertainty and need for social approval. Systems was found to be the most prevalent structural component followed by the rule-bound approach and environmental uncertainty and need for social approval. First-line supervisors were found to have limited discretion and top management was found to have little control in production organizations.

Modern perspective in the 1950s and 1960s laid the ground for inclusion of organization-environment relationship in organizational analysis. The trend was carried over in the 1970s and is continuing till today. During this period, three most influential theories of organization-environment relationship were propounded: Resource Dependence (Pfeiffer and Selznick, 1978), Population Ecology (Aldrich et al., 1977) and Institutional Theory (Selznick, 1957). The resource dependence theory emphasized upon the dependency of organizations on their environments for resources, whereas population ecology theory propounded that organizations are not only influenced by resource dependence but also by environmental determinants.

Institutional theory represents the entry point of symbolic-interpretive studies into organization-environment relationship research. Selznick (1957) believed that environment could put demands on organizations in two different ways. First, organizational output of exchange of goods and services in the market is linked with technical and economic demands of the organization. Secondly, environment may make social and cultural demands that require organizations to play particular roles in society and to establish and maintain outward appearances. Environment rewards organizations for supplying goods and services efficiently and effectively and for conforming to the values, norms, rules and beliefs of the society.Therefore, Selznick (1957) pointed out that organizations adapt not only
to the strivings of their internal groups but to the values of external society also. Institutional theory ascribes more importance to social and cultural rule system in comparison of technical knowledge and resources (Scott, 1994). These cultural rule systems provide blueprints for organizing, by specifying the forms and procedures to be adopted by the organization (Meyer and Rowan, 1977). The theory also acknowledges the importance of environmental forces in bringing changes in legitimacy and the cognitive patterning of rationalized culture of organizations (Meyer and Scott, 1992).

Management Research Journal, Structural Components, Production Organizations, Technological Advancements, Principal Component Analysis, Ecology Theory, Goods and Services, Organization Theory, Decision-Making Process, Manufacturing Technology, Organizational Policies.