5. Conclusions
The main goal of the paper was to determine the relationship between business growth and
organizational development in strategic management of 150 Polish companies. Even though the study
sample wasn’t representative and the conclusions cannot be generalised – the findings helped identify
some interesting patterns that will inspire further research. Longitudinal study rather than cross-section
research would be a preferred future choice.
The main finding of this study is that while businesses grow – their strategic management changes as
well, but not necessarily becomes more mature in all the studied areas. Organizational development was
identified by 3 aspects: (1) organizational integrity, (2) systems approach and (3) adaptability and each of
them showed a different relationship to company’s size.
Business integrity was defined by the sense of identity and direction and the coherence of values and
behaviour. The relationship between the company size and its sense of identity indicates that
organizational development is not linear and that medium sized companies experience crisis of identity
and direction. Coherence of values and behaviour on the other hand seems independent of the company
size, only with the reservation that bigger companies struggle to successfully communicate strategy to
their employees, which creates a coherence gap between what was intended in the strategy and what the
employees know they should do.
Systems approach seems to be growing alongside the organization size. The bigger the company the
more it is stakeholder aware and the more active role it plays in cooperation networks within and across
industries. This connection might be conditioned by the fact that bigger organizations have more
relationships they have to manage hence their more deliberate and organized approach.
Adaptability was the last aspect of the organizational development. It was understood as a
combination of flexibility and innovativeness. The research indicates that while organizations grow - their
flexibility may be changing from micro level (being able to personalise the products and react quickly to
customer needs) to mezzo level (being ready to redefine business and modify the company profile to find
new clients). Business innovativeness results show on the other hand that medium companies are
experiencing a slowdown or a crisis. Their dedication to exploratory behaviour and focus on innovation is
lower than in small and large companies.
Research presented in the paper indicates that in the studied companies relationship between business
growth and organizational development is multidimensional and hence ambiguous. There are some
aspects of development that correlate with the company’s size, some that are independent of it and some
that indicate weakness of being a medium sized company.
Findings of the study raise many questions and encourage further research. In the follow-up study it
would be interesting to research medium sized companies more thoroughly in order to find the
76 Anna Witek-Crabb / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 150 ( 2014 ) 66 – 76
background and conditioning of the identity, direction and innovativeness crises they seem to experience.
Also there is a need for search for such a model of business growth that would lead to higher strategic
maturity and organizational development and hence be sustainable in the long term.