3. Methodology
The main goal of the research was to find the relationship between business growth measured by the
number of company’s employees and organizational development measured indirectly through the criteria
of integrity, systems approach and adaptability, as present in the strategic management practice.
The study was conducted on a sample of 150 Polish companies. The group of the respondents
included public limited companies founded after 1989, and comprised 50 small (up to 50 persons), 50
midsize (50-250 persons), and 50 large enterprises (more than 250 persons).
Data was collected through face-to-face interviews (PAPI) with top executives (CEO’s, TMT
members, managing board members and strategic management directors). The sampling frame consisted
of 740 public companies, the collection method used was stratified random sample.
The survey questionnaire consisted of 84 questions in the attitude and 11 questions in the
demographics sections.
The questions were formulated as statements to which the respondents referred by rating their answers on
a Likert scale used as a measurement tool. The survey questions referred to the strategic management
practices of the companies under review, and were divided into four research areas: strategic management
process, strategic management participants, strategy form and strategy content.
Out of 84 questions of the main study - 18 were chosen to represent the development criteria of:
integrity, systems approach and adaptability (Table 1). Number of company employees was used as a
measure of business growth.
Statistical measures used to answer the research questions were: correlation between development
criteria and the company size, and average answers calculated for small, medium and large companies.
Table 1. Questionnaire constructs representing organizational development criteria (integrity, systems approach and adaptability) in strategic management.