For a successful business, professional established organization structures are the basis for housing companies. The formal organization structure should be used to manage the collaborative organized value-added process. The discussion with two executives from housing companies as well as KPMG management consultant have indicated that the organization structures of housing companies in Germany are often not sufficiently professionalized or existing only in approach, compared to other economic sectors (e.g. automotive). Because of these facts and problems, the following research questions have carried out:
- What formal organization structures are presently existing in German housing companies?
- What are the similarities and differences, in respect of formal organization structure, between the housing companies?
The research objectives are to create transparency regarding to the organization of housing companies and new findings and insights.
In addition, the dependent variable formal organization structure is divided into the following dimensions and will be analyzed.
- Level of formalization (definition of company rules/processes)
- Level of decentralization (competence distribution/decision-making authorities)
- Level of specialization (division of labour)
- Level of integration (coordination of collaborative processes)
- Level of structural sophistication (business unit and hierarchical structure)
Within the framework of primary research, an online survey is conducted. The survey outputs will be analysed by statistical tools. Of course, typical key figures such as standard deviation and arithmetic average will be calculated. In addition, regression analysis and cluster analysis were selected as statistical tools. It can be assumed that certain key figures and research results can also be used as benchmarks and management key figures to manage housing companies efficiently.