Organizational structure in Icelandic companies before and after the financial crisis

Abstract

This paper discusses the development of organizational structure in Icelandic enterprises before and after the economic crash in 2008. This is built on data compiled in the Innform research project in Iceland, first from the precrash years 2004 to 2007 and second the postcrash years 2010 to 2014. A comparison is also drawn up with an overview of the five published research results about the structure of Icelandic companies in the period of 20042016. The purpose of this article is to describe the main characteristics of the organizational structure of Icelandic companies and their evolution. At the same time the aim is to look for changes after the economic crash in 2008 on different management practices related to organizational structure. The main findings point to the direction that organizational structure has partly changed. Especially with more focus on effectiveness and internal processes. Empowerment has increased with correlation to matrix structure and project structure which are increasingly in use. Previous research shows that most big Icelandic companies are using both functional and divisional structure, that relates to a mixed structure. The functional structure is the overarching form in both the smaller and bigger companies. It looks like a flux period in the structure in the first years after the crash, where the focus of the directors on formal structure dwindled temporarily.