Abstract:
Despite the adoption of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) by manufacturing firms, the literature reports disappointing performance of
manufacturing, attributed to an imbalance between the dimensions of technology (i.e. AMT) and organisation. The central research problem of this study was:
To analyse the effect of development along organisational and technological dimensions on operational performance of manufacturing firms in South Africa.
The investigation into the central research problem was guided by a primary research question: Does a balanced development of organisational and technological dimensions
result in optimum levels of operational performance of manufacturing?
Structural Equation Modelling was employed to assess the central research problem and the primary research question by evaluating the relationship between three latent variables: Technology, Organisation and Operational Performance.
Data was collected by means of a self-administered online web questionnaire. A
total of 104 responses were received from a target sample of 604 Managing Directors of manufacturing firms. The sample was not representative of the population of manufacturing firms in South Africa.
It was shown that the correlation between Technology and Organisation was fairly
strongly positive. The direct impact of Technology on Operational Performance was unexpectedly non-significant, whereas Organisation’s direct impact on Operational Performance was strongly positive.
These results did not support the primary research question. In fact, organisational
dimensions were more important than technological dimensions in obtaining optimum levels of operational performance of manufacturing.
The implication was that firms should strongly emphasise the development of its organisation as part of a technology strategy.
