Paul R. Lawrence and Jay W. Lorsch extended Burns and Stalker's studies and found that subunits or department adapt to their environment just as the overall organization does. Organization size refers to how large the organization is, usually in terms of the number of fulltime employees. Organization size can affect organization design. Researchers at the University of Aston found that large organizations tend to have more job specialization, more standard operating procedures, more rules and regulations, and more decentralization than small organizations. An organization's size is related to its life cycle.
Life cycle is the organization's maturity relative to that of other organizations.
Organizations tend to follow a fairly predictable pattern of growth. This pattern is one of creation, growth, and stability. The design of an organization depends on the technology the organization uses, the limits and potentials of its environments, and the life cycle stage it is in. These factors influence specialization, departmentalization, and coordination. Although every organization has its own unique design, five basic structural arrangements can be identified.