Strategies of Administrative Control and Contextual Constraints in a Less-Developed Country: The Case of Egyptian Public Enterprise

Abstract

Access to 31 state-owned organizations engaged in a variety of industries in Egypt enables the function of work organizations in a less-developed country to be examined. The utilization of public enterprises by government in political and developmental strategies has a considerable impact upon their form and authority. They are shown to be highly structured and highly centralized (using Aston measures) in a way similar to organizations in other socialist and developing countries. In addition, size and techno logy together appear to exert a bureaucratizing effect.