الفهرس 
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The relationship between IT and the organizational structure has been a matter of dispute since 1958; many studies were conducted to explore this relationship, yet reported contradicting results. Using the contingency theory, this research explored the relationship between IT and the organizational structure, taking into consideration the most important contextual variables reported in the relevant literature: size, environmental uncertainty, and strategy. Data were collected from 67 companies operating in the Egyptian petroleum sector using questionnaires directed to the IT managers. The research found that IT usage was positively related to four dimensions of the organizational structure: decentralization, formalization, vertical differentiation, and spatial differentiation. Nevertheless, no relationship was detected between IT usage and horizontal complexity. Additionally, none of the contextual variables affected the relationship between IT usage and structure. Their effects were evident in only two cases. First, IT usage was related negatively to spatial complexity when size is relatively large. Second, in a certain environment, IT usage was associated with decentralized structure. Moreover, all of the contextual variables, except environmental uncertainty, had a moderation effect in the relationship between IT usage and organizational structure but none of them had a mediation role. The study made some recommendations for future research including examining the IT-structure relationship across multilevel.