Centralization and Organizational Sensing Agility: The Moderating Role of Work Meaningfulness in Nigerian Oil and Gas Firms

Abstract

The present research addresses the impact of centralization on organizational sensing agility and the moderating effect of meaningfulness of work in Nigerian oil and gas companies. Sensing agility-the ability to identify, interpret, and react to faint environmental signals-is an important dynamic capability to ensure survival and competitiveness in the highly dynamic setting with volatile crude oil prices, uncertainty in regulation and technological changes. Based on quantitative cross-sectional survey research, data were obtained from 411 middle and top-level managers from five firms operating in the upstream of oil and gas sector in South-South of Nigeria. PLS-SEM result indicate that centralization exerts a strong positive influence on organizational sensing agility. Work meaningfulness, however, was found to have no significant moderating influence on the relationship between centralization and sensing agility. It contradicts mainstream notions in agility literature-that decentralized structure is always beneficial-and concludes that centralized structures enhance sensing agility in high-risk, coordinated work environments because they allow information integration and enable strategic coherence. This study lends to both contingency theory and self-determination theory in that organizational-level effects of structural designs outweigh those of individual motivations.