Profound changes in higher education induced by the reforms of the New Public Management (NPM) have led to administrative growth, professionalism, managerialism, and higher relevance of the economic principle. As a further consequence, the importance of the organizational perspective has increased. Thus, questions about effective organizational structures and their design frameworks have become more crucial. The contingency approach provides insights into these questions because it investigates the effectiveness of organizational structures in different situations. Based on expert interviews with faculty managers and subsequent qualitative content analysis, in-depth insights are gained regarding criteria of effectiveness of German faculties, dimensions of their organizational structure, and their contextual factors from their subjective perception. Furthermore, it is possible to renew the approach, to refute criticism, and to build a reference framework as a precursor for developing new theories.