Abstract
This chapter applies a human ecological approach to the analysis of structural change in organizations. Some organizational theories have focused on the covariation of organizational structure and technology (Perrow 1970; Woodward 1965). Others have dealt with the relationships between structure and environ- ment, either presenting the environment as a contingent or unpredictable supplier of resources (Lawrence and Lorsch 1967; Thompson 1967; Pfeffer and Salancik 1978) or presenting organizational structure as a culturally grounded, symbolic expression (Zucker 1983; Meyer and Rowan 1977; DiMaggio and Powell 1983).
The principal portion of this chapter is reprinted by permission of the publisher from pp. 1–33 in Charles E. Bidwell and John D. Kasarda, 1987, Structuring in organizations: Ecoystem theory evaluated. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
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Bidwell, C.E., Kasarda, J.D. (1998). An Ecological Theory of Organizational Structuring. In: Micklin, M., Poston, D.L. (eds) Continuities in Sociological Human Ecology. The Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9841-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9841-8_6
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