Profiling the Marginal Organization: A Framework for Operational Analysis

Abstract

Organizations don’t form by accident. In every instance, organizations are a product of the decisions and actions of others. In their simplest form, organizations are a mix of features and attributes that provide some benefit to the organization’s operation and/or stakeholders. In this chapter, we explore the formation and makeup of marginal organizations, concentrating on ways an organization’s features contribute to defining its capacity to be influential. Influence is central to this discussion because it is a feature stakeholders associate with an organization’s authority, credence and, in some instances, power to manipulate, persuade, direct and/or control.