organizational ecology
Quick Summary
Organizational ecology is a field within sociology and management that studies organizations by drawing parallels to bioecology and evolution. It focuses on how organizations change and persist over time, emphasizing processes like selection and adaptation.1
Key concepts include:
* Selection: This process highlights how organizations that embody new forms or designs thrive, while those ill-suited to a changing environment decline.1
* Adaptation: While selection is primary, adaptation refers to how organizations change their core features. However, radical changes can increase an organization's risk of failure due to inertia.1
* Imprinting: This concept suggests that influences experienced during an organization's developmental period can have lasting consequences, shaping its core features and structure based on the era of its emergence.1
Organizational ecology examines how legitimation (acceptance of an organizational form) and competition influence the creation and survival of organizations.1
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