Some Consequences of Crisis Which Limit the Viability of Organizations

This paper proposes that crisis can be denoted with a specific meaning applicable to organizational behavior. A tentative series of interrelated propositions suggests how a crisis in an organization's external environment can activate behavior within the organization which hinders its response to the crisis. The propositions are illustrated with material from a range of political and nonpolitical studies. Some attention is directed to possible means of making the eight principal variables operational.' Charles F. Hermann is a doctoral candidate in the International Relations Program of Northwestern University's Political Science Department.