Organization and Environment: A Typology of Adaptability and Structure

The citizen participation movement of the late 1960s has been followed by an increased interest in the relationship of public organizations to their environment.1 At the same time the most widely used frameworks for systematic comparison of diverse organizations have been limited in their focus to either the organization's internal system of control or its external beneficiary. Amitai Etzioni in A Comparative Analysis of Complex Organizations2 uses the system of internal control as a key variable in comparing diverse organizations. Peter Blau and Richard Scott in Formal Organizations3 attempt to identify the principal external beneficiary of an organization, such as the general public or a particular client. They then use that entity as a basis for comparing diverse organizations. Unfortunately, neither framework explains the relationship between the internal aspects of organizations, such as the basis for decision making, and the manner in which the organization responds to its environment.4 The following typology of organizations, based upon James Thompson's Organizations in Action, is designed to fill that void.5 Each of three organizational responses to its environment is related to the organization's internal structure (interrelationship and overall management of units), its decision-making process (basis of decision and assessment), and the organization's boundary-spanning strategy (basis of support and extent of decentralization). In this typology, organizational structure is viewed as a defense against an uncertain and turbulent environment. Organizations are viewed as differing from one another in their use of an organizational form of selective perception. This selective perception has the primary function of reducing uncertainty in the environment of the organization. Those who arrange the structure of * Organizations are viewed as utilizing selective perception in arranging their units in order to respond to a turbulent environment. Chain-structured, singularly responsive organizations are highly selective and quite limited in their response. These organizations perceive the environment as static and homogeneous. They thereby justify performing a narrow and limited function with high technical efficiency. Mediatively structured, categorically responsive organizations perceive the same turbulent environment in terms of discrete, well-comprehended processes and entities, and thereby justify forcing turbulent demands into uniform categories of organizational response. Adaptively structured, comprehensively responsive organizations respond to the full turbulence of the environment. Organizational response to its environment influences the manner in which each organization manages its internal units, assesses its performance, gains political support, and is able to decentralize its structure.