Carolina QuotesOrganizations are goal-directed, boundary-maintaining, activity systems.
Howard E. Aldrich Connected to the Carolinas
Source
p. 4
- work
- Organizations and Environments, 1979
- year
- 1979
- locator
- p. 4
Cite this record
“Organizations are goal-directed, boundary-maintaining, activ…” Howard E. Aldrich. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-A3C6F0F0FA. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/a3c6f0f0fa
More from Howard E. Aldrich
A niche is created by the intersection of resource constraints— an abstract resource space consisting of a unique combination of resources (information, access to materials, customers, and so on) that could permit a form to survive there. Forms thus either take advantage of a niche resource space" or fail.
Active loose coupling occurs when a subsystem of an organization is more tightly coupled to an environmental sector than other subsystems, and a feedback loop connects environmental conditions with organizational responses. A feedback loop is present when an organizational mechanism for monitoring the environment exists, and when the state of the environment (or intended target of the organization's action) is compared to some desired state by members of the organization.
Organizational forms — specific configurations of goals, boundaries, and activities — are the elements selected by environmental criteria, and change may occur either through new forms eliminating old ones or through the modification of existing forms. Environmental niches are distinct in combination of resources and other constraints that are sufficient to support organizational form. Organizational forms, then, are organized activity systems oriented toward exploiting the resources within a niche. Selection pressures may favour or eliminate entire groups of organizations, such as industries, and the changing population distribution of organizations in a society reflects the operation of such selection pressures.