The Dynamics of Organizations

Abstract

This chapter examines complex organizations as a distinctive type of corporate unit. The macrolevel environment of organizations is examined first, with an emphasis on the structural and cultural fields of organizations. With respect to cultural fields, the differentiation of culture, the degree of integration of culture, the rate and circulation of generalized symbolic media, the ideologies and meta-ideologies, and the cultural logics are emphasized. With regard to structural fields, emphasis is on the modes and mechanism of integration among organizations—that is, segmentation, differentiation, interdependencies (via exchange, mobility, overlap, and embeddedness), power, and domination are examined. Then, the resource niches of organizations are assessed, drawing from theory in organizational ecology. Next, microlevel environments of organizations are examined, with special emphasis on emotional arousal and need states, identity dynamics, exchange payoffs, and group inclusion. Then, the mesolevel environments of organizations are explored, emphasizing the effects of other corporate units on organizations (groups, communities, other organizations). The effects of selection pressures and resource niches on organizational foundings are stressed. The dynamics of groups within organizations as an environment of any organization are examined. Structural dynamics within organizations are then explored, emphasizing organizational size and division of labor, centralization and decentralization of organizations, incentive systems in organizations, organizational culture, expectation states and emotional arousal, hierarchy and stratification, and organizational change. The chapter closes with a series of abstract theoretical principles on organizational dynamics within micro- and macroenvironments.