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Being More Adaptable |
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Weitzel and Jonsson point out one distinction that differentiates organizations from other living organisms. Like other living organisms, organizations take in "inputs" from their environment (materials, labour, capital and knowledge), transform them into products and services, and then release these "outputs" back into the environment (including goods, services, wages and waste).
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However, biological organisms have life spans that are limited by increasing error variance in their DNA or genetic code. Each time a biological cell replicates, the entire DNA code must be rewritten. Over time, small errors are made which add up to dysfunction and eventually death. But organizations are not constrained by this natural mortality of biological organisms. Since they can alter their "coding", their DNA in effect, an organization can adapt by changing its structures, processes and principles.
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Indeed, the characteristic that can make an organization "organic", is that it can be continuously restructured to better suit or capitalize more fully on its environment - its markets, customers, suppliers and resources. In essence, such an organization is designed by its environment. This is in stark contrast to a bureaucratic organization, which is designed by the power and information needs of its hierarchy.
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Because organizations can adapt to change by changing the inputs they consume, how they transform these inputs, and the outputs they release into the new environment, organic organizations have the potential for immortality. As best as anyone can tell, there is no reason why an organization must ever die. This is why Weitzel and Jonsson have identified organizational decline as a process arising out of a maladaptation of the organization to its environment. Bureaucracies are especially vulnerable on this score, because they are slow or downright unable to adapt rapidly enough to suit their changing environments.
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Weitzel, William., Jonsson, Ellen. "Decline in Organizations: A literature integration and extension." in Administrative Science Quarterly. Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, Cornell University. Ithaca: NY. March, 1989.
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