Environment and Organizational Effectiveness

Abstract

I This research was partially supported by the College of Business Administration, Kent State University and the Office of Research and Projects, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. The authors are indebted to Arlyn Melcher and Anant Neghandi for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Assistance with the statistical analysis was provided by Buddy Myers and Richard Pope. This investigation of environmental complexity is based on a unique conceptual view of organizational environments which distinguishes among broad factors facing many organizations, conditions unique to a system, and interorganizational characteristics. Environmental complexity is viewed as the interaction between environmental risk, dependency, and interorganizational relationships. Research questions concerning complexity in the task environment are investigated in 26 small, rigidly structured social service organizations in a populous midwestern state. Results show that neither complexity nor risk is associated with organizational effectiveness. Both task environment dependency and interorganizational interaction alone and in combination are positively and significantly correlated with effectiveness. Some of the results may be unique to the sample, but a separation of internal and external conditions alters typical interpretations of external impacts. A more careful differentiation among internal, external, and linkage variables is recommended.1

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