The Causal Texture of Organizational Environments

A main problem in the study of organizational change is that the environmental contexts in which organizations exist are themselves changing, at an increasing rate, and towards increasing complexity. This point, in itself, scarcely needs laboring. Nevertheless, the characteristics of organizational environments demand consideration for their own sake, if there is to be an advancement of understanding in the behavioral sciences of a great deal that is taking place under the impact of technological change, especially at the present time. This chapter is offered as a brief attempt to open up some of the problems; it stems from a belief that progress will be quicker if a certain extension can be made to current thinking about systems.