“The metaphor suggests that different environments favor different species of organizations based on different methods of organizing and that congruence with the environment is the key to success.”

—  Gareth Morgan, book Images of Organization

Source: Images of Organization (1986), p. 35 (Morgan, 1998)

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Organizational theorist 1943

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“As we look around the organizational world we begin to see that it is possible to identify different species of organization in different kinds of environments. Just as we find polar bears in arctic regions, camels in deserts, and alligators in swamps, we notice that certain species of organization are better ‘‘adapted’’ to specific environmental conditions than others. We find that bureaucratic organizations tend to work most effectively in environments that are stable or protected in some way and that very different species are found in more competitive and turbulent regions, such as the environments of high-tech firms in the aerospace and microelectronics industries.”

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