Abstract
Power, conflict and managerial politics are characteristics not only of the internal operation of the firm, but of its relationships with the world in which it operates. In these relationships management has to keep the firm at the centre ofseveral necessary streams of action and as these are variable and mobile, the hub itself is both transient and difficult to control. At the same time managers have to act in such a way as to satisfy their sense oforder and control: through the manipulation of environmental constraints, through the processing of demands environmentally generated and through the management of relationships to meet the short-term requirement of certainty and the long-term desire for freedom from dependence and commitment. These activities come together in the quest for survival.
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Notes and References
J. D. Thompson, Organizations in Action (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967) pp. 67–73.
K. E. Weick, The Social Psychology of Organizing (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1969) p. 64.
C. Perrow, Complex Organizations, 2nd edn. (Glenview: Scott, Foresman, 1979) pp. 233–7.
H. E. Aldrich, Organizations and Environments (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1979) p. 329.
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© 1985 Ted Stephenson
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Stephenson, T. (1985). Interorganisational Relationships. In: Management: A Political Activity. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07692-5_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07692-5_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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