Synonyms
Definition
The study of dynamic changes within organizations.
Introduction
Much of the history of the field of public and nonprofit administration organizations were studied internally in order to answer pressing public and nonprofit management questions. Relevant research topics included bureaucratic structures, group dynamics, and the decision-making process within organizations. The normative goals of organizational theory were to find ways to manipulate structures, group dynamics, and decision-making processes in order to improve organizational performance. The contextual questions in organizational theory tended to focus on the interaction between administrative actors and political actors, issues of regulation, changing policy preferences, and revenue streams. However, scholars like Paul Peterson (1981), Vincent Ostrom (2011), and E.S. Savas (2000) called attention to the varying ways in which local government and nongovernment...
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References
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Ford, M.R. (2016). Population Ecology Theory of Organizations. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_74-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_74-1
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