The perspective has created many interesting insights. For example, in critiquing the
“adaptation” view of organization the population ecologists have highlighted the importance
of inertial pressures that often prevent organizations from changing in response to their
environment. Specialization of production plants and personnel, established ideas and
“mind-sets” of top managers, inadequate information, the difficulty of restructuring
technology and personnel in unionized plants, the force of tradition, barriers to entry created
by legal, fiscal, and other circumstances, and many other factors may make it impossible for
organizations to engage in timely and efficient changes. Faced with new kinds of competition
or environmental circumstances, whole industries or types of organization may come and go.
Large traditional steel mills may give way to small, technologically advanced competitors.
Department stores may give way to specialty stores in shopping malls or to “factory outlets.”
Coal mines and oil companies may give way to entrepreneurial solar energy firms.
Bureaucracies may give way to more flexible project-oriented firms, or “market driven”
competitors. Firms offering traditional products and services throughout the economy may
find themselves eliminated by information technology companies serving customers in a
completely different way. Public sector organizations in government, education, or health
care may find once secure niches completely eroded by more nimble service-oriented firms
in the private sector.