Up to now our use of the organismic metaphor has focused on organizations as the key
units of analysis. We have discussed how organizations and their members can be seen as
having different sets of “needs” and examined how organizations can develop patterns of
relations that allow them to adapt to their environment. Survival has been presented as a
problem of adaptation, with contingency theory offered as a means of identifying patterns of
“good fit” and showing how these can be achieved.