Before leaving this discussion of organizations and their
environment, one concept should be reemphasized: an organization is dependent upon its environment, and as the environment changes, so must the organization if it expects to
remain fully functional. While many organizations exist in a
peaceful and supportive environment, it is not always the
case. In order to achieve and maintain relative harmony with
its environment, an organization must recognize and react to
the realities of that environment. If the organization is a
closed system that either disregards, does not understand, or
rejects the information coming from its environment, it is
doubtful that it will make a reasonable adjustment. If, on the
other hand, the organization is receptive to feedback and
capable of adapting, it will probably continue as a viable
institution. Based on this concept, there is little or no difference between governmental and commercial organizations.
The singular most important change in recent years affecting organization is the growing interdependence of organizations and their environments. In the old Wild West movies,
Fort Apache could lock its gates to the world around it. The
military organizations of today have many more responsibilities to the external environment. The nature of our complex
world suggests that no organization can be an island.