The interdependency of a system and its environment was highly visible in the early 1980s when Chrysler Corporation was fighting to keep its head above water and avoid bankruptcy. Chrysler's dilemma was to a large degree created by its environment-ag gressive foreign competition, OPEC nations that had run up the price of gasoline during the 1970s, and the U.S. government's de termination to fight inflation by keeping interest rates high. Such environmental forces had hit hard at Chrysler's product line, which, through most of the 1970s, was made up of large, expensive, high fuel-consuming automobiles. Although General Motors and Ford faced the same environment, they had a larger volume of sales over which to spread the investment of billions of dollars necessary to retool and produce smaller and more efficient cars. GM and Ford also had substantially stronger financial positions. So Chrysler was clearly affected by its environment. But interestingly, the rela tionship between Chrysler and its environment was two-way. Sup pliers, the state of Michigan, the United Automobile Workers union, and the federal government (by way of loan guarantees) were all affected by Chrysler's problems. While few organizations have the impact on their environment of a Chrysler Corporation, the fact remains