A number of social scientists inspired by the work of the late Eric Trist have now begun
to develop this view of organizational ecology, investigating the possibility of developing
new patterns of interorganizational relations that can help shape the future in a proactive
way. Building on the observation that these relations emerge as a natural response to
complexity and turbulence in the environment, Trist argued that they should be encouraged
to help make the turbulence more manageable. In several “action projects” he and his
colleagues sought to develop “referent organizations” to regulate relations between
stakeholders in broad-based “domains.” The idea of such domain-based organizations is to
embrace the organization-environment relations of a whole set of constituent organizations
so that what were once external relations-for example, between competing or interdependent
firms or between labor and management-now in some measure become internal relations that
are open to collaborative action. The approach has been applied in a wide variety of settings
to tackle problems of environmental pollution, regional and community economic development,
and in the development of industrial associations. Trist and his colleagues also
encourage the development of informal learning networks that can generate domain-based
exchange and discussion, promote shared appreciations of concerns and problems, facilitate
the emergence of common values and norms, and thus possibly find new solutions to shared
problems.