many organizations die, never going through a rebirth or failing in the process of
reorientation. Rather than placing all of the blame on the organization’s inability to
effectively adapt, Hannan and Freeman (1977) argue that environmental selection is just
as strong a force, if not stronger in explaining organizational survival. This is because
organizations’ structural inertia often constrains their ability to change, leaving only those
originally best-suited to environmental demands able to survive. The only way an
organizational field evolves is through the birth of novel organizational forms and the
subsequent death of obsolete forms, usually at the spurring of changed environmental
demands. This theory drastically reduces the role and power of management to affect
their organization’s strategy and the effectiveness of formal strategic management
processes. While this viewpoint is rather harsh, Hannan and Freeman (1977)
persuasively argue that environmental determinism does impact organizational survival
and that a tempered view of the power of executive action is warranted.
Punctuated change. Tushman and Romanelli (1985) offer a theory of punctuated
organizational change that helps bridge the adaptationist and selection theories,
advancing the now commonly-espoused notion that organizations can and, indeed, do go
through strategic reorientations in order to realign their strategies, structures, power and
systems to the demands of their environment. These relatively infrequent dramatic
periods of organizational change punctuate longer periods of incremental adaptation, or
convergence toward the organization’s chosen strategic orientation. The environment
still selects out organizations that do not reorient when needed, choose an inappropriate
strategy, or is not able to successfully implement their strategy (Tushman & Romanelli,
1985). However, punctuated change theory puts strategic control back in the hands of the