Organizational Adaptation
Authors: Sarta Andrew , Vergne Jean-Philippe , Durand Rodolphe 
Published: September 2018

Organizational adaptation is a ubiquitous concept in management and organization research. Discussed in many theories, sometimes under different labels, the notion of adaptation is related to organizations being congruent to the environments within which they operate. Research traditions including behavioral theory (see A Behavioral Theory of the Firm [Cyert and March 1963, cited under Organizations and Environmental Fit]) contingency theory as explained in “Differentiation and Integration in Complex Organizations” (Lawrence and Lorsch 1967, cited under Organizations and Environmental Fit), population ecology (see The Population Ecology of Organizations [Hannan and Freeman 1977, cited under Adaptation versus Selection]), institutional theory elaborated upon in both “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony” (Meyer and Rowan 1977) and “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields” (DiMaggio and Powell 1983 (both cited under Constraining Forces to Adaptation]), resource dependence (see The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective [Pfeffer and Salancik 1978, cited under Constraining Forces to Adaptation]), and evolutionary economics (see An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change [Nelson and Winter 1982, cited under Adaptation versus Selection]) all address organizational adaptation—though they emphasize different mechanisms. Adaptation, regarded as the strategic choice that organizations make, is often contrasted with the notion of selection driven by the determinism imposed by environments (see “Organizational Adaptation: Strategic Choice and Environmental Determinism” [Hrebiniak and Joyce 1985, cited under Negotiating with Environments in the Adaptation Process]). Adaptive organizations are those able to obtain congruence both within organizations, reflected as congruence in internal functions and strategies, and across organizations, reflected as congruence with the needs of the external environment. The form of adaptation is also particularly relevant. Organizational theory has viewed adaptation as a state, as an ability, and as a process. States of adaptation discuss stability and adaptation at points in time. From states of adaptation, adaptive abilities determine the impetus of adaptation and the locus of adaptation within organizations. Finally, the adaptation processes describe the means by which organizations adapt the challenges they face in negotiating new positions within environments. Research has covered each of these areas and this article is organized primarily around forms of adaptation to elaborate on the ways in which it has been viewed by organizational theory and strategy scholars. Research traditions examining organizational adaptation have not always aligned, however. Each research tradition seeks to explain different outcomes, from survival to performance to change. Thus, across theoretical traditions, the adaptation construct has been measured in many different ways—and often not as congruence with the external environment. In fact, this represents one of the challenges that recent research has identified as holding back progression of the adaptation research agenda. As such, this bibliography concludes with a section on issues in adaptation research in order to assist researchers in pursuing research in this area.