The key to survival is acquiring resources from the environment, which is composed of other organizations. The problem is that the environment is unstable and undependable. Past organizational research has mostly focused on the problems of using resources in other words, on processes within a single organization. But resources must be acquired before they can be used, and this involves exchange with the environment.
Internal processes are more visible, hence easier to study.
A persisting research bias attributes causality to the actions of individuals, rather than to context. In particular, organizations are assumed to reflect the preferences of their leaders. A good deal of research, however, contradicts this view. By contrast, efficiency is an internal standard. The organizational environment could be defined as every event that affects the org., but this would not be a useful definition.