Hannan and Freeman examine the ecology of organizations by exploring the competition for resources and by trying to account for rates of entry and exit and for the diversity of organizational forms. They show that the destinies of organizations are determined more by impersonal forces than by the intervention of individuals.

Drawing on the research of more than 50 influential international scholars, this extensive interdisciplinary survey consolidates and evaluates what is known and not known about organizations, and critically examines how we learn about and study them. Contributors include 50 influential international scholars. Contributions represent the most important contemporary perspectives on organizations, including networks, ecology and technology. Each topic is covered at three levels of organization: intraorganizational, organizational, and interorganizational. Chapters structured around five common elements for ease of use.

This book provides a timely and comprehensive response to the widely acknowledged serious failings in our current knowledge of organizational leadership and culture, providing an ecologically inspired approach which unifies knowledge and practice across all of the pivotal organisational elements of leadership, culture, teamwork, creativity, complexity and wisdom. Drawing on case studies from Australia and New Zealand, Branson and Marra argue that just as ecosystems are systems of connected elements through which the energy needed to maintain the health of the system must readily flow, an organisation is also a connected system that equally requires a healthy flow of energy in order to achieve its core purpose. Their theory of organizational ecology describes how organizational connectivity, as revealed by the quality of the relationships among the people and the parts of the organization, provides the conduit through which the essential energy (in the form of knowledge, information, ideas, innovation, and support sharing) must flow. Through the application of the theory of organizational ecology, Branson and Marra illustrate how a leader must grow their leadership knowledge and wisdom in order to develop the organization's people and culture so that it is fully able to accomplish the desired vision, mission and core purpose.

Many managers and consultants have academic backgrounds in business administration and are trained in contemporary management methods that focus on decision making and economic efficiency. The question is: Are these academic methods the best to further the development of society as well as organizations?

Accounting literature has viewed sustainability in terms of social, economic and environmental performances. There have been concerns that the relationship between sustainability, accounting and organizational performance cannot be explained unless we can deduce patterns of administrative behaviour that chronicle management practices. Ecology, Sustainable Development and Accounting argues that, despite the broader social and economic development dimensions of sustainability and the limitations of its extension to corporate and organizational behaviour; an ecological framework is capable of providing the overall societal and community chronologies that describe corporate sustainable operations. Drawing examples from international development and federal government organizations, this book documents the link between ecology, corporate sustainable development, and sustainability accounting and reporting. It draws together the literature from several disciplines to elaborate the contribution of the ecological approach to sustainable development in the accounting literature. This book will be of particular interest to students, academics and practitioners in the areas of environmental studies, ecological economics, sustainable development studies, and social and environmental accounting. The sociological and anthropological perspectives make this book the first of its kind to apply the population ecology of sociology to both the sustainability and accounting literature.

Business ecology is a new field that synthesizes centuries of cultural wisdom, a close observation of natural systems, and proven business success strategies, such as strategic planning and total quality management. It emulates nature's systems design to provide a harmonious, relationship-oriented approach that reveals how your organization really works. This book applies these principles to help you integrate profitability, stakeholder relations, and environmental performance ¦ giving your organization the natural edge in emerging ecological economy. Business ecology measures not just financial but overall viability by revealing vital flows and relationships that sustain your business. It is a lens for seeing those intangible elements of your organization's design -- such as core values, value-creation cycles, and innovative thinking ¦ that are essential factors shaping its success. The Business Ecology Network (BEN), founded in 1995, is a catalyst for life-sustaining enterprise. BEN is a learning community for leaders and managers who want to apply a new way of thinking ¦ business ecology ¦ to create new, sustainable opportunities for their businesses and non profit organizations. Visit the BEN web page at http://naturaledge.org.

The proliferation of giant multi-organizational agencies in the last decade has fostered a rethinking of inter-organizational interactions. By synthesizing emerging planning theories with the most recent research in the field, How Organizations Act Together offers a unique and comprehensive perspective on how modern organizations interact. From missions to the moon to management and modern public policy, Alexander unravels the complexities of interorganizational coordination, providing students and scholars with the tools for understanding.

The term Facilities Management has become global but fraught with confusion as to what the term signifies. For some, notably in the USA, Facilities Management remains a discipline of human ecology. Elsewhere the term has become conflated with an alternative meaning: providing or outsourcing the provision of various services essential to the operation of particular buildings. This volume redresses that imbalance to remind Facilities Management of its roots, presenting evidence of Facilities Management success stories that engage the wider objectives of the organizations they serve, and engaging students, scholars and critical practitioners of general management with an appreciation of the power and influence of physical space and its place in the theory and practice of organizations. This book includes management perspectives from outside the field to ensure that the issues raised are seen in an organizational and management context, informing debate within the Facilities Management fraternity. It draws on human ecology and the perspective of the firm as, itself, an intra-organizational ecology of social constructs. The ecology of a firm is not restricted to the firm’s boundaries. It extends to wider relationships between the firm and its stakeholders including, in an age of outsourced building services, the Facilities Management supply chain. This volume offers arguments and evidence that managing such constructs is a key role for Facilities Management and an important participant in the provision of truly usable spaces.