Analyse the following passage and provide an appropriate answer for the…
2023
Analyse the following passage and provide an appropriate answer for the questions that follow.
Demography of organisations, also called population ecology is an interesting field. It proposes that organisational mortality processes depend upon the age and size of the organisation, as well as on characteristics of populations and environments. Moreover, there is evidence of an imprinting process -meaning that environmental conditions at certain early phases in an organisation's development have long-term consequences. In particular, organisations subject to intense competition have elevated mortality hazards at all ages. A central theme is structural inertia, the tendency for organisations to respond slowly relative to the speed of environmental change. A central argument holds that the inertia derives from the very characteristics that make organisations favoured actors in modern society in terms of reliability and (formal) accountability. It follows that changes in an organisation's core features are disruptive and increase mortality hazards, at least in the short-run. Research on this subject tends to support this view. The concept of niche provides a framework of relative environmental variations and competition to population dynamics and segmentation. Much empirical work examines the niches of organisational populations in terms of dimensions of social, political, and economic environments. Most research in this field builds on theories of resource partition and of density dependence. Resource-partitioning theory concerns the relationship between increasing market concentration and increasing proliferation of specialists in mature industries. The key implication of this theory concerns the effects of concentration on the viability of specialist organisations (those that seek to exploit a narrow range of resources). The theory of density-dependent organisational evolution synthesizes ecological and institutional processes. It holds that growth in the number of organisations in a population (density) drives processes of social legitimatization and competition that, in turn, shape the vital rates.
Most top-notch business consultants recommended changing the entire configuration of an organisation's strategy, structure and systems. If the ideas contained in the passage are agreed to, then such a recommendation:
- A.
tends to rejuvenate the organisation.
- B.
tends to make the organisation more aligned to the external environment.
- C.
tends to increase the competitiveness of the organisation by redefining its core competence.
- D.
tends to increase the vulnerability of the organisation.
Attempted by 1 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept: In population-ecology (organisational demography) theory, structural inertia is an organisation's tendency to change slowly, and it stems from the very reliability and formal accountability that make organisations trusted actors. Because of this inertia, altering an organisation's core features — its fundamental strategy, structure, and systems — is disruptive: it raises the organisation's mortality hazard (its risk of failing), at least in the short run.
Application: The recommendation in the question — changing the entire configuration of an organisation's strategy, structure, and systems — is exactly this kind of core-feature change. Applying the passage's own claim, "changes in an organisation's core features are disruptive and increase mortality hazards, at least in the short-run," such a sweeping overhaul raises the organisation's risk of failure — in other words, it increases the organisation's vulnerability.
Checking each option against the passage's own claims:
"tends to rejuvenate the organisation" — assumes restructuring is restorative; the passage instead frames such change as destabilising, not renewing.
"tends to make the organisation more aligned to the external environment" — this describes the niche and resource-partitioning strand of the theory (how a population of organisations fits its environment), not the effect of overhauling one organisation's own core features.
"tends to increase the competitiveness of the organisation by redefining its core competence" — assumes the overhaul quickly pays off competitively; the passage instead says such change first destabilises reliability and accountability, raising failure risk before any competitive gain.
"tends to increase the vulnerability of the organisation" — matches the passage directly: disruption to core features raises mortality hazard, that is, vulnerability, at least in the short run.