Perspectives in Organization Theory: Resource Dependence, Efficiency, and Ecology.

: Development of alternative models of organizations plays an important role in the development of organization theory. While many views on organizations have received varying degrees of attention, three perspectives have recently been the object of increasing interest, the resource dependence, efficiency, and ecological perspectives. This paper reviews the assumptions, theories and research of each perspective. It then integrates them by showing that a population perspective provides a meta-theoretical framework within which the other perspectives can be interpreted as guidelines. (Author)