Charles Darwin's Ecological Model: The Populations Ecology Model

4. The Populations ecology model uses Charles Darwin’s idea of evolution and natural selection as a metaphor for organizational analysis. This model looks at different populations of organizations and how they compete to survive. Under this model, organizations must strive to obtain the resources needed to survive, and with many shortages, only the strongest ones with access to these resources will remain (59). The unit of analysis in this model is first the need to identify and compete with competitors in the external environment; then, the organizations must adapt to survive and attempt to find a niche. The determinative factor in the populations ecology model is the external environment and how well an organization can handle the changes

This is seen in the concept of co-creation, which in nature is the idea that “the environment of a organism is composed of other organisms” (63). So in dealing with organizations, we must recognize that if the environment of an organization is made of other organizations, then we can determine that these organizations can “influence the nature of their environment and play an active role in shaping their future” (63). If organizations within the same industry work together, they can work together to protect their shared interests, creating cartels. Cartels are a collaboration of organizations that work together to control a market (63). An example of a cartel would be OPEC, or The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which works together to regulate and set oil prices. Along with cartels, there is also the concept of referent organizations, which was conceptualized by Eric Trust when he made the connection that organizations collaborate “because of natural responses to complexity and turbulence in the environment” (64). These referent organizations should work together and adapt to make the turbulence in the external environment work for them. These organizations regulate shareholder relations in the external environment to help stabilize and to promote communication throughout (64). One example of a referent organization would be a group of carpet companies

In Chapter five of “Images of Organization” by Gareth Morgan, he introduces us to the concept of culture in an organization’s external environment. Morgan defines culture as the “patterns of development reflected in a society 's system of knowledge, ideology, values, laws, and day-to-day ritual” (116). Culture differs greatly across the globe, depending on social development, as well as the varying ways of life that different groups of people