Changes Around and Within Organisations

By definition, the environment provides the context in which the organisation operates. If we accept the view that an organisation is in constant relationship with its environment, it follows that macro-st ructural changes of society affect the behaviour of the organisation and its members. In the last decades, the dramatically changed environment has played a crucial role in the organisational developments in the former Eastern bloc countries. Transition to the democratic society in these countries provides cont ext for unpacking the impact of dynamic environment and speculate how this affects the organisations. This is an important issue also because in parallel with th e transition period, a globally interesting period witnessed several emerging industries based on knowledge and more intensive use of human capital. The political decisions made in the last century led to the formation of some new states which, having disappeared in World War II emerged again in the 1990s. In many countries it can be argued that fifty years of communist ideology and practice have had a marked effect upon organisations and their members, which in consequence appear to be unable to adapt to the current environmental conditions of western corporatism. The communist way, born with the Russian October Revolution in 1917, brought with it a set of clearly articulated human values and behaviours based mainly on principles of socialist realism. The year 1991 marked the beginning of a large-scale transition at cultural, individual, institutional and societal levels in the Soviet bloc countries. Environmental factors have so intensively affected the functioning of organisations in the former Eastern bloc countries that it is appropriate to refer to the transition. Hood, Vahlne, and Kilis (1997) suggested the following: ‘Transition’ has become a key

Business · Business Strategy and Innovation · Leadership, Human Resources, Global Affairs · Management and Organizational Studies

• Understanding Radical Organizational Change

  Royston Greenwood, C R Hinings•Academy of Management Review•1996

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• Organizational population dynamics and social change

  Michael T Hannan•European Sociological Review•1988

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