Institutions in Turbulent Environments

This study is concerned with the way organizations of a particular sort respond to turbulences within their environments. The study tests available theory concerning organizational responses to environmental turbulence with particular reference to the institutional disability sector, and seeks to modify theory accordingly. During the 1980s, the intellectual disability field underwent significant reform as a consequence of changes in the underlying philosophy of care, in administrative structures and processes, in the relative power of interest groups, and in the treatment and care regimes of the intellectually disabled. This study analyzes the adaptive responses of Mayday Hills Training Centre to the turbulence of its environment. The organization responded to changes in its environment by increasing its domain flexibility through a range of strategies: enhancing its political alignment through increased internal differentiation of its management function; increasing innovativeness through decentralization and internal integration associated with product development; enhancing resource exploitation by merger with critical parts of the task environment; and by enhancing cultural alignment.