An Overview of Four Fundamental Theories of Organizations

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide a basic understanding about the four fundamental theories of organization: Contingency theory, resource dependence theory, institutional theory, and population ecology theory of organizations, and to review in which way these theories differ in a detailed way. Along with a comparison of these theories, this paper aims to provide a general historical summary about them. Base assumptions and standpoints of these theories are overviewed, and main limitations and critiques against these theories are discussed. Besides, a comparison is provided to further explicate these highly acknowledged theories. While all four theories carry a resemblance and may seem to be more valuable if converge, they are fundamentally different from each other. A general review was carried out on some fundamental criteria such as the level of analysis, preferred methodological methods, depiction of organization and success criteria.Keywords: Contingency theory, resource dependence theory, institutional theory, population ecology, organization theory