THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONS - SUGGESTIONS FROM COMPLEXITY THEORY ABOUT THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN NATURAL-SELECTION AND ADAPTATION

There has been much debate in the management literature between neo-Da rwinists (who believe in the natural selection of populations of organ izations) and adaptationists (who contend that changes in organization structure and behavior occur in response to the environment). The gen eral thesis of neo-Darwinism is that species are blindly selected for survival by the environment. The latest empirical support for the domi nant neo-Darwinism perspective adopted by most biologists is based pri marily on the experiments conducted by Salvador Luria who claims to ha ve conclusively demonstrated that genes mutate randomly. Recently, how ever, biologists have re-examined Luria's research methods and, after replications of his experiments, now question some aspects of the vali dity of his results. Moreover, there is now new research which provide s support for the earlier adaptationist position, namely, the existenc e of evolutionary drivers and directors existing within self-organizin g systems. Of particular importance to the present study is the experi mental indication that self-organizing systems play a conscious role i n their own evolution. We propose that similar mechanisms or processes operate in organizational adaptation, thus pointing toward a theoreti cal modification of neo-Darwinism that embraces both adaptation and na tural selection in a general, unified theory.