ORGANIZATIONS IN CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS - THE CASE OF EAST-GERMAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS

Two periods of radical political-economic change in the former East Ge rmany illuminate dynamics of organization-environment relationships th at generally are hidden from view. Historical, qualitative, and survey data from a longitudinal comparative study of 78 orchestras in four n ations show that the contexts of East German orchestras changed signif icantly when the socialist regime took power after World War II, and t hen again in 1990 when that regime fell. Socialist rule only modestly affected orchestras' institutional features, however; they continued t o reflect centuries-old German musical traditions. The collapse of soc ialism in 1990, by contrast, provoked differentiation among orchestras -some adapted successfully to the new political-economic context, but others floundered. Successful adaptation was found to be a joint funct ion of an orchestra's prior strength as an organization and the kinds of leadership initiatives taken by orchestra leaders and players. Over all, the findings suggest that the size and character of environmental effects depend on the degree to which contextual changes alter (a) th e strength of the link between organizational actions and resources ob tained (resource contingency) and (b) organizations' latitude to manag e their own affairs (operational autonomy).(.)