COMMUNITY ECOLOGY AND EMPLOYMENT DYNAMICS - A STUDY OF LARGE CANADIANORGANIZATIONS, 1985-1992

This article adopts a community ecology approach to study the employme nt dynamics of large Canadian organizations from 1985 to 1992. We cons truct a dynamic model of organization-level employment incorporating o rganizational characteristics, interactions with other organizations i n a productive sector, relationships with other productive sectors in an economy, and aggregate economic indicators. Our results demonstrate the importance of interactions among different productive sectors for understanding employment dynamics of large organizations in a nationa l economy. Furthermore, they illustrate the benefits of uniting organi zational ecology ideas with research on employment dynamics.