ABSTRACT

Evolutionary biology has developed the theoretical foundations of the ecological approach to study animal reproduction, growth and death. In addition to evolutionary biology, ecology has also surfaced in many social sciences disciplines: anthropology, sociology, economics and geography. Ecology focuses on populations of organizations and examines the effect that the environment, market forces, technology, natural resources and geographical locations have on organizational change and development processes. Organizational ecology uses the Darwinian evolutionary perspective to explain the demographic process that contributes to its life cycles, including founding or birth, growth and death over the internal adaptation process of change. In human ecological theory, technology forms the basis for organizational competition, survival, resistance and change. The evolutionary theory describes a series of sequential stages of evolution in organizational development and societal changes over time. The impact of environmental changes upon the current performance of the organization depends on whether these changes are minor or significant.