Conceptual Framework of Resource Dependency
Name
Institution
Conceptual Framework of Resource Dependency
Both institutional and technical organizational environments influence a firm’s behavior, efficiency, and effectiveness. Resource Dependence Theory (RDT) attaches an organization to its environment and explains how the external environment of an organization influences its operations to the extent of determining an organization’s choices (Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003). The Resource Dependence Theory is akin to the institutional theory that explains the how organizations may become isomorphic with their environments to the extent that they accept other institutions that their environments generate (Hillman, Withers, & Collins, 2009). According to the Resource Dependence Theory, the external environment shapes organizational operations and the external pressures that a firm experience influence organizational choices.
Maximization of power in organizations defines its success in RDT. The Resource Dependence Theory proposes that firms lacking essential resources will thrive by establishing relationships with other organizations to obtain the needed resources (Hillman, Withers, & Collins, 2009). The relationship would likely be symbiotic (mutual). Such organizations may change their dependence relationships by limiting or minimizing their own dependence or by maximizing dependence of organizations on them (Casciaro & Piskorski, 2005). In perspective, RDT depicts organizations as coalitions that alert their patterns and structures of behaviors to obtain and sustain the needed external resources. To acquire the necessary organizational resources, it is vital to decrease dependence on other organizations or increase the dependency of other organizations on an organization by modifying its power with others.
