Effects of Environmental Change On Executive Attention & Initiatives: Analysis of Auto Industry Letters To Shareholders 1963-1987

The ability of organizations to adapt to environmental change has been a central question oforganization theory since the origins of the field, but fundamental theoretical confusion remains:Organizational scholars see widely divergent patterns, running the gamut from neo-classicaleconomists who see efficient diffusion of adaptive practices to organizational ecologists who vieworganizations as unchanging even in the face of environmental change. These and several otherapparently contradictory schools of thought -- contingency theory, problemistic search, threat ridigity,and strategic choice theories -- are supported by extensive bodies of theory and empirical findings.In this project I explore the possibility that contradictory findings may be reconciled by focus onthe timing of response. The project, a three-decade study of the automobile industry in periods ofboth relative calm and severe environmental change, is motivated in part by McKinley's lament "ofthe static quality of research in this area," and his call "to move toward more dynamic models."(1993:6). I attempt to document the effect of severe environmental change upon various outcomes:executive attention and intention, presented here, and organizational actions and products, to bepresented elsewhere.