The Evolution of Organizations: Suggestions from Complexity Theory About the Interplay Between Natural Selection and Adaptation
探讨新达尔文主义与适应主义在组织演化中的争论，基于生物学实验新发现，提出组织适应与自然选择可统一的理论修正。
There has been much debate in the management literature between neo-Darwinists (who believe in the natural selection of populations of organizations) and adaptationists (who contend that changes in organization structure and behavior occur in response to the environment). The general thesis of neo-Darwinism is that species are blindly selected for survival by the environment. The latest empirical support for the dominant neo-Darwinism perspective adopted by most biologists is based primarily on the experiments conducted by Salvador Luria who claims to have conclusively demonstrated that genes mutate randomly. Recently, however, biologists have re-examined Luria's research methods and, after replications of his experiments, now question some aspects of the validity of his results. Moreover, there is now new research which provides support for the earlier adaptationist position, namely, the existence of evolutionary drivers and directors existing within self-organizing systems. Of particular importance to the present study is the experimental indication that self-organizing systems play a conscious role in their own evolution. We propose that similar mechanisms or processes operate in organizational adaptation, thus pointing toward a theoretical modification of neo-Darwinism that embraces both adaptation and natural selection in a general, unified theory.