External Adaptation

Abstract

The central concept in this chapter is external adaptation—an inextricable element of strategic leadership architecture which, together with strategic direction and integration of the collective, affects organisational action and guides it towards the expectations and outcomes that contribute to the organisation’s survival. The chapter illustrates the role of environmental turbulences, institutional context, and institutional pressures in shaping organizational and leader behavior. Strategic leaders have to adapt their actions to the basic characteristics of the organisation’s environment. Their task is to find a way to get the organisation harmonized and almost imbued with its overall surroundings, both present and future. External adaptation, therefore, is a link created by strategic leaders between the organisation and its environment.