Organization Task Environments: Have they Changed Fundamentally over Time?

Abstract

Changes in three task environment dimensions—munificence, dynamism, and complexity—were assessed for manufacturing establishments in 45 established industries and 43 new industries. In analyses of both the established and new industries, all three environmental dimensions tended to decrease over time. Sample comparison, however, indicated that both dynamism and complexity tend to be greater in new industries than established ones. Although the latter finding is consistent with widespread perceptions that “the world” is getting more dynamic and complex over time, the former finding shows that this is not the tendency within individual task environments. Theoretical refinement is thus warranted.