Under the background of theoretical research on organizational management, there are mainly two research modes or paths.

1. The organization is considered as a closed system, and the influence of external environment on the organization is hardly considered. The typical theory is Fa Yueer's.

Management process research, Weber's bureaucratic administration, Barnard's manager management function, incentive theory.

2. Organization is an open system, which is inextricably linked with the external environment and influenced by external environmental factors. The influence of environment on organizations and the interaction between organizations and their environment have gradually formed contingency school, population ecology school, resource dependence school, institution school and evolution school. Today, I will introduce the resource dependence theory. 1978, the book "External Control of Organizations: A Perspective of Resource Dependence" co-authored by Pfeffer and Salancik marked the formal formation of resource dependency theory. In this book, the two authors express the following views:

No organization is completely self-sufficient, and all the resources it needs cannot be generated within the organization. In order to survive, organizations must obtain necessary resources through other organizations in the environment;

The demand for resources constitutes the organization's dependence on the outside world, and the scarcity and importance of resources determine the organization's dependence on the environment;

③ Organizations cannot operate in isolation, but must interact with external actors who control the environment and resources. This ability of communication and negotiation determines the survival opportunity of the organization. Faced with the uncertainty of resource acquisition and organizational dependence, organizations constantly change their own structures and behavior patterns in order to acquire and maintain resources from the environment and minimize dependence;

④ Organizations can take various measures to deal with dependence. For example, it can form inter-organizational dependence by cooperating with other organizations, and it can also change and control the external environment through such non-market strategic activities.

Summarized as follows:

The distribution of power and control in an organization will be directly affected by the external environment, which is manifested in both the demand of the environment for the organization and the energy output of the organization to the environment. The external environment of the organization has obvious characteristics of uncertainty, restriction and variability, which determines that the relationship between the focus organization and the external environment is also unstable. This instability mainly depends on the distribution of external resources, the degree of restrictions by laws and policies, and the degree of changes in external demand and supply. The organization filters the external information through the information filtering system and inputs it into the decision-making center of the organization. The use of information by decision-making centers will be influenced by factors such as the frequency of information infiltration, the authority of information sources and the experience of similar information in history. At the same time, the uncertainty of the environment also forces organizations to pay more attention to external forces and control, which leads to the external expansion of organizations.

It is precisely because enterprises can't meet the demand only by internal resources that they need to obtain resources from outside, interact with external members, exchange and even control external resources. To this end, enterprises will take many measures. Pfeffer and Salancik mentioned the example of chain directors in their books. An important role of chain directors of enterprises is to connect enterprises with other enterprises, so that they can obtain necessary information and resources, and even reach cooperation with other enterprises. Enterprises will also hire some people with government work experience as supervisors or employees to obtain some useful information and resources. For another example, some entrepreneurs are keen to restore many formal or informal networks in order to obtain resources from outside.

Drees and Heugens (20 13) summarized and extended the application of resource dependence theory, and thought that when the research problem involves the need to obtain resources from outside, such as the above problems, the resource dependence theory can be considered as the theoretical basis.

refer to

Dresden, J.M. Howkins, P. P. (20 13). Synthesis and expansion of resource dependence theory: a meta-analysis. Journal of Management, 39(6), 1666- 1698.

Pfeffer, J. Saranchik Company (1978). External control of organizations: from the perspective of resource dependence. Stanford University Press.