Organizations deny environmental change to protect their established roles and resources.

Evidence

The first organizational response, and the first likely to be tried, is resistance to change. Organizational self-interest can be served by denying that there has been any major change in the organization’s environment. Such denial allows the organization to claim that its services continue to be essential and that no change is needed. Additionally, organizations develop their preferred view of their roles and procedures to carry out those roles, what James Wilson referred to as “critical tasks.” Organizations work to protect these tasks from outside interference, even resisting new roles and missions if they undermine existing ones. Denial also helps bureaucrats protect, and even expand, organizational resources (personnel and budgets). — Robert B. McCalla, NATO’s persistence after the cold war, 71

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the reading purpose: denial-of-change is a mechanism that lets institutions like NATO persist past the disappearance of their founding enemy. — connects to: Organizations hide harm by denying consequences, then by denying responsibility for them. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4012; Denying dependence on nature sustains non-sustainable resource use. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 104; Low authoritarians abandon environmental principles when their own jobs are threatened — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1559 (+8 more)
• DEFINE: Explains Wilson’s concept of ‘critical tasks’ that organizations protect from outside interference.

Broader Connections

• Organizations hide harm by denying consequences, then by denying responsibility for them. #expands (0.82) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4012
• Climate-change denial organizations were directly funded by tobacco and fossil-fuel interests #exemplifies (0.80) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 71
• Front groups masquerade as grassroots citizens to weaken environmental protections #exemplifies (0.79) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2717
• Anti-government ideology independently motivated climate-change denial beyond industry funding #qualifies (0.78) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 74
• Willful ignorance of product misuse lets industries deny responsibility for harm. #exemplifies (0.77) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1100
• Industry and government rebut environmental racism claims by denying any racist intent #exemplifies (0.76) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 220
• Denying dependence on nature sustains non-sustainable resource use. #expands (0.75) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 104
• Low authoritarians abandon environmental principles when their own jobs are threatened #qualifies (0.74) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1559
• Mainstream environmental groups oppose tribal land return to retain management say #exemplifies (0.74) — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 688
• Environmental organizations detached ecological damage from population growth as they bureaucratized #complicates (0.73) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2575
• Regulatory opposition shifts from repealing laws to starving enforcement agencies of resources #exemplifies (0.72) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1528