Organizations pursue survival through resistance, self-affirmation, and adaptation

Evidence

The organizational literature makes clear that organizations and their members engage in three general types of behavior to ensure survival: resistance to change, affirmation of organizational necessity, and adaptation to change. — Robert B. McCalla, NATO’s persistence after the cold war, 71

Categorization

• XREF: This taxonomy of organizational survival behaviors connects directly to the reader’s interest in NATO persisting after its founding threat vanished, and could echo institutional persistence literature on e.g. the New Deal agencies. — connects to: Institutions persist past their founding purpose because maintaining them costs less than replacing them.; Alliances may persist through habit and precaution after threats recede — Robert B. McCalla, NATO’s persistence after the cold war, 61; A society’s resilience lies in self-determined capacity to adapt to change — Kyle Whyte, Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and…, 41 (+2 more)
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Related

• Organizations survive by abandoning goals that threaten their existence (similarity 0.88)
• NATO adapts tasks to persist, as organizational resources enable institutional survival. (similarity 0.87)
• Organizations replace accomplished core missions with new tasks to survive. (similarity 0.83)
• Institutions persist past their founding purpose because maintaining them costs less than replacing them. (similarity 0.83)
• NATO’s survival hinges on member states continuing to benefit from it (similarity 0.82)
• Organizations deny environmental change to protect their established roles and resources. (similarity 0.81)
• NATO survived the cold war’s end due to institutionalization, not merely threats (similarity 0.81)
• Mature institutions survive their founding purpose because members prefer sunk costs over new formation (similarity 0.79)
• Alliances can persist and expand purposes after their founding enemy disappears (similarity 0.79)
• Adaptability is a key asset that makes regimes easier to modify than replace (similarity 0.79)
• Alliances with developed organizations survive threats long after they vanish (similarity 0.79)
• NATO positioned itself among rival security organizations to prove its continued relevance (similarity 0.79)
• Explaining alliance persistence requires nonrealist unit-level theory. (similarity 0.78)
• Alliance commitments generate durable domestic constituencies that resist their abandonment. (similarity 0.78)
• Endangered organizations widen memberships but never cede control of their domains. (similarity 0.78)