The nature and scope of changes in organizations’ external environments is without precedent due to planetary shifts, or major changes in earth’s biophysical systems. Our theories of organizational adaptation lack the capacity to explain what will be needed on behalf of business organizations, and their strategists and managers, to adjust to these shifts. In this essay, we review organizational adaptation theory and explain why it falls short of offering adequate explanations in an era of planetary shifts. We then draw on ecological theories of adaptation, with their focus on social-ecological systems and panarchy, to suggest ways to advance organizational adaptation theory for our times.

由于行星的变化或地球生物物理系统的重大变化，组织外部环境变化的性质和范围尚无先例。我们的组织适应理论缺乏能力来代表企业组织及其战略家和管理者解释为适应这些变化而需要做出的解释。在本文中，我们回顾了组织适应理论，并解释了为什么它在行星变化时代没有提供足够的解释。然后，我们以适应的生态学理论为基础，重点关注社会生态系统和总体制，以提出一些方法来推动当今时代的组织适应理论。