Organizational Inertia: Byproduct of Success or Organizational Symptom? Review and Prospects Based on Systematic Examination

Bai Jingkun, Xun Ting, Zhang Zhenzhen

Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 38, Issue 12, pp. 113 - 128 (2016)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.2016.12.009

Abstract

With the increase in environmental uncertainty, organizational inertia has increasingly become a hot topic in organizational theory research. However, there are obvious differences in the understanding of organizational inertia in the academia. Through a literature review, this paper finds that the different logical starting points from different perspectives and the complexity of organizational inertia are the main reasons leading to differences in the research of organizational inertia. Based on the systematic examination method, this paper selects 79 English articles and 24 Chinese articles after collecting domestic and foreign literature of organizational inertia in the last forty years. It takes the two perspectives of environmental selection and organizational adaptation and their integration as the main clue, systematically reviews the conceptual composition, measurement, antecedents and consequences of organizational inertia, and finally points out the shortcomings of the existing research and future research directions. It systematically reviews organizational inertia research for the first time at home and abroad, and provides the basis for further development of theoretical and empirical research.

Keywords

organizational inertia; organizational change; environmental selection; organizational adaptation