The Vortical Environment: The Fifth in the Emery-Trist Levels of Organizational Environments

Abstract

The paper develops a conceptual scheme that has not been developed to extend the Emery-Trist levels of organizational environments to afifth level consistent with premises laid in their milestone paper (Emery & Trist, 1965). The mounting contemporary evidence that can be observed in the salience of maladaptive responses to turbulent environments is the second reason for undertaking this challenge. More specifically, it is argued that the prevalence of stalemate, polarization, and monothematic dogmatism, the second-order maladaptive responses to the turbulent environment, leads to a frozen or a clinched order of connectedness as well as that of unevenly dynamic turbulent conditions. This approach facilitates the articulation of a different causal texture of an organizational environment than the previous four levels (placid random, placid clustered, disturbed reactive, and turbulent).