Donaldson's Neocontingency Model

Donaldson's Neocontingency Model

In his 1995 book "American anti-management theories of organization: A critique of paradigm proliferation", L. Donaldson developed his "Neocontingency Model". Donaldson argues that when a fit exists between (internal or external) contingencies and organization structure, the performance of the organization will be high.
His dynamic model describes a self-correcting process through which organizations move from states of high performance to states of low performance and back again.

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		2 Ludmilla Lecturer, Albania
	Critics of Structural Contingency Theory Critics of structural contingency theory sometimes argue that it is not sensible for organizations to move into fit with their contingencies, because while the organization is changing its structure to fit the contingencies, the contingencies themselves change, so that the organizational structural change does not produce fit. It is sometimes also said against structural contingency theory that organizational managers may not know the fit states of the theory and so cannot change their organization towards it. However, the concept of quasi-fit allows that managers only need to move towards fit for misfit to be reduced and the SARFIT cycle to operate (Donaldson, 2001).