External Control of Organizations: Resource Dependence Perspective

Resource dependence theory was originally a product of Jeffrey Pfeffer, who later was joined by Gerald Salancik (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978). I have given this theory an estimated validity evaluation of five stars; the same importance rating is awarded by organizational behavior-5.29 to be exact (see Miner 2006a, Chapter 19; also Miner 2007, Chapter 25). In contradistinction to these high figures, resource dependence theory receives only a threestar evaluation on practical usefulness. It is essentially a sociological theory and, like most other theories of this genre, does not appear to have generated any meta-analyses. However, numerous positive evaluations exist.