This work explores how external constraints affect organizations and provides insights for designing and managing organizations to mitigate these constraints. All organizations are dependent on the environment for their survival.

"Two of the best minds in the business, Pfeffer and Salancik crafted this powerful argument that remains timely and timeless. That's the true test of a classic. The External Control of Organizations is a trusted, durable, evocative work." --Karl E. Weick, Rensis Likert Distinguished University Professor of Organizational Behavior and Psychology, University of Michigan Business School
"Launching the resource dependence theory of organizations, this influential work was the first to recognize the power of the wider social-political environment as a force shaping organizational structure and behavior. Recognizing that all organizations must acquire resources from the environment as a condition of their survival, Pfeffer and Salancik demonstrate how resource dependence gives rise to power problems and, potentially, to political solutions." --W. Richard Scott, Stanford University