Administrative Turnover as a Response to Unmanaged Organizational Interdependence

Abstract

A test was made of the Thompson-Zald hypothesis that succession of leadership is a response to organizational problems. Turnover of university department heads was found to be an interactive function of the paradigm development of the field, the resource interdependence among departmental members, and the turbulence of the historical period of an administrator's headship. The results were interpreted as consistent with the Pfeffer-Salancik theory of organizational control as a mechanism for aligning an organization with its environment.