Question

You have just been appointed the Chief of Police of a small municipal police department (30 officers) located within a large metropolitan area. This municipality has many of the same issues as the larger metropolitan area. The former chief was fired recently over allegations of corruption, along with several officers. You have been given free rein to structure the organization however you deem fit. Choose two of these theories, resource dependency theory, contingency theory and institutional theory and define them and discuss how those theories would influence your decision-making process when deciding how to structure your department.

Answer 1

I have chosen resource dependency theory (RDT) and Contingency Theory which shall be explained as follows:

Resource Dependency Theory (RDT): This theory was developed by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Gerald R. Salancik in 1970’s which says that resources are key to organisational success and that access and control over resources is a basis of power. Resource dependence theory (RDT) is the study of how the external resources of organizations affect the behaviour of the organization. The underlining principles of RDT are:

• Organizations depend on resources.
• These resources ultimately originate from an organization's environment.
• The environment, to a considerable extent, contains other organizations.
• The resources one organization needs are thus often in the hand of other organizations. Legally independent organizations can therefore depend on each other.
• Resources are a basis of power.
• Power and resource dependence are directly linked

Contingency Theory: This theory was first proposed by Austrian Psychologist Fred Edward Fielder in 1964. A contingency theory is an organizational theory that claims that there is no best way to organize a corporation, to lead a company, or to make decisions. Instead, the optimal course of action is contingent (dependent) upon the internal and external situation.

Having explained both the theories, now we will examine how these theories can be applied to our current situation or case study. By applying RDT , we can utilize the available resources (here resources are manpower) to the best of their abilities with a choice to restructure the entire organization.