Fit, Equifinality, and Organizational Effectiveness

Fit, Equifinality, and Organizational Effectiveness


GSL 603



Melissa Blankenship





















Fit, equifinality, and organizational effectiveness: A test was written by D. Harold Doty, William H. Glick and George P. Huber in the Academy of Management Journal in December 1993. The research was configurational which is a relative arrangement of parts or elements, or the results from a particular arrangement of parts or components. Both theories were tested to see if in anyway equifinality could be found. Equifinality is defined as having the same affect or result from different events or conditions in which different initial conditions lead to similar effects.
The article focused on two organizational theories of strategy, structure, and process. The first being Miles and Snow’s (1978) theory based on and in-depth cross industry study of a relatively small sample of large companies. The theory that Snow and Miles developed was that t...