The biological philosophy: ‘changing organisms’

Aaron C.T. Smith, James Skinner and Daniel Read

Chapter 4 in Philosophies of Organizational Change, 2026, pp 78-98 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Chapter 4 examines the biological philosophy, which suggests that organizations, industries and sectors ‘live’ and endure vulnerabilities like any fragile, mortal organism. It explains that the biological philosophy houses two major theories. First, the life-cycle model maps the developmental progress of individual organizations, and second, the Darwinian concept of evolution by natural selection describes the process of environmental adaptation and change. Also, based on a combination of these theories, the biological metaphor of an ‘ecosystems’ approach to organizational change has also experienced a resurgence as technological change has increased the importance of networks and cooperation. The chapter acknowledges that while the ideas that organizations—and the populations of the industries that contain them—grow (life cycle) and adapt (evolution), offering useful metaphors, there remains challenges in translating biological thinking into tangible change action. The chapter also reframes biological models as dynamic heuristics, emphasizing anti-fragility, co-evolution and real-time adaptation within socio-technical ecosystems. These perspectives suggest that resilience and renewal emerge not from resisting volatility, but from designing organizations to harness it.

Keywords: Biological; Evolution; Life Cycle; Ecosystem; Organism; Anti-Fragility; Co-Evolution; Resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035372164
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