Resource dependence theory

Resource dependence theory (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978) argues that organizations are not autonomous actors but are fundamentally constrained by their dependence on external actors for critical resources — capital, labor, legitimacy, information. Power in and around organizations flows from control over resources that others need. The theory restores strategic agency to organizational analysis: managers are not merely adapting to environments but actively managing dependencies through mergers, alliances, board interlocks, and political influence. This perspective connects organizational theory to the study of market power and reveals that organizational boundaries are not efficiency solutions but political settlements. The deeper question it raises is whether any organization can ever achieve genuine autonomy, or whether all organizations are permanently entangled in webs of mutual dependence that shape their choices before they make them.