A human ecological analysis of organizational response to changes in public education policy

Abstract

This article describes research on the response of environmental education centers, such as nature centers, zoos, and museums to recent changes in public education policy in Texas. These changes had the potential to reduce public school field trips to off-campus educational facilities. Five hypotheses are derived from human ecological theory that focus on organizational function, hierarchical integration, resource competition, and organizational capacity as determinants of response to the policy changes. A probit analysis indicated that off-campus environmental education centers were more likely to adapt to the changes if their “key” function was education, if they had a pattern of relatively extensive interaction with other local units, and if they were characterized by higher levels of “excess capacity.”