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Organizations as Organisms
Matt Jenkins
Abstract
The City of Healdsburg serves as a basis for a case study on the metaphor Organizations
as Organisms. Three significant changes within the municipality that have occurred within the
last five to twenty years are identified and discussed, along with changes in the public’s primary
concerns. The way in which the Police Department specifically adapted to these environmental
Introduction
which talks about organizational fitness and adaptation as a living system. In comparing
organizations to organisms, he found that organizational goals and objectives are based on the
idea of survival (Morgan, 2006, p. 34). The metaphor suggests employees have a complex set of
needs and that management must be concerned with achieving alignments and good fits with the
The City of Healdsburg is a small, rural community of 11,700 residents nestled in the
Sonoma County's (California) wine country. In recent years, it has gained notoriety for its small-
town charm, world-class cuisine, and high-quality wines, routinely ranking at the top of places to
visit lists. However, this was not always the case. Before a decision in 1982 to pursue tourism
as an economic base, the city was impoverished with many of the downtown business boarded
up and no solid tax base (American Institute of Architects, 1982). Over the next fifteen years, the
focused on tourism for economic development, and today, the local economy relies heavily upon
tourism and the associated revenues to support the infrastructure, public safety departments, and
The successful focus on tourism has resulted in other significant changes. The housing
market shifted, and many homes were purchased as second homes by those vacationing in or
retiring in Healdsburg. As a result, demand increased while supply decreased driving the costs
ORGANIZATIONS AS ORGANISMS 4
of housing up. According to Zillow (2018), the median single-family home price is $864,000,
which is well above what the vineyard workers, teachers, waiters, and others can afford. Voter
imposed growth restrictions that were enacted in 2000 and limit residential development to thirty
permits a year, compound the problem. The building cap created a financial disincentive for
developers to build housing that is affordable to working-class families (Garofoli, 2015). It also
resulted in multifamily apartment complexes being converted into high-end condos for rent or
sale.
Department needed to adapt to the environment changing around it. As the City became more
affluent, crime changed. The City saw an overall decrease in reportable crime (Uniform Crime
Reports, 2018). With fewer crimes being reported, police officers had fewer exposure incidents
to develop their skills and raised the likelihood that officers would seek opportunities to work for
an agency that was busier and had more to offer. Recognizing these issues, the department
administration looked for opportunities to meet the needs of the public and department members.
With the hiring of a police chief in 2002, the department began to adopt a community-oriented
issues in the community. The philosophy change was a significant departure from the previous
response of “hook-and-book.” Each incident was looked at singularly and thought of as resolved
implemented a downtown foot patrol officer and a school community policing officer. Both
positions were designed to meet the needs of the community at the time – the downtown officer
helping to create a vibrate and safe downtown business district that was beginning to flourish,
ORGANIZATIONS AS ORGANISMS 5
and the school community policing officer to combat a rise gang-related issues in the schools. In
looking at the additions of these positions through the lens of organizations as an organism
metaphor, management was looking to satisfy the internal needs of the department with the
needs of the community – a fundamental premise of contingency theory. The positions provided
additional opportunities for officers and provided a stepping stone for future promotions. The
positions later gave way to budget cuts and other department needs, as the department looked to
Like many other jurisdictions in California and across the country, Healdsburg has
experienced an increase in its transient population. From 2016 to 2017, there was a twenty
while the number for Sonoma County is down (Windsor and Rose, 2017). According to the
Healdsburg Police Department, transients tell them that they come to Healdsburg because it is
safe and because they collect more money and items from visitors and residents than in other
areas of the county. The transient population brings its unique challenges for a police
department. Many suffer from mental health issues for which criminal prosecution is not the
answer. However, officers are not social workers or psychiatrists, yet the public expects the
police department to respond to nuisance issues that the transients create, including garbage,
encampments, noise, and alcohol complaints. The department not yet found homeostasis
between the needs of the community and the transient populations; however, dialogue continues
The dialogues have been made possible through the evolution of the department’s
community-oriented policing philosophy. In 2010, a new police chief was hired, and he was the
catalyst for the department to actively seek participation in community engagement events. Up
ORGANIZATIONS AS ORGANISMS 6
until that time, the department would be invited to a handful of events a year, where one or two
employees would attend. Under the new direction, sergeants and command staff actively sought
out groups to meet with on a monthly basis in addition to events that the department was invited.
Today, the department participates in approximately 30 events per year. Not only has the
engagement been instrumental in conversing about local issues, but it has also created a high
level of trust with the community. This more evident in February 2014, when officers were
attempting to arrest a suspect when the suspect pulled out a gun and committed suicide. The
leading headline in the newspaper read, "Man shot dead admin confrontation with Healdsburg
Police" (The Press Democrat, 2014). The potential for public outcry and resistance was high in
light of the shooting death of a 13-year-old boy by another county agency just four months prior.
Similar to the ability of Escondido PD for the administration to get ahead of issues in the murder
of Catherine Kennedy, the connection the department had with various groups in the City
allowed for the department to be ahead of the issue and misinformation. (Fritsvold and Loarie,
2018).
As the external environment around the Healdsburg Police Department changed, a new
internal challenge manifested. The department’s size began to increase following the recession,
and tenured officers began to retire. Poised to continue in the direction of service to the
community, command staff began to look for applicants with strong customer service
backgrounds instead of those with a connection to law enforcement. The notion was the
community expected a high level of customer service, something that current staff was not
skilled in training. However, the staff could teach a recruit how to be an officer or a dispatcher.
ORGANIZATIONS AS ORGANISMS 7
Conclusion
and adapt, and its ability to shift over the years to various external changes speaks to dynamic,
flexible and organic form of organization that is superior to a mechanical, bureaucratic form that
might not survive the changes (Morgan, 2006, p. 66). As Morgan (2006, p. 38) notes, "the
principle that organizations, like organisms, are open to their environment and must achieve an
appropriate relationship with that environment if they're to survive." For Healdsburg, this meant
adapting to the changes in the housing market, economic base, and population served. The
adaptation was largely driven through a top-down leadership approach that was in-tune with the
changing needs of the community; however, the organization itself has adapted internally to one
that Loarie (as cited in Fritsvold and Loarie, 2018) describes as "in a mode of being inventive
and adaptive." Today, the department works to solve problems at the community level.
ORGANIZATIONS AS ORGANISMS 8
References
https://www.brikbase.org/sites/default/files/dat_1982_Healdsburg_compressed.pdf
Garofoli, J. (2015, July 18). How wealth is making Healdsburg a mini San Francisco. Retrieved
from https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/How-wealth-is-making-Healdsburg-a-
miniature-San-6392920.php
https://ole.sandiego.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-1204203-dt-content-rid-
7772572_1/courses/LEPS-560-MASTER/2018_Refresh/M3/M3P1_Transcript.pdf
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Images of Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
The Press Democrat. (2014, February 18). Man shot dead amid confrontation with Healdsburg
dead-amid-confrontation?ref=related
Windsor, A., and Rose, B. (2017, July 11). Annual count finds few homeless countywide, more
http://www.sonomawest.com/the_healdsburg_tribune/news/annual-count-finds-fewer-
homeless-countywide-more-in-north-county/article_3c1d5d32-6663-11e7-96f1-
a357cac55341.html
https://www.zillow.com/healdsburg-ca/home-values/