„‚ CONDITIONS THAT HINDER EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

function, such as a store, agency, or factory, that occupies a spatial position of its own in
a geographical location.
Ecology is as concerned with processes as OD is with interpersonal and group
processes, but ecology has a broader perspective. One important basis for classifying
ecological processes involves the distinction between (1) relations in which units
influence one another simultaneously during a given moment of time and (2) relations in
which the related elements take place at successive moments of time. In (1) any
influencing occurs in the mathematical moment, which is too short to have any duration
and contains only the present—neither the past nor the future. No change can occur
without the passage of time, but this mathematical moment sustains the types of
reciprocal relations among coexisting units out of which all changes in interaction arise.
Any concrete instance of ecological interaction necessarily involves both (1) and (2), but
different types of processes give greater weight to one or the other.
As a number of ecological processes can be characterized in terms of the types of
reciprocal relations that exist among interacting units, so opposition can be distinguished
from cooperation on this basis. Opposition implies the incompatibility of goals, in which
the success of one unit necessarily interferes with the success of others. In contrast,
cooperation involves a reciprocal relation in which, as any one unit succeeds, it
increases the chances of success for its cooperators. There are many concrete examples
of these contrasting forms of ecological interaction in everyday life. All involve a
sequence that results in the success or failure of participating units, but it is the
relationships of coexistence among the interacting units rather than the differences in
sequence that are the principal basis for distinguishing among them.
Relationships of coexistence distinguish the ecological from the social interaction.
Ecological interaction is an impersonal relationship in which each unit influences the
others merely by increasing or decreasing some scarce type of environmental resource
or by changing its ecological distance from the others. This type of influence occurs in
the external environment without human mental interstimulation and response. The
social type of interaction, instead, necessarily involves mental interaction among human
beings, frequently in such arbitrary symbols as language.
The social and ecological types of interaction generally occur together in human
existence, but they can be analytically separated. It is possible to argue that the
ecological is more basic because it emphasizes among living organisms an impersonal,
continuous, universal cooperative competition that selects and distributes the population
and institutions of a geographical area. This interaction also results in a basic underlying
areal structure that serves as a foundation for normative consensus in social
organization. We can thus see how the ecological structure, which is biotic or symbiotic
rather than cultural, arises, functions, and influences social interaction.
In looking at the second major type of ecological processes—those that involve
sequences in which change occurs over time—we shift from analytical to descriptive
concepts. Changes that occur at successive moments of time may be described as natural
histories; as unique, nonrecurrent events; or as scientific regularities (laws). Whatever
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The Pfeiffer Library Volume 6, 2nd Edition. Copyright ©1998 Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer