Issues in understanding organizational change from an interpretive viewpoint are explored in this paper, which discusses two perspectives for viewing organizational responses to their environments: (1) "environment" as an open concept (i.e., how "environment" is defined by participants in a given organization); and (2) organizational decision-making processes. Data were derived from two studies. The first study, based on interviews with 11 principals, examined school administrators' views of school responses to a changing world. The second involved four case studies of organizational response to change, based on document analysis, interviews, and observation. Findings indicate that the process through which organizations identify external issues is not dependent upon explicit models or structured procedures, but rather upon organizational routines, individual attitudes, organizational climate, and accidents. The recommendation is made to recognize the importance of informal and ambiguously defined understandings in relation to formal planning processes. (25 references) (LMI)