A process that is carried out at the cellular level and results in the assembly, arrangement of constituent parts, or disassembly of the outer segment of a photoreceptor cell, a sensory cell that reacts to the presence of light. The outer segment of the photoreceptor cell contains the light-absorbing materials. [ https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=bn%3A0824072820 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14507858 ]