Organizational Life Cycles

Organizational Life Cycles

 Griener’s Five Stages of Growth
 Phase 1
 Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through Creativity

 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Leadership

 Phase 1
 Growth Through Creativity - This stage is
dominated by the founders of the organization,
and the emphasis is on creating both a market and
product. These founders are usually technically or
entrepreneurially oriented. Management activities
are avoided. But as the organization grows,
management problems cannot be handled through
informal communication. This leads to:
 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Leadership
 Phase 1
 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Leadership
The question of who is going to lead the
organization out of its state of confusion and solve
management problems? The solution is to find a
strong manager. This crisis leads to the next
evolutionary period:

 Growth Through Direction

 Phase 2
 Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through Direction

 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Autonomy

 Phase 2
 Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through Direction
During this stage, the new manager and key staff take
the responsibility for establishing direction, while
lower level supervisors are treated as functional
specialists than autonomous decision-makers.
The demands of lower-level managers for more
autonomy eventually leads to the next revolutionary
period:
 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Autonomy
 Phase 2
 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Autonomy
The solution to this crisis is usually greater
delegation.
 Phase 3
 Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through Delegation

 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Control

 Phase 3
 Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through Delegation
When an organization gets to the growth stage
of delegation, it usually begins to develop a
decentralized organizational structure, which
heightens motivation at lower levels of the
organization. Eventually top managers sense they
are losing control over a diversified field
operation. This leads to:
 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Control
 Phase 3
 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Control
The crisis of control leads to a return to
centralization. This creates resentment among those
individuals who feel that their organizational
freedoms are being constrained.
Searching for an alternative usually leads to:
 Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through Coordination
 Phase 4

 Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through Coordination

 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Red Tape

 Phase 4

 Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through Coordination

This period is characterized by the use of formal
systems for achieving greater coordination with
top management as the organizational watchdogs.
Most coordination systems get carried away and it
leads to:

 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Red Tape

 Phase 4

 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Red Tape

This crisis most often occurs when the
organization has become too large and complex to be
managed through formal programs and rigid systems.
To overcome the Red Tape mentality, the
organization moves to the next stage:

 Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through Collaboration

 Phase 5

 Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through Collaboration

 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of ?

 Phase 5

 Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through Collaboration

This stage emphasizes greater spontaneity in
management action through teams and the skillful
confrontation of interpersonal differences. Social
control and self-discipline take over from formal
control. The next “revolutionary stage” was not
identified by Griener:
 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of ?
 Phase 5

 Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of ?

Griener suggests that the next crisis will center on
the psychological saturation of employees who have
grown emotionally and physically exhausted by the
intensity of teamwork and the heavy pressure for
innovative solutions.
Organizational Life Cycles

Evolving Culture
 Birth Stage
 Size small
 Bureaucratic nonbureaucratic
 Division of Labor overlapping tasks
 Centralization one-person rule
 Formalization no written rules
 Administrative intensity no professional staff
 Internal Systemsnonexistent
 Lateral teams, task forces none
for coordination
 Youth Stage
 Size medium
 Bureaucratic prebureaucratic
 Division of Labor some departments
 Centralization two leaders rule
 Formalization few rules
 Administrative intensity increasing clerical &
maintenance
 Internal Systemscrude budget & information
 Lateral teams, task forces top leaders only
for coordination
 Midlife Stage
 Size large
 Bureaucratic bureaucratic
 Division of Labor many departments
 Centralization two department heads
 Formalization policy & procedures
 Administrative intensity increasing professional & staff support
 Internal Systemscontrol systems in place, budget, performance reports
 Lateral teams, task forces some use of integrators and for
coordination task forces
 Maturity Stage
 Size very large
 Bureaucratic very bureaucratic
 Division of Labor extensive, with small jobs and many descriptions
 Centralization top management heavy
 Formalization extensive
 Administrative intensity large-multiple departments
 Internal Systemsextensive planning, financial and personnel added
 Lateral teams, task forces frequent at lower levels to
for coordination break down bureaucracy
Preventing Premature
Organizational Death
 Risk Factors
 Board and staff stagnation

 Reliance on a single funding source

 Failureto pay attention to the external

environment
 Taking Action
 Avoidthe “we always did it this way”
syndrome

 Frequently ask: “Is there a better way to do

this?”

 Add new Board members

 Taking Action
 Pay attention to staff morale

 Payattention to financial trends revenues,

expenses available fund raising dollars.

 Have a strategic plan and monitor it daily.

 Taking Action
 Ask yourself whether you may be a
problem for the organization. Are you
challenged, are you having fun? Do you
enjoy your co-workers?

 Fightstress by exercising, taking vacations

getting involved in non-work activities.