Organizational Death... A Taboo?

Organizational Death... A Taboo?

Another approach is to take a broader and cyclic view and see an organization as a human or organism going through a full Organizational Life Cycle. Organizational Life Cycles typically describe the following 6 phases or stages: 1. Birth (introduction, founding) 2. Growth 3. Maturity (formalization) 4. Renewal (revitalization) 5. Decline 6. Death.
A problem with all models is the death stage, which seems hard to define for organizations (unlike biological death).
Interestingly, by focusing on the growth stages only, Greiner entirely leaves out the Birth AND the Decline AND the Death stages (1, 5 and 6).
Organizational death is not a very popular concept...

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		0 JC, Sinagpore
	Not sure Not sure about any taboo ... anything with a beginning shall have an ending. As a natural phenomenon, there doesn't have to be any significant issue on the death of organizations. Strictly business sense will be the "costs and benefits" of each stage and the ultimate gain of the entire cycle.

		0 Jimk, USA
	Cycles Enron had a long tail on its last phase. The back side of the "bell curve" can be rather sharp. The ... Sign up

		0 Will Mason, Australia
	Death Myth I think Germaine needs to read Griener's original article, and the follow up article HBR. The Grein... Sign up

		0 Mamta Wasan, India
	Human Resources Very interesting model. Would be interesting to know what kind of leadership traits exist at each le... Sign up

		0 Melissa Breger Program Manager, United States
	Org. Life Cycle (maturity Model) Vs. Greiner's I always wondered about this... how Greiner's model doesn't have the 'decline' curve which is illust... Sign up

		0 Adefope Adeyinka Teacher, Nigeria
	Continuous Improvement Growth doesn't have to cease but it can indeed stagnate. Organizational concepts should include room... Sign up