BUS 304 Chapter 9: Ch.9 - Organization Size, Life Cycle, and Decline
Document Summary
Chapter 9: organization size, life cycle, and decline. Organizational life cycle: a perspective on organizational growth and change that suggests that organizations are born, grow older, and eventually die. Stages of life cycle development: entrepreneurial stage. Emphasis is on creating a product or service and surviving in the marketplace. The founders are entrepreneurs and they devote their full energies to the technical activities of production and marketing. Growth is from a creative new product or service. Must adjust structure to accommodate growth or bring in strong managers who can focus on management issues. Many businesses fail because they are unsuccessful at the transition out of this stage. Strong leadership is obtained and the organization begins to develop clear goals and direction. Departments are established along with a hierarchy of authority, job assignments, and a beginning division of labour. Communication and control are still relatively informal but formal systems begin appearing.