Understand the organizational life cycle

The concept of organizational life cycle applies a humanization form to explain that organizations are born, grow and die like people. It looks very practical to understand the organization in such a way because leadership style, structural design, and also the management approach will have to be chosen in accordance to the organizational specific cycle of life. As described by Bridges (2009, p.78) suggest that interventions will be made in different step of an organization life span and it is vital to understand the structure and the management style correspondent to the environment, moment, objectives, and available resources. Bridges (2009) specified seven steps in the organization’s life from the dream to lunch the business to the dying cycle.

The Dreaming the dream means that the project is taking form in your mind and you have to convince yourself that it is a great business idea. Also, it is important to be able to explain to others the nature and value of this project. At the second step, the project is in the process to come true. The initial structure is designed on that level similar to the childhood of the organization. Then, ventures are made where the organization is growing up. Mistakes will also happen. The policies are not existent and “there is no fixed way of doing thing” would say Bridges (2009, p.79).

The second step called Getting organized is the potty training process to get the infancy an independent experience. It is described as entrepreneurial stage (Daft, 2010, p.360). This stage allows a well structured input, transformation and distribution process. The external contacts and internal flows are working well in order to produce the goods. The extended structure might become more centralized as the organization is getting bigger contrary to the flexible, open system of the launching step.

Third, comes the Making it is the stabilization part where everything seems to be stable and under control. For Bridges (2009), “this is the point when the organization’s adulthood begins” (p.80). Some intangible output can be seen toward this step by ensuring that a motivated team work is understand the vision of the company and work for the well being of the stakeholders, the customers and the community.

The landmark of the organization, it culture and values, same as the corporate citizenship are visible and firm in the fourth step called Becoming an Institution. This is like the collectivity stage as reported by Daft (2010). Leadership style is very important at that level where employees into the organization are attached to one big system value. The “us” concept is expresses through the hiring process. Thus, people are chosen less for talent and motivation, but more for being able to feel like us, think like us, and fit the company’s culture.

Entering the formalization stage (Daft (2010), the clan control used, for example, by Southwestern airline is visible. The control style that is determined and applied by the organization is instilled in the values and culture at this level. The next step will be to reinforce the internal structure and to reinvent the vertical and horizontal relations. Thus, organizations need to be designed with skillful leadership and tactful middle level management to continually adapt to internal and external changes in the environment. If not they will undoubtedly show symptoms of fatigue when organizational structure and design no longer support the organization's strategic and operational goals (GCU, 2013).

The elaboration stage (Daft, 2010) requires a new sense of collaboration and teamwork. Throughout the organization, managers develop skills for confronting problems and working together. But, with no revitalization, the decline (Daft, 376) is threatened the organization. People are feeling too comfortable and everything seems to be working fine. But, it comes the time where the organization is likely on life support and will collapse whatever the external condition of the market. The whole strategic planning may be indispensable to prevent the breaking point or Dying phase which is beyond the repairable frame. The worse has already happened. The business might split off among partners or sold to a bigger and stronger one. Bankruptcy is the most heard word in the hallways. The company has reached the end of the life cycle. The big Billboards are getting replaced and the name will subscribe to the annals of the past success stories.

In my opinion, the transition from the entrepreneurial to the formalization stage is very fragile and the organization may collapse like eighty-four percent of businesses that make it past the first year still fail within five years because they can’t make the transition from the entrepreneurial Stage (Daft, 2010, p. 363).

References

Bridges, W. (2009). Managing transitions: making the most of change, (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press.

Daft, R. L. (2010).  Organization theory and design (10th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Grand Canyon University. (2013). Diagnosing Deficient Organizational Structures. Retrieved from https://lc.gcu.edu/learningPlatform/user/users.html?operation=loggedIn#/learningPlatform/loudBooks/loudbooks.html?viewPage=current&operation=innerPage&currentTopicname=Diagnosing%20Deficient%20Organizational%20Structures&topicMaterialId=32949640-0d57-4ca7-9157-e7ac3e4d1c62&contentId=aca9e993-8351-401a-aba0-6fc19fcb00a2&

LEONTES DORZILME