Organizational change, discussed so far relates to the
problems in organizations that are
already established. For new and emerging organizations, the issues are
different in that they deal with
organizational problems of different nature. New organizations face several
simultaneous issues; they must be both able to get the task accomplished and at
the same time build the structures that brings order to their key social and
decisional processes. Though management of growth is essentially one measure of
change, growth has been handled in a number of different ways by different
authors,. And they have developed different models to deal with the problems of
organizational growth.
STAGES OF ORGANISATIONAL GROWTH
Most of the writers dealing with the problems of organizational
growth agree that all organizations follow similar pattern of growth. They also
agree that growth can be conveniently classified into various stages and at
each stage, the organization is required to solve some specific problems.
However there is lack of agreement about these stages, the problems concerned,
and the methods of there solution. For example, Coffey, Athos and Raymonds
agree that every now organization has a life cycle consisting of three stages.
These are formation and development stage, stabilization and dynamic
equilibrium stage, and change or decline and dissolution stage. In the
formation and development stage, a basic task before the organization is the
accomplishment of an increase in output. In the stabilization and dynamic
equilibrium stage which is a middle stage for organizations, output tends to
stabilize. In the last stage of change or decline and dissolution, the
organization has to adjust or change to maintain its growth or will face
decline and dissolution.
A variation on this theme is expounded by Lippitt and Schmidt.
They suggest that there are three development stages in an organization: birth,
youth and maturity. The critical concern at the birth stage is to create a new
organization and to survive as a viable system; at the youth stage is to gain
stability and to gain reputation and develop pride and at the maturity stage is
to achieve uniqueness and adaptability and to contribute to society. Some
organizations succeed in reaching higher
stages of development then others. Organizations usually go into decline only
because management fails to notice the need for change or because of drastic
change in the external environment.
A very useful model of organizational growth has been developed by
Greiner. He argues that each organization moves through five phases of
development as it grows. Each phase contains a relatively calm period that he
calls an evolutionary phase, which is ended by a management crisis marked by a
substantial amount of internal turmoil. According to Greiner, each evolutionary
period is characterized by the dominant management style used to achieve
growth, while each revolutionary period is management style used to achieve
growth, while each revolutionary period is characterized by the dominant
problem that must be solved before growth will continue. Since each phase is
strongly influenced by the previous one, acknowledge of the organizations
history can aid management in determining its future.
The key dimensions used in this model are size and age. The age of
an organization is critical because problems and decisions are rooted in time.
Historical studies can gather data from different time periods and make
comparisons to provide insight. The size of an organization is directly related
to problems and solutions of matters such as sales volume, coordination and
communication. If the size remains fairly stable, it can maintain the same
management practices for long periods. Figure 25.5 presents the various stages
of organizational growth.
