ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE-CYCLES AND SHIFTING CRITERIA OF EFFECTIVENESS - SOME PRELIMINARY EVIDENCE

A discussion is presented of the relationships between stage of development in organizational life cycle and organizational effectiveness. A review is presented of nine models of organizational life cycles that have been proposed in the literature. Each of these models identifies certain characeristics that typify organizations in different stages of development. A summary model of life cycle stages is derived that integrates each of these nine models. A framework of organizational effectiveness developed by R. E. Quinn and J. Rohrbaugh is introduced. This framework organizes criteria of effectiveness into four models - rational goal, open systems, human relations, and internal processes models. The authors hypothesize that certain of the models are important in evaluating the effectiveness of organizations in particular life cycle stages but not in others. It is concluded that major criteria of effectiveness change in predictable ways as organizations develop through their life cycles. Some shifts in state of development are resisted by the organization much more than are others, and intervention into organizations may be needed to help make the transitions less painful and costly.