Organizations across the world have one aim in common,
and that is growth. Growth can mean different things
to different firms, for some it’s about
diversification and economic prosperity and for others
it could be brand and client creation. The goal for
growth depends on which stage of the life cycle the
organization is standing at, and which stage it is
looking at accomplishing.
The Organization Life Cycle model shows
the various stages which are prevalent in the growth
of a company’s life cycle. This is not to say that a
company necessary progresses from one level to
another, but is more of a hierarchy of sorts which can
mean that depending on performance and eternal
environmental factors which can hamper or aid an
organizations growth, a firm can easily slip back into
one of the earlier levels of existence or jump to next
level without much effort.
The Organization Life Cycle model has 7 stages of
development. It begins with the most basic of states
which is Survival, and moves onto Stability and
Sustenance, followed by Achievement and Expansion,
Branding, Recognition, Autonomy and finally comes the
stage of Maturity and Social Awareness.
Each of these stages can be better understood by
getting into the symptoms that characterize each one
of these stages. The first stage in the Organization
Life Cycle is survival. Survival is the most basic
instinct of a human being to survive in his or her
environment. Just as the basic human needs includes
food, warmth, water, and other bodily needs, an
Organization at this stage is looking at fulfilling
its basic needs; to be able to survive in a highly
competitive open market.
Stability and sustenance comes second, it refers to an
organizations ability to maintain its space in the
competitive sphere of the industry. This also refers
to financial stability for the organization.
The third level in the Life Cycle model is about
Achievement. At this level, an organization is aiming
at expansion. The organization puts efforts into
growing and expanding its business and venturing into
new fields and focuses on expanding its existing base.
Branding is the next level; this is an important level
in the life cycle of an organization because here the
organization is building its brand value and
credibility in the market space. Once an independent
organization has stabilized itself and has learnt to
sustain itself in the market place and has created
clientele, it establishes a niche, which is the
Branding stage. A firm may use Advertising & PR
extensively at this stage.
Once an organization’s goal of brand credibility is
complete, it must aim at gaining recognition & living
up to its reputation, which can be a very delicate
commodity. This denotes the next level – Recognition.
Recognition is the next step that an Organization
strives towards, where it aims to build a reputation
in industry and live up to the brand name and
reputation it has created.
The second last level in the life cycle model is the
Autonomy. This Step in Org Development is
characterized by Self Governance and Independence.
This is when the Objectives and Goals of a company are
clearly etched within the nature and in the DNA of the
organization. Here the various stakeholders in the
departments gain autonomy and learn self governance.
At this stage the organization is an autonomous body.
The final level of development in the Life Cycle of
Organization model is of Self Actualization and
Maturity. “What a man can be, he must be”, is the way
Maslow expresses it, in short the self actualization
state is when a being, human or organization, reaches
its maximum potential. Maslow’s describes Self
Actualization to be: “an
episode or spurt in which the powers of the person
come together in a particularly and intensely
enjoyable way, and in which he is more integrated and
less split, more open for experience, more
idiosyncratic, more perfectly expressive or
spontaneous, or fully functioning, more creative, more
humorous, more ego-transcending, more independent of
his lower needs, etc. He becomes in these episodes
more truly himself, more perfectly actualising his
potentialities, closer to the core of his being, more
fully human. Not only are these his happiest and most
thrilling moments, but they are also moments of
greatest maturity, individuation, fulfilment - in a
word, his healthiest moments.” To draw a further
analysis to Org Development, this is a state at which
the Organization is at its healthiest. Growth,
Expansion & Profitability take a back seat and social
issues and conditions take a fore front. Self
fulfilment becomes important and takes precedence over
trivialities of production.
The Life Cycle of Organization development is an
important diagnostic tool for a firm to understand and
identify where it stands, where it was and where it
wants to be, because you can’t know where you want to
go, if you don’t know where you’ve been.
