2. Phase 1
Evolutionary Stage: Growth
Through Creativity
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of
Leadership
3. Phase 1
Growth Through Creativity - This stage is
dominated by the founders of the
organization, and the emphasis is on
creating both a market and product.
These founders are usually technically or
entrepreneurially oriented. Management
activities are avoided. But as the
organization grows, management
problems cannot be handled through
informal communication.
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Leadership
4. Phase 1
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of
Leadership
The question of who is going to lead
the organization out of its state of
confusion and solve management
problems? The solution is to find a
strong manager. This crisis leads to the
next evolutionary period:
Growth Through Direction
5. Phase 2
Evolutionary Stage: Growth
Through Direction
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of
Autonomy
6. Phase 2
Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through
Direction
During this stage, the new manager and key
staff take the responsibility for establishing
direction, while lower level supervisors are
treated as functional specialists than
autonomous decision-makers.
The demands of lower-level managers for
more autonomy eventually leads to the next
revolutionary period:
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Autonomy
7. Phase 2
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Autonomy
The solution to this crisis is usually greater
delegation.
8. Phase 3
Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through
Delegation
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Control
9. Phase 3
Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through Delegation
When an organization gets to the growth stage
of delegation, it usually begins to develop a
decentralized organizational structure, which
heightens motivation at lower levels of the
organization. Eventually top managers sense they
are losing control over a diversified field operation.
This leads to:
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Control
10. Phase 3
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Control
The crisis of control leads to a return to
centralization. This creates resentment
among those individuals who feel that their
organizational freedoms are being
constrained.
Searching for an alternative usually leads to:
Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through
Coordination
11. Phase 4
Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through
Coordination
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Red Tape
12. Phase 4
Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through
Coordination
This period is characterized by the use of
formal systems for achieving greater
coordination with top management as the
organizational watchdogs. Most
coordination systems get carried away and it
leads to:
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Red Tape
13. Phase 4
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of Red Tape
This crisis most often occurs when the
organization has become too large and
complex to be managed through formal
programs and rigid systems. To overcome the
Red Tape mentality, the organization moves to
the next stage:
Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through
Collaboration
14. Phase 5
Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through
Collaboration
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of ?
15. Phase 5
Evolutionary Stage: Growth Through
Collaboration
This stage emphasizes greater spontaneity in
management action through teams and the
skillful confrontation of interpersonal differences.
Social control and self-discipline take over from
formal control. The next “revolutionary stage”
was not identified by Griener:
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of ?
16. Phase 5
Revolutionary Stage: Crisis of ?
Griener suggests that the next crisis will
center on the psychological saturation of
employees who have grown emotionally
and physically exhausted by the intensity of
teamwork and the heavy pressure for
innovative solutions.
17. Birth Stage
Size small
Bureaucratic nonbureaucratic
Division of Labor overlapping tasks
Centralization one-person rule
Formalization no written rules
Administrative intensity no professional staff
Internal Systems nonexistent
Lateral teams, task forces none
for coordination
18. Youth Stage
Size medium
Bureaucratic prebureaucratic
Division of Labor some departments
Centralization two leaders rule
Formalization few rules
Administrative intensity increasing clerical &
maintenance
Internal Systems crude budget & information
Lateral teams, task top leaders only
for coordination
19. Midlife Stage
Size large
Bureaucratic bureaucratic
Division of Labor many departments
Centralization two department heads
Formalization policy & procedures
Administrative intensity increasing professional &
staff support
Internal Systems control systems in place,
budget, performance reports
Lateral teams, task forces some use of integrators and
for coordination task forces
20. Maturity Stage
Size very large
Bureaucratic very bureaucratic
Division of Labor extensive, with small jobs
and many descriptions
Centralization top management heavy
Formalization extensive
Administrative intensity large-multiple departments
Internal Systems extensive planning, financial
and personnel added
Lateral teams, task forces frequent at lower levels to
for coordination break down bureaucracy
