Problem: The organizational life cycle is the subject of considerable interest in the business research community. It is a very useful metaphor, because of its familiarity, its universality, and its simplicity. Precisely for those reasons, however, there is also relatively little consensus on exactly how it should be applied, what stages are involved, how rigorously it should be considered to rule, and what its implications for managerial behavior ought to be. In lifecycle models and considering their implications for business behavior, I need information on the utility of the concept of the organizational life cycle including:
1) What are some things about organizations that a life cycle model is particularly helpful in explaining?
2) What are some things about organizations that a life cycle model does not explain particularly well?
3) What seems to be the most useful number of stages in a life cycle model? 3? 4? 5? 10? some other number? What are the names that could be assigned to those stages?
4) Must all organizations die? why or why not? how might "organizational death" be different from "organic death"?
5) What would be the major managerial implications of accepting a life cycle model for an organization?
6) What, if anything, that thinking about an "organization as an organism" adds to an "organization as a machine" ?