Organizational life cycle models: a design perspective

Journal of Organization Design

Luigi Mosca¹  Diego Campagnolo²  Martina Gianecchini³ 

[1] Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, SW7 2BB, London, UK;Department of Economics and Management “Marco Fanno”, University of Padova and ICRIOS Bocconi University, Via del Santo 33, 35123, Padua, Italy;Department of Economics and Management “Marco Fanno”, University of Padova, Via del Santo 33, 35123, Padua, Italy;

关键词: Organizational life cycle;    Organizational design;    Vertical differentiation;    Horizontal differentiation;    Centralization;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s41469-021-00090-7

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

New competitive and environmental challenges have fostered renewed attention towards organizational design. This scenario calls for a significant return to organizational design studies that embrace a holistic approach, especially those focusing on the simultaneous interaction of multiple design elements. Organizational life cycle (OLC) models provide a fitting response to this call. In this paper, we review the organizational design characteristics of five seminal OLC models. We show that according to these OLC models, growth in size—which is described as unavoidable—generates business issues that firms are forced to solve by adopting only one possible organizational configuration, here following a deterministic organizational approach. We challenge this approach and propose conceiving of OLC as an evolutionary process, which calls for a variety of equifinal organizational solutions. We conclude by proposing future research avenues.

【 授权许可】

CC BY