Skip to main content

Organizational Life Cycles

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

Synonyms

Organizational life span; Organizational death

Definition

Refers to the sequence of events from organizational initiation/birth to death

Introduction

The field of public administration has, from its beginnings, concerned itself with the organizations providing services to citizens. Traditionally these organizations have mainly been local governments and their departments and myriad state and local agencies. More recently, private and nonprofit organizations, via contracting, voucher programs, and other reforms that challenge traditional meanings of the notion of publicness too have become part of the organizational ecosystem providing services to citizens. A constant of organizations, be they public, private, or nonprofit, is change. Scholars of organizational theory explore the extent to which organizational change over time is predictable, asking if organizations experience life cycles in a manner akin to biological organisms, if organizational fates are governed by a degree...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aldrich HE, Martinez MA (2001) Many are called, but few are chosen: an evolutionary perspective for the study of entrepreneurship. Entrep Theory Pract 25(4):41–56

    Google Scholar 

  • Boulding KE (1950) A reconstruction of economics. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford M (2011) School exits in the Milwaukee parental choice program: evidence of a marketplace? J School Choice 5(2):182–204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delmar F, Shane S (2004) Legitimating first: Organizing activities and the survival of new ventures. Journal of Business Venturing 19(3):385–410

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford MR, Andersson FO (2016) Determinants of organizational failure in the Milwaukee school voucher program. Policy Studies J. doi:10.1111/psj.12164

    Google Scholar 

  • Greiner LE (1997) Evolution and revolution as organizations grow. 1972. Harv Bus Rev 76(3):55–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Hager MA, Galaskiewicz J, Larson JA (2004) Structural embeddedness and the liability of newness among nonprofit organizations. Public Manage Rev 6(2):159–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman H (1991) Time, chance and organizations, 2nd edn. Chatham House, Chatham

    Google Scholar 

  • Lecy JD, Searing EA (2015) Anatomy of the nonprofit starvation cycle an analysis of falling overhead ratios in the nonprofit sector. Nonprofit Voluntary Sector Q 44(3):539–563

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis VL, Churchill NC (1983) The five stages of small business growth. Harv Bus Rev 61(3):30–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Merton RK (1957) Social theory and social structure. Free Press, Glencoe

    Google Scholar 

  • Stinchcombe AL (1965) Social structure and organizations. In: March J (ed) Handbook of organizations. Rand McNally, Chicago, pp 142–193

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael R. Ford .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Ford, M.R. (2016). Organizational Life Cycles. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_15-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_15-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics