Growing Pains, 5th Edition

Chapter 3Identifying and Surviving the First Four Stages of Organizational Growth

All organizations pass through various stages of development. These stages are, at least in part, determined by the organization's size, as measured by its annual revenues (or for nonprofits, in terms of annual budget). This chapter presents a framework for identifying and explaining the major stages through which all organizations grow and develop as they increase in size. It should be noted that this framework applies to a division of a large company, as well as to an independent organization.

First, we identify the seven stages of organizational growth comprising the entire life cycle and then, in this chapter, examine the first four stages from the inception ...