Question

Organizations today operate in an environment of rapid, continuous change. How will you use “Greiner Model” and “Strebel Model” for scanning and managing change at various stages of organizational lifecycle? Give examples of recognizing challenges at the end of each stage and how are they managed at the start of other stage.

Answer 1

Grieners model include Time factor as it's variable. Change in any organisation is highly influenced by the time factors. Greener assumes that the organisation expand and grow throughout the year. There are various phases in the grieners model which are as following -

• Growth through creativity - at this phase, there is leadership crisis in the organization, organisation is new and young so there is high instability within the organisation. A stable structure need to be implemented in order to provide stability within the organisation, creativity help in creating new ideas, innovations and many new positive changes within the organisation.
• Growth through direction - at this phase there is autonomy crisis within the organisation, coordination problem occur at this phase a well defined structure and procedure need to be implemented within the organisation in order to ensure ATS smoothening and working environment.
• Growth through delegation - at this phase results of overall organisation is highly dependent upon the middle managers and middle manager become highly responsible for tactical and achievable objectives for the organisation. the risk of management crisis is there in this phase as there is improper control on all over the divisions of organisation by the middle managers which will lead to control crisis in the organisation.
• Growth through coordination and control - at this phase that is proper coordination between various units in the organisation. This will lead to to various flexibility within the organisation which may further cause red tape crisis for the organisation.
• Growth through cooperation - at this phase there is high cooperation between the line managers and staff of the organisation, it may lead to hierarchical break within the organisation which may further cause growth crisis within the organisation. Proper distance should be maintained within the organisation in order to have a healthy and respectful working environment.
• Growth through alliances - at this phase the organisation require good external contracts and alliance for the purpose of their growth. At this phase it may be possible that organisation have high focus on its alliances and external contracts in comparison to their focus on their own organisational work which may lead to low growth in their own work. Identity crisis may occur at this phase so organisation should have balanced focus on its alliances and external contract as well as its own internal work.

Both Grieners model and Strebel model introduce the needed organisational change at every stage of organisational life cycle.

There are four stages of organisational life cycle -

1. Birth - at this stage of organisational life cycle both model introduces newness in introduced organisation, there is high danger of newness as well as high advantage of new ideas, new creation and innovation.
2. Growth - at this stage, organisation face growth, which also include many unstability because of improper coordination and control. Grieners model is having all the phases of this stage.
3. Decline - at this stage due to improper coordination, organisation face decline, a high improper control and coordination is seen at this stage. the organisation fails to manage the crisis occur at growth stage.
4. Death - if the organisation didn't able to handle decline then it automatically comes to death as the decline stage of the organisation fail to attract resources.