Adolescence; Adolescent Organization

Organizational style (pAEi).

One of the growth stages of the organizational lifecycle.

Adolescence is the “second birth” of the organization, when professional management systems are put in place and take over from the founder. It is a stage full of conflict and inconsistency between the founder (E) and the organization’s need for control (A). If the conflict is not resolved it will become pathological and either (A) or (E) will be lost:

• if (E) is lost, the organization will suffer from premature aging, reflected in loss of market share and negative cash flow;

• if (A) is lost, the organization will regress back to the previous stage of the lifecycle, Go-Go, and risk falling into the Founder’s Trap.

If the conflict is successfully harnessed and resolved, the organization will be able to make commitments, become stabilized, proceed to the next stage of the lifecycle, Prime.