ABSTRACT
Over the past several decades, the external environment of organizations has become increasingly complex and dynamic. For instance, after considerable growth during the 1990s, most organizations presently experience greater environmental pressures, and, as a result, more volatility in their performance. Similarly, while most American corporations enjoyed periods of continued growth during 1960s and 1970s, they faced severe competitive pressures during the 1980s. Many large organizations, once dominant in terms of market share and profitability, found themselves struggling to renew and revitalize their strategy and performance (Beer, Eisenstat, & Spector, 1990). Not unexpectedly, academic studies that had primarily emphasized stages of growth and maturity in the organization’s life cycle began to pay more attention to stages of stagnation and decline (Whetten, 1987; Cameron, Sutton, & Whetten, 1988). Today’s corporate executives do not merely manage a situation of continued growth; often they must address repeated transitions between performance cycles of decline, stagnation, and growth.
