ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the links between an organization's biography and its development. It offers an overview of different studies to illustrate the use of biography as a method of understanding and analysing organization growth and transformation. The chapter argues that a historical approach represents an alternative and dynamic way for managers and consultants to better understand organizations. The process of re-creating entrepreneurial culture within an organization implies a process of organizational transformation. It describes five studies on organizational biography: Jaques, Greiner, Pettigrew, Dyer and Salama. The chapter investigates how the personalities of Jaguar, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL), British Airways (BA) and British Airports Authority (BAA) were formed and transformed, as perceived by managers. Following a psychoanalytic approach to organizational studies one can conclude that, like a child's development process, the firm's biography reveals clues for understanding the firm's current crisis and can also facilitate the choice of an appropriate strategy for development.
