Perceptions of Organizational Effectiveness Over Organizational Life Cycles

? 1981 by Cornell University. 0001 -8392/81/2604-0525/00. 75 Among the problems in the literature on organizational effectiveness are the over-reliance on researcher imposed criteria of effectiveness and the tendency to measure perceptions of effectiveness at only one point in time. In this study, we examine the changes that occurred in ratings of effectiveness by organizational members as their organizations developed through various life cycle stages. Using 18 simulated organizations, we tracked the changes that occurred in perceptions of effectiveness related to different domains of activity and different levels of analysis. We found that, as the organizations developed, the importance of effectiveness in acquiring inputs gave way to the importance of effectiveness in producing outputs. Individual effectiveness became less important over time while organizational effectiveness became more important. We draw implications for the use of different models of organizational effectiveness in future research.