OVERVIEW - Any ORG

Organizations bring people together to collaborate on work that needs many people - e.g. sailing the ship and serving the passengers.  The specific people change; replacements take over. It's the same ORG.  
Similarly a movie, play or ballet: the same story (and same music) can be enacted by different performers and in different ways. 

Most ORGanizations do not have an exact physical shell like the ship; we are now familiar with virtual ORGs that operate  mainly online (in cyberspace). But an ORG is a "thing" above and beyond the people who staff, operate and lead it. These people organize themselves in ways such that an "ORGanization" happens, even after the founders leave. 

A ship can represent a basic ORG in many different industries but does not help us to think about one important dimension - growth. Any ORG has a "life history". It gets older; it lives or it dies. After flourishing it may decline, like most living things. Its "owners" may divest it, to be incorporated into a stronger ORG;  or it may recover and re-energize its growth, maybe in a different direction. 

In other words: an ORG is a quasi-living thing that gets more chances at regeneration than any biological creature. 

ORGs come in many shapes and size 
e.g.
Factories. Fast food franchises. Schools. 
Airlines. Moviemakers. Police. Hospitals
Retailers - online, street, mall. Red Cross.
Religious Orgs, Arts Orgs, Sports franchises.
Local government. Political parties.
NASA, IBM, FIFA, BBC,  
etc....etc.                                 

The next page looks at some typical stages and critical choices in the life of many types of ORG.