Decline

Decline is a change over time from previously efficient to inefficient organizational functioning, from previously rational to non-rational organizational and individual decision-making, from previously law-abiding to law violating organizational and individual behavior, from previously virtuous to iniquitous individual moral behavior. Note: The word decline should not be confused with the word obsolete. Decline refers to the degenerating of something whereas obsolete refers to the outdating of something or that it is no longer in use. It is the process of declining, a gradual sinking and wasting away.

Social decline or moral decline is typically characterised as reduced adherence to cultural or social norms or values and widespread lapses in ethical behavior.

Entities and organizations may enter a state of decline if they fail to respond effectively to changes, because they :

  • Don't know about it : inability to recognize change in the organizational environment
  • Can't : insufficient resources to respond to change in the organizational environment
  • Don't want to : refusal to respond to change in the organizational environment because organizational leaders benefit from organizational decline

Famous quotes containing the word decline:

    “We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.”
    —Jean De La Bruyère (1645–1696)

    “Or else I thought her supernatural;
    As though a sterner eye looked through her eye
    On this foul world in its decline and fall,
    On gangling stocks grown great, great stocks run dry,
    Ancestral pearls all pitched into a sty,
    Heroic reverie mocked by clown and knave....”
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    “Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end result of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.”
    —Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)