ENTREPRENEURS AND ORGANISATIONAL GROWTH: SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM AND STRATEGIES FOR HELPING

The difficulties entrepreneurs encounter as their organisations move from the rapid growth to the maturity stage are attributed to a personality/ organisation misfit. Personality characteristics that are an asset in the earlier stages become a liability in the later organisational life‐cycle stages. Several interventions are suggested for use with entrepreneurs who face this situation. The use of reframing strategies that involve unconscious information processing are advocated, as an intervention of last resort, when an entrepreneur wants to stay at the head of the organisation but the misfit is causing problems. This article although purposely speculative and hopefully, provocative, is designed to expand our thinking about the problems entrepreneurs face and to open up possibilities for potential solutions.