Business and Management Review Vol. 1(7) pp. 103 – 112 September, 2011 ISSN: 2047 - 0398 Available online at http://www.businessjournalz.org/bmr 103 EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE CYCLE STAGES AND DIFFERENT TRAITS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Faqir Sajjad Ul Hassan (Corresponding Author) Department of Public Administration, Gomal University 29050, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan Email: faqirphd@yahoo.com Bahadar Shah Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences, Hazara University Mansehra 21300, Mansehra, Pakistan Email: bahadarshah@hu.edu.pk Najeebullah Khan Department of Public Administration, Gomal University 29050, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan Email: najeebullahdpagu@yahoo.com Malik Ikramullah Department of Public Administration, Gomal University 29050, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan Email: ikramphdscholar@gmail.com Tariq Zaman Department of Public Administration, Gomal University 29050, Dera Ismail Khan. Pakistan Email: tariqazama@yahoo.com ABSTRACT This study set out to bridge the gap in the relevant literature by exploring the relationships among organizational life cycle stages and different traits of organizational culture in the context of higher education institutions. For this purpose, perceptions were taken on both of the study variables from a total of 302 full-time senior faculty members and administrators. These employees were randomly chosen using one of the most efficient probability sampling designs i.e., disproportionate stratified. And, they were working in all 24 higher education institutions situated in Kyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Pearson correlation analysis when run on the collected date revealed that first stage of organization development substantially positive to bureaucratic culture trait. On contrary, last two stages of life cycle were highly positively associated with clan culture. Moreover, adhocracy and market types of cultures show low to moderate positive relationships to all organizational life cycle stages. Discussions of these findings including their implications followed by limitations, perspectives for future research and conclusions are presented at the end of article. Keywords: Organization Life Cycle Stages, Organizational Culture, Competing Values Framework, Higher Education Institutions 1. INTRODUCTION We explore different concepts in organization studies basically to learn how to improve our understanding about organizational effectiveness (Hall, 2003). Organizational culture is one among these concepts that believed in theory (e.g., Denison, 1990; Wilkins & Ouchi 1983) as well as empirically substantiated to improve managerial performance and effectiveness of an organization (Cameron & Freeman, 1991; Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Hilal et al., 2009; Lejeune & Vas, 2009; Ouchi, 1981; Peters & Waterman, 1982; Smart, 2003). On the other hand, organizational effectiveness is deemed associated to organizational development stages (Quinn & Cameron, 1983). Therefore, some authors for example Ticy (1980) reported that cyclical acclimatization over time for all organizations is a necessary component. However, in this process he highlights cultural mix issue as core ongoing dilemmas that organization should attempt to settle. Similarly, Gupta and Chin (1994) conjecture the relationship of corporate culture and organizational life cycle and, likewise, Smart et al. (1997) proposed that