Genesis, Termination and Succession in the Life Cycle of Organizations: The Case of the Maritime Resource Management Service

Jeffrey Moon is head of the Documents Reference/Data Centre at Queen’s
University.

The Case of the Maritime Resource Management Service (MRMS) studies the
history of one of the principal line agencies of the Council of Maritime
Premiers (CMP). As an example of a government organization and
disorganization, and of interprovincial cooperation and discord, the
MRMS is well chosen.

Any enterprise that brings together high technology; the federal
government, three provincial governments; public and private interests;
and roller-coaster financing, support, and success is bound to become an
object lesson for organizational life cycles. This book attempts to
extract some lessons from this enterprise. Primary among them is the
need for a “program mandate.” Brown contends that the MRMS was
“from birth to termination a group of experts and projects in search
of a program.” The author bases this and other conclusions on detailed
and balanced research into the MRMS and its successive incarnations from
1972 to 1994. Drawing on a wide range of public and scholarly documents,
and on interviews with “players” in the public and private sector,
Brown has written an authoritative analysis of the MRMS in particular
and the life cycle of complex organizations in general.

The book, which includes an annotated chronology, a brief bibliography,
and detailed notes at the end of each chapter, will be of interest to
public policymakers and others interested in what makes a governmental
organization “tick” and “terminate.” Geographers may find the
evolving use of mapping technology (traditional maps/air photos through
to geomatics/GIS) of peripheral interest.