From birth to death: the life of the standards board for England

Organizations wax and wane, and some cease to exist altogether. The Standards Board for England was abolished after a 10-year life. Created to regulate the ethical behavior of local politicians in England, the ethics of politics was undermined by the politics of ethics. This article analyzes the life of the Standards Board initially through the lens of a life-cycle approach to organizations but finds that a problem-cluster approach provides a sharper picture. Over its lifetime, the Standards Board faced a number of crises; its failure to resolve these crises and an unfavorable political climate led to its demise.