Organizational collapse is part of our vernacular. Enron, Woolworths, Lehman's, Bank of America, Rover, BOAC, Northern Rock - these failures are part of our cultural experience of work. At a time when working lives are often vulnerable and organizational mortality is under threat from technology and the economy the consequences of organizational death is worthy of attention.

Organizations can face many different endings - sharp and brutal, premature, or carefully planned and premeditated - all these endings have emotional collateral damage. We are working in an environment where...