Transcript Organisation and Management in the Networked Era

Organisation and Management in
the Networked Era...
Organisation...
...Technology
Environment...
Post-industrial Organisational Paradigms
Organisation and Management in the
Networked Era…..
What is an organisation?
...goal-directed….deliberately structured… social entity
What is management?
....attaining organisational goals effectively and
efficiently through planning, organising, leading and
controlling organisation resources
What do we mean by ‘Networked Era’?
…ICT-enabled, connectivity, info-symmetry, extended
enterprises, virtual/knowledge workers...
...Evolution of Thought
Industrialisation
The Classical Theorists
The Human Relations Movement
Organisations as Systems
The Contingency School
The Modernists
Postmodernism
Evolution of Thought: The Classical Theorists
1. Scientific Management School
2. Administrative Theorists
3. Bureaucratic School
Focus on efficiency and control
‘One best way’ - Universalistic
Employee as tool/instrument
Assumed environment was stable
Evolution of Thought: The Human Relations
Movement
The Hawthorne Studies
Group interaction & social climate
important to job performance.
Evolution of Thought: Organisations as
Systems
Open Systems - Organisations, like
organisms, are open to their environment and
must interact with it to survive
Inter-relatedness - subsystems
Closed systems are unsustainable
Evolution of Thought: Contingency School
Theorists and managers must understand
environment/context to prescribe
appropriate structure/management
technique.
Success contingent on more than one
factor; no universal solution.
Focus on structure, environment,
technology and size.
Evolution of Thought: Modern Perspectives
Institutional Imitation - Orgs/managers tend to
imitate past practices and practices of
successful organisations.
Cultural Perspectives - concerned with the
WHOLE organisation rather then individual
parts.
Evolution of Thought: Postmodern
Organisation Paradigm
Postmodern world
increased rate of change
global competitiveness
information / electronic revolution
unstable & unpredictable environment
Evolution of Thought: Postmodern
Organisation Paradigm
The postmodern organisation reflects the
needs of a changing world:
moderate size
flexible, decentralised structures
info/knowledge as primary form of capital
employee empowerment
servant leadership
The ‘Learning Organisation’
Old Paradigm
Vertical Org.
New Paradigm
Learning Org.*
Forces on orgs
Markets
Workforce
Technology
Values
Local, domestic
Homogeneous
Mechanical
Stability, efficiency
Global
Diverse
Electronic
Change, flexibility
Mgt Competencies
Focus
Leadership
Approach to work
Relationships
Profits
Autocratic
Individualistic
Competitive, conflict
& Custs, emps
Distributed, empower
Team
Collaboration
*Senge 1990
Images of Organisations
Organisations as machines (Morgan 1997) -
Weber observed the parallels between
mechanisation of industry and proliferation
of bureaucracies
Organisations as organisms (Morgan 1997) need to adapt to environment to survive
Inter-relatedness Of The ‘OD’ Dimensions
SIZE
TECHNOLOGY
CULTURE
STRUCTURE
GOALS
&
STRATEGIES
ENVIRONMENT
Organisation & Environment
Systems & Contingency theories
Burns & Stalker (1961) - stable environments
suited mechanistic structures; unstable env.
suited organic structures
Lawrence & Lorsch (1967) - link between
uncertainty, differentiation & integration
Interaction between Technology and
Organisation
Joan Woodward’s studies (1950’s): Successful
firms - complementary structures &
technologies.
Charles Perrow’s studies on analyzability &
variety & the appropriate structures for
different types of technology
The technological imperative
The Tavistock Institute: socio-technical
systems theory
Evolution of Technology
Mass
Customisation
Customised
Unit
Product
Flexibility
CIM*
Mass
Continuous
Standardised
Small
Batch
Size
Large
Information Technology Evolution
Strategic
Weapon
EIS/AIT
Top
Management
Level
First
Line
Resource
MIS / DSS
IS
Evolution
Efficiency
TPS
Low
System
Complexity
High
AIT Implications for Organisations....
Management & OD Implications…….
Decision-making: broader, faster, well-informed
Connectivity - the ‘extended enterprise’
Time and place not as constraining
Flatter org. structure
More control over degree of centralisation
Improved co-ordination/communication
Organisational responsiveness
….AIT Implications for Organisations
Cultural Implications:
Empowerment / co. brainpower / learning
Increased access to information - openness
Relationships may be more informal
Higher skill levels
Collaboration tools facilitate team culture
Job satisfaction
Fact or fashion?
“These days, it’s fashionable to claim that organisations are becoming
flatter. Because of spreading information technologies and the
shrinking number of middle managers, information is supposedly
flowing both vertically and horizontally, becoming more pervasive and
democratic…I’m not persuaded. I see layers added to organisations
as often as I see them removed. I don’t see many low-level workers
having intimate electronic chats with CEOs…
At best, the relationship between organisational change and
information/technology change is a fluid one, with shifts on one side
rippling to the other, back and forth over time, creating incremental
improvements.”
(Davenport 1997, Information Ecology, p. 180)
Structures of the Future?
Art Imitates Life...
Adhocracy (Mintzberg 1988)
Doughnut Organisation (Handy 1994)
Hyperarchy (Evans and Wurster 1997)
Network organisation (Sproull 1991, Champy & Nitin
1996, Kelly 1998)
Adaptive network/dynamic network (Daft 2000)
Virtual Organisation (Grenier & Metes 1995)
Hypertext Organisation (Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995)
Digital Enterprise (Woolner 1998)
Object-oriented organisation (Evans and Wurster 2000)
Challenges?
For post-industrial, extended, network,
virtual...enterprises
Identity, place, trust...
Unifying vision
Leadership
Rewards, recognition & development
Change & stability - need for process & ‘space’
Organisations as mirrors?
New Management for a New Era?
“Each economic age has its optimal form
- a structure most aligned with the
means of wealth creation, dominant
technologies and social context.”
(Woolner in Tapscott 1998, Kelly 1998)