Society of organizations

Topic

Notes

The society of organizations

An organization is …

A human group composed of specialists

Working together on a common task

The function of organizations

To make knowledge productive

The more specialized knowledges are, the more effective they will be

Have to be put together with the work of other specialist to become results

Knowledges by themselves are sterile

Specialist are effective only as specialists—and knowledge workers have to be effective

The most highly effective knowledge workers do not want to be anything but narrow specialists

Specialist need exposure to the universe of knowledge

But they need to work as specialists

and to concentrate on being specialist

And for this to produce results, an organization is needed

Organization as a distinct species

All one species …

Armies

Churches

Universities

Hospitals

Businesses

Labor unions

They are the man-made environment, the “social ecology” of post-capitalist society

Management is a generic function pertaining to all organizations

The characteristics of organizations

Organizations are special-purpose institutions

They are effective because they concentrate on one task

In an organization, diversification means splintering

It destroys performance capacity

Organization is a tool

The more specialized its given task, the greater its performance capacity

Its mission must be crystal clear

Because the organization is composed of specialists

Each with his or her own narrow knowledge area

Otherwise its member become confused

They will follow their specialty

Rather than applying it to the common task

They will each define “results” in terms of that specialty

imposing their own values on the organization

Only a clear, focused, and common mission can hold the organization together and enable it to produce results

The prototype of the modern organization is the symphony orchestra

Many high-grade specialists

By themselves they don’t make music. Only the orchestra can do that

Perform because they have the same score

Results exist only on the outside

Organizations exist to produce results on the outside

Discussion of “profit centers” vs. “cost-centers”

Results in an organization are always pretty far away from what each member contributes

Results need to be defined clearly and unambiguously

and, if at all possible, measurably

Organizations need to appraise and judge itself and its performance against clear, known, impersonal objectives and goals

“Voluntary” membership and the ability to leave an organizations

Organizations are always in competition for its essential resource qualified, knowledgeable, dedicated people

Need to market membership

Have to attract people

Have to hold people

Have to recognize and reward people

Have to motivate people

Have to serve and satisfy people

Has to be an organization of equals, of “colleagues,” of “associates”

The position of each is determined by its contribution to the common task

rather than by any inherent superiority or inferiority

Must be organized as a team of “associates”

They are always managed

Have “leaders”

May be perfunctory and intermittent

Or may be a full-time and demanding job for a fairly large group of people

Have to be people who make decisions

or nothing will get done

Have to be people who are accountable for the organization’s

mission

spirit

performance

results

Must be a “conductor” who controls the “score”

There have to be people who

focus the organization on its mission

set the strategy to carry it out

define what the results are

This management has to have considerable authority

Yet its job in the knowledge organization is not to command; it is to direct

To be able to perform, an organization must be autonomous

Cannot be used to carry out “government policy”

Organization as a destabilizer

The organization of the post-capitalist society of organizations is a destabilizer

Its function is to put knowledge to work

on tools, processes, and products

on knowledge itself

It must be organized for constant change

It must be organized for innovation

It must be organized for systematic abandonment of …

the established

the customary

the familiar

the comfortable

products, services, and processes

human and social relationships

skills

organizations themselves

Knowledge changes fast

Today’s certainties will be tomorrow’s absurdities

Skills change slowly and infrequently

Changes that most profoundly affect a knowledge do not, as a rule, come out of its own area

Social innovation is as important as new science or new technology in creating new knowledges and in making old ones obsolete

Purposeful innovation has itself become an organized discipline

Which is both teachable and learnable

Every organization has to build into its very structure the management of change

Organized abandonment

It has to build in organized abandonment of everything it does.

Increasingly, organizations will have to plan abandonment rather than try to prolong the life of a successful policy: practice, or product—something which so far only a few large Japanese companies have faced up to.

(On this, see Chapter 24, “The New Japanese Business Strategies,” in Managing for the Future (1992).

The ability to create the new (three systematic practices)

Continuing improvement of everything it does (Kaizen)

What every artist does

Aim is to improve each product or service so that it becomes a truly different product or service in two or three year’s time

Learn to exploit

Develop new applications from its own successes

Learn how to innovate

Learn that innovation can should be organized as a systematic process

Then we come back to abandonment and we start all over again

Post-capitalist society has to be decentralized

Its organizations must be able to make fast decisions

Based on closeness …

to performance

to the market

to technology

to the changes in society, environment, and demographics

all of which and utilized as opportunities for innovation

Organizations in the post-capitalist society thus constantly upset, disorganize, and destabilize the community

The “culture” of the organization must transcend community

The nature of the tasks that determines the culture of an organization

If the organization’s culture clashes

with the values of the community

the organization’s culture will prevail

or else the organization will not make its social contribution

“Knowledge knows no boundaries”

Of necessity every knowledge organization is of necessity non-national, non-community

Even if totally embedded in the local community

The employee society

Another way to describe the phenomenon of the society of organizations

Employees who work in subordinate and menial occupations

Service workers

The wage earner, the “worker” of yesterday

Knowledge workers

1/3 of the work force

They own the “means of production”

Cannot, in effect, be supervised

Cannot be told what to do, how to do it, how fast to do it and so on

Unless they know more than anybody else in the organization they are to all intents and purposes useless

They hold a crucial card in their mobility

Organizations and knowledge workers are interdependent

“Loyalty” will have to be earned by proving to knowledge employees that the organization which presently employs them can offer them exceptional opportunities to be effective

Capital now serves the employee