Sections of this topic
Emerging Nature
and New Organizational Structures and Design
|
Much of the content
of this topic came from this book: 
|
© Copyright Carter
McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Sections of This Article Include
Characteristics of the New Nature of Organizations
New Organizational Structures and Design
Characteristics of the New Nature of Organizations
New forms of organizations are geared to make organizations more
receptive, adaptive and generative — always focused on meeting
the needs of stakeholders. New forms of organizations often exhibit
the following characteristics:
1. Strong employee involvement
– input to the system starts from those closest
to the outcome preferred by the system, from those most in-the-know
about whether the organization is achieving its preferred outcomes
with its stakeholders or not. This way, the organization stays
highly attuned and adaptive to the needs of stakeholders.
2. Organic in nature
– less rules and regulations, sometimes no clear boundaries and
always-changing forms
3. Authority based on capability
– ensures the organization remains a means to an end and not an
end in itself
4. Alliances -takes advantage of economies of scale, e.g., collaborations,
networks, strategic alliances/mergers, etc.
5. Teams -shares
activities to take advantage of economies of scale at the lowest
levels of activities and ensures full involvement of employees
at the lowest levels
6. Flatter, decentralized organizations
– less middle management, resulting in top management exchanging
more feedback with those providing products and services; also
results in less overhead costs
7. Mindfulness of environments,
changes, patterns and themes – priority on reflection
and inquiry to learn from experience; develop “learning organizations”
New
Organizational Structures and Design
Network Structure
This modern structure
includes the linking of numerous, separate organizations to optimize
their interaction in order to accomplish a common, overall goal.
An example is a joint venture to build a complex, technical systems
such as the space shuttle. Another example is a network of construction
companies to build a large structure.
Virtual Organization
This emerging form is
based on organization members interacting with each other completely,
or almost completely, via telecommunications. Members may never
actually meet each other. See
Virtual Teams
Self-Managed Teams
These teams usually include from 5-15 people and are geared to
produce a product or service. Members provide a range of the skills
needed to produce the product. The team is granted sufficient
authority and access to resources to produce their product in
a timely fashion. The hallmark of a self-managed team is that
members indeed manage their own group, i.e., they manage access
to resources, scheduling, supervision, etc. Team members develop
their own process for identifying and rotating members in managerial
roles. Often, authority at any given time rests with whomever
has the most expertise about the current activity or task in the
overall project. Often members are trained in various problem-solving
techniques and team-building techniques. These teams work best
in environments where the technologies to deliver the product
or service are highly complex and the marketplace and organization
environments are continually changing. Self-managed teams pose
a unique challenge for the traditional manager. It can be extremely
difficult for him or her to support empowerment of the self-managed
team, taking the risk of letting go of his or her own control.
Learning Organizations
In an environment where environments are continually changing,
it’s critical that organizations detect and quickly correct its
own errors. This requires continuous feedback to, and within,
the organization. Continual feedback allows the organization to
`unlearn’ old beliefs and remain open to new feedback, uncolored
by long-held beliefs.
In a learning organization, managers
don’t direct as much as they facilitate the workers’ applying
new information and learning from that experience. Managers ensure
time to exchange feedback, to inquire and reflect about the feedback,
and then to gain consensus on direction. Peter Senge, noted systems
theorist, points out in his book, The Fifth Discipline
(Doubleday, 1990, p. 14), that the learning organization is “continually
expanding its capacity to create its future … for a learning
organization, `adaptive learning’ must be joined by `generative
learning,’ learning that enhances our capacity to create.”
Self-Organizing Systems
Self-organizing systems have the ability to continually change
their structure and internal processes to conform to feedback
with the environment. Some writers use the analogy of biological
systems as self-organizing systems. Their ultimate purpose is
to stay alive and duplicate. They exist in increasing complexity
and adapt their structures and forms to accommodate this complexity.
Ultimately, they change structure dramatically to adjust to the
outer environment. (Some assert that self-managed groups are self-organizing
systems, although others assert that self-managed groups are not
because an ultimate purpose is assigned to team members).
A self-organizing system requires a strong current goal or purpose. It requires
continual feedback with its surrounding environment. It requires continual reference
to a common set of values and dialoguing around these values. It requires continued
and shared reflection around the system’s current processes. The manager of
this type of organization requires high value on communication and a great deal
of patience — and the ability to focus on outcomes rather than outputs. Focus
is more on learning than on method.
This Article is in a Series About Understanding Organizational Structures and Design
This article is the eighth in the series which includes:
1. What is an Organization?
2. What
Makes Each Organization Unique
3. How They’re the Same: They’re Systems
4. Basic Overview of Life Cycles in
Organizations
5. Basic Overview of Organizational
Culture
6. Legal Forms and Traditional
Structures of Organizations
7. Driving Forces and a New Organizational
Paradigm
8. Emerging Nature and New
Organizational Structures and Design
9. Basic Guidelines for Organizational
Design
10. Wrap
Up: Grasping the Big Picture in Organizations (video)
Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to New Forms of Organizations
In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which
have posts related to New Forms of Organizations. Scan down the blog’s page
to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in
the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post
in the blog.
Library’s
Consulting and Organizational Development Blog
Library’s
Leadership Blog
Library’s
Nonprofit Capacity Building Blog
Also consider
Organizational Structures and Design
Materials Apply to Nonprofits and For-Profits
For the Category of Organizational Development:
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
