A lot, actually. Take bureaucracy, for example: It’s likely that the word is perceived negatively by you and many others. Judging by public opinion one would be forgiven for thinking that this organizing principle has had a bad effect on society.
Yet as a principle, bureaucracy has been tremendously successful over thousands of years, evidenced by the fact that it is the mother of all incumbent systems today. During the 17th century bureaucracy, or ‘rule by office’ became an effective counter measure to governments being staffed by friends, relatives, or those of a particular social or ethnic group.
By definition a bureaucracy is rational, neutral, and merit-based. Perhaps it’s getting the blame for the effects of something else. To my mind the real enemy has and may always be self-interest.
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Book review: The Future of Management, by Gary Hamel with Bill Breen.
Gary Hamel’s latest book, The Future of Management comes at a time when many companies, especially those in the U.S., face overwhelming competition from Chinese and Indian firms, not to mention established competition from Japan and Western Europe.
Hamel asks if companies constantly innovate new products, and improve existing ones, why don’t they do the same to their management approach? This might imply a change in management style away from a militaristic command-and-control model of past centuries, to a latticed, network style of management birthed out of how the Internet has changed the way we think of information and communities. [click to continue…]
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