Sections of this topic
© Copyright Carter
McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Sections of This Article Include
Driving Forces of Change
Traits of the New Paradigm
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Driving Forces of Change
Around the 1960s and today, the environment of today’s organizations
has changed a great deal. A variety of driving forces provoke
this change. Increasing telecommunications has “shrunk”
the world substantially. The increasing diversity of workers has brought
in a wide array of differing values, perspectives, and expectations
among workers. Public consciousness has become much more sensitive
and demanding that organizations be more socially responsible.
Much of the third-world countries have joined the global marketplace,
creating a wider arena for sales and services. Organizations became
responsible not only to stockholders (those who owned stock) but
to a wider community of “stakeholders.”
As a result of the above driving forces,
organizations were required to adopt a “new paradigm,”
or view the world, to be more sensitive, flexible, and adaptable
to the demands and expectations of stakeholders demands. Many organizations
have abandoned or are abandoning the traditional top-down, rigid
and hierarchical structures to more “organic” and fluid
forms.
Today’s leaders and/or managers must
deal with continual, rapid change. Managers faced with a major
decision can no longer refer back to an earlier developed plan
for direction. Management techniques must continually notice changes
in the environment and organization, assess these changes and manage
change. Managing change does not mean controlling it, but rather understanding
it, adapting to it where necessary, and guiding it when possible.
Managers can’t know it all or reference resources for every situation. Managers
must count on and listen more to their employees. Consequently, new forms of
organizations are becoming more common, e.g., worker-centered teams, self-organizing
and self-designing teams.
Traits of the New Paradigm
Marilyn Ferguson, in The New Paradigm: Emerging Strategic for
Leadership and Organizational Change (Michael Ray and Alan
Rinzler, Eds., 1993, New Consciousness Reader), provides a very
concise overview of the differences between the old and new paradigms.
(The following is summarized.)
|
Old Paradigm |
New Paradigm |
| promote consumption at all costs | appropriate consumption |
| people to fit jobs | jobs to fit people |
| imposed goals, top-down decision making | autonomy encouraged, worker participation |
| fragmentation in work and roles | cross-fertilization by specialists seeing wide relevance |
| identification with job | identity transcends job description |
| clock model of company | recognition of uncertainty |
| aggression, competition | cooperation |
| work and play are separate | blurring of work and play |
| manipulation and dominance | cooperation with nature |
| struggle for stability | sense of change, of becoming |
| quantitative | qualitative as well as quantitative |
| strictly economic motives | spiritual value transcends material gain |
| polarized | transcends polarities |
| short-sighted | ecologically sensitive |
| rational | rational and intuitive |
| emphasis on short-term solutions | recognition that long-range efficiency must take into account harmonious work environment |
| centralized operations | decentralized operations when possible |
| runaway, unbridled technology | appropriate technology |
| allopathic treatment of symptoms | attempt to understand the whole, locate deep underlying causes of disharmony |
This Article is in a Series About Understanding Organizational Structures and Design
This article is the seventh 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)
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