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Michael Christie said:
I took a Management course a few years back that described several possible organizational styles, including "Royal" (think of the court, the need to pay tribute, the guards at the doors, etc.), and "Feudal" (think of fiefdoms, lords and serfs, etc.). I don't remember the others off the top of my head. I will have to dig through my garage for the course notes.
In any case, a bit of business history is in order. When the first large corporations started emerging late in the Industrial Revolution, the only existing institutions in Europe of comparable size and complexity were the Catholic Church and the Military. To construct the early models for building large organizations, the Management gurus of the era performed some "benchmarking" against these two venerable institutions, and appropriated the aspects that seemed to work. In other words, deep hierarchies with a command-and-control communications structure. It has taken several centuries for alternative management theories to finally begin to gain acceptance.
So, to kick off the discussion, what lessons can we learn from all this?
Personally, I feel that it is of utmost importance to understand the unique characteristics of any particular organization: who holds the power, how did they obtain this power, and are they sharing it or hoarding it. From that, you can best determine how to proceed.
Just my 2 euro-cents' worth.
Bruce
I do not view the average industrial organization as being "democratic" or "socialist". More like monarchial (heirarchical). What are your views, and how can we use this understanding to forge better organization inside the plant?
In any case, a bit of business history is in order. When the first large corporations started emerging late in the Industrial Revolution, the only existing institutions in Europe of comparable size and complexity were the Catholic Church and the Military. To construct the early models for building large organizations, the Management gurus of the era performed some "benchmarking" against these two venerable institutions, and appropriated the aspects that seemed to work. In other words, deep hierarchies with a command-and-control communications structure. It has taken several centuries for alternative management theories to finally begin to gain acceptance.
So, to kick off the discussion, what lessons can we learn from all this?
Personally, I feel that it is of utmost importance to understand the unique characteristics of any particular organization: who holds the power, how did they obtain this power, and are they sharing it or hoarding it. From that, you can best determine how to proceed.
Just my 2 euro-cents' worth.
Bruce