Tom Peters tells us that good managers are doers. (Wall Street says they “do deals.”) Michael Porter suggests that they are thinkers. Not so, argue Abraham Zaleznik and Warren Bennis: good managers are really leaders.
In response to increasingly heated global competition, organizations today are undergoing massive transformations in the way they are structured, managed, and operated. In focusing their attention on their customers, many organizations are redesigning business processes to deliver products and services more effectively.
In 1988, Sunkist received royalties worth $10.3 million by licensing its name for use on such diverse products as soda, candy, and vitamins.Goodyear claims that their tires are the recommended component of Audi and Mercedes automobiles.K
Global competition is a general trend, and new types of organizations are emerging to service international markets.1 Companies are coordinating manufacturing, distribution, and marketing strategies on a global scale.
U.S. automobile manufacturers have begun to heed the wakeup call that sounded more than a decade ago when Japanese automakers cut deeply into American markets.
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We are witnessing an organic change in American corporate governance. The balance of power among owner, manager, and director is in the process of transformation. The once archetypal model of the CEO’s unchallengeable control of the board of directors and shareholders is fading.
Many academics and practicing managers believe that there are principles for organizing and managing firms that can form a general theory of organization. The quest for the organizational “holy grail” has a long and tortuous history punctuated by bold promises and great disappointments.
How much does your organization know? The author defines technical knowledge and provides a framework for mapping and evaluating levels of knowledge. He shows why automation without adequate knowledge leads to disaster and how to manage knowledge in a world of continual organization learning.