It was Charles Handy (1989) who stood
at the threshold of the new century and made predictions about how the
changing world would change organizations. Handy's ideas were decades ahead of their time;
they were also decades ago. Today, a myriad of new trends are converging at the outset
of the 21st century that will affect how
business is done. Technology is forcing companies
and leaders to be more open and collaborative (Li & Bernoff, 2008; Li,
2008). A new generation, the millennials, are entering
the workforce with new attitudes and aspirations (Alsop,
2008). Even the very nature of work is changing, from left-minded processing
and operations, to right-brained creative and design work (Pink,
2006). These trends are combining to form a perfect storm that
is redefining business as usual. From structure to strategy and even to
incentive compensation, many organizations are changing their designs in order to
remain competitive in this new environment. Of these changes, three designs in
particular are thriving: federal, lattice and
starfish organizations.
The concept of a federal organization was first identified by Charles Handy
(1989), in which subsidiary organizations join together in order to gain the benefits
of scale. In a federal organization, coordination and vision come from the leadership
but initiatives are made by the component subsidiary organizations.
Federal organizations are one solution that companies are using to deal with
the dilemma of power and control. According to Handy, the federal organization
structure provides a framework that enables autonomy and releases corporate
energy for people to do things in their own way, so long as it is in the common interest.
While federal organizations are easily recognized in government, from the United States
to the European Union, many companies are beginning to experiment with
federalization as well. Dutch-Anglo multinational,
Unilever is one of the more famous federal organizations. It benefits from the
sheer scale of its organization, despite its
various subsidiary companies and products as diverse as Dove soap and
Hellman's mayonnaise. |
