The Necessary Nature of Future Firms

George P. Huber - The University of Texas at Austin, USA, School of Geography, University Oxford Centre for the Environment

Other Titles in:
Change Management | Organization Studies (General)

February 2004 | 328 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

Firms - like all living systems - must be congruent with, aligned with, compatible with their environments, or they will not survive. Among the features examined in depth are practices and structural arrangements that enable firms to more rapidly and effectively: sense and interpret threats and opportunities; get decisions made; acquire and manage knowledge; innovate; and change - while simultaneously dealing with the needs for efficiency, flexibility, and employee commitment.

Chapter 1 Dangerous Deficiencies

WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHAT IS NOT?

THE ROLE OF TOP MANAGEMENT

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Chapter 2 The Future Environments of Business Organizations

SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AND IMPROVED TECHNOLOGY

Scientific Knowledge

Improved Technologies

Mental Blocks to Imagining a Different World on the Same Planet

Interim Summary and Transition

THE COMPLEXITY OF FUTURE ENVIRONMENTS

Environmental Variety

Environmental Density and Interdependence

Interim Summary and Transition

ENVIRONMENTAL DYNAMISM AND COMPETITIVENESS

Velocity, Turbulence, and Instability

Environmental Competitiveness

Chapter 3 Sensing and Interpreting the Environment

FACIT AB

IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SENSING AND INTERPRETATION

Consequences and Importance of Interpretation

ENVIRONMENTAL SENSING IN FUTURE FIRMS

Intelligence Gathering

Intelligence Gathering As a Staff Function? As an Outsourced Function?

Intelligence Gathering As Specialized Accountability

Intelligence Gathering As Eclectic Responsibility

Supporting Sensors

Probing the Environment

Sensing Early Responses to the Firm's Actions and Products

Top Managers As Environmental Sensors

INTERPRETING WHAT IS SENSED

Declines in Quality and Timeliness of Organizational Interpretations

Enhancing Interpretation in Future Firms

Faulty Interpretations

Chapter 4 Organizational Decision Making

DECISIONS AND DECISION MAKING RESOURCE IN FUTURE FIRMS

Increasing Environmental Dynamism and Its Consequences

Increasing Environmental Complexity and Its Consequences

Increasing Competitiveness and Its Consequences

Decision Maker Capabilities: Past, Present, Future

DECISION MAKING PRACTICES IN FUTURE FIRMS

Ensuring Scope

Ensuring Speed

Effects of Forthcoming Information Technologies on Decision Speed and Scope

IT Investments Focused on Analysis

IT Investments Focused on Communication

TEMPTING PRACTICES

Intuitive Decision Making

Satisfying and Analogizing

Firms' Responses to Personal Propensities to Use Short-cut Methods

Chapter 5 Knowledge Acquisition: Organizational Learning

LEARNING, KNOWLEDGE, AND INNOVATION

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING: A PRACTICE WHOSE TIME HAS COME

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE

Highly Effective Learning Experiences: Designed Experiments

Highly Effective Learning Experiences: Natural Experiments

Highly Effective Learning Experiences: Learning from Action Probes and Operations

Highly Effective Learning Experiences: Learning by Observing Samples of One or Fewer

LEARNING FROM OTHERS - VICARIOUS LEARNING

Absorptive Capacity

Importing Knowledge in the Form of Expertise

Enhancing Organizational Learning by Enhancing Individual Learning

INTRODUCING LEARNING PRACTICES

Chapter 6 Leveraging Learning through Knowledge Management

SEMATECH

THE FOUR REPOSITORIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE

THE NEED TO MANAGE KNOWLEDGE

DIRECT, INFORMAL KNOWLEDGE SHARING

An Example of How Motivation Can Negatively Affect Direct, Informal Knowledge Sharing

Organizational Culture: An Achievable Solution to the Problem of Motivation?

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Motivational Issues in Knowledge Management Systems

Managing Motivation in Knowledge Management Systems

Situational Influences Favoring the Use of Extrinsic Motivators

Long-lived traditions and cultures

Increased use of teams, and of incentives for team performance

Lower levels of organizational and group identification

Person-to-Person Knowledge Sharing from a Distance

PLANNED KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER ACROSS TEAMS

Capturing and Transferring Team Learning

Obstacles to Intra-Organizational Knowledge Transfer, and Solutions

Chapter 7 Innovation: The Integration and Exploitation of Knowledge

OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALIZATION

WITHIN-FIRM APPROACHES TO INTEGRATING KNOWLEDGE: A BRIEF RECOUNTING OF CURRENT STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES

Interim Summary and Transition

KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION STRUCTURES IN FUTURE FIRMS

CHANGES IN INTRA-FIRM STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES

Dividing and Coordinating the Work

Coordination Processes

INTER-FIRM STRUCTURES

Knowledge Transfer Between Levels and Across Firms: A Brief Update on Current Practice

CHANGES IN EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

Changes in Staffing Practices

Finding Expertise

CHANGES IN EXPERTS' EMPLOYMENT STRATEGIES

Factors Curtailing the Growth in Independent Contracting

Chapter 8 Dealing with the Simultaneous Needs for Change, Productivity, Flexibility and Employee Commitment

MORE-THAN-OCCASIONAL CONFLICTS

Change-Productivity Conflict

Change-Commitment Conflict

Change-Flexibility Conflict

Productivity-Commitment Conflict

Flexibility-Productivity Conflict and Flexibility-Commitment Conflict

DOWNSIZING

Downsizing in the Future

Forces Inhibiting Downsizing

Loss of Organizational Knowledge

Lower Productivity of Retained Employees

Decreased Effectiveness of Inter-firm Relations

Increases in Unwanted Turnover

USE OF TEMPORARY AND CONTRACT WORKERS

Forces Inhibiting Use of Temporary Workers

CHANGE AND CULTURE

Environmental Effects on Future Firms' Cultures

Environmental Effects on Management's Culture-managing Actions and Success

Unintended Adverse Effects on the Firm's Culture

How Cultures Affect the Ability of the Firm to Change

CULTURE AND COMPENSATION

Organizational Culture

Changes in the Conditions Favoring Direct Supervision

Changes in Conditions Favoring Pay for Performance

Changes in Conditions Favoring Pay for Performance for Teams

Changes in Conditions Favoring Use of Organizational Culture

Epilogue

“After a
lifetime of important insights in the areas of organizational design and
decision making, Huber has produced his magnum opus. His insights and ideas can
help even the most seasoned manager see the world differently and become more
effective.”

C. Chet Miller

Wake Forest University, Director of the Executive MBA Program at Wake Forest University and former Director of the Executive MBA Program at Baylor University

"This
is an important book for any manager who faces a rapidly changing and
increasingly competitive environment--which is to say, virtually every manager.
Huber makes a cogent case for the fact that businesses will face much more
dynamic and competitive environments in the future than they face today. More
importantly, he offers practical advice for how managers can prepare for the
uncertain future they face. Clearly written and carefully grounded in the best
research evidence available, this book stands head and shoulders above the many
management books offering short-term fads, fashions, and therapies of the
moment."

Richard T. Mowday

University of Oregon, former President of the Academy of Management, and former Editor of the Academy of Management Journal

“Huber
gives a compelling account of the future landscape that many managers have to
face today. Filled with solid academic research laced with real-world examples,
Huber not only conveys the shape of that landscape, but also the roadmap to
navigate it.”

Kathleen M. Eisenhardt

Stanford University and coauthor of Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos

"George
Huber makes an important contribution with profound insights on what the future
firm will look like. It will be congruent with its environment. To realize
opportunities from continuing advances in science and technology and
environmental complexity, the successful firm in the future will be especially
good at gaining environmental intelligence, learning and integrating knowledge,
and being innovative and flexible. This
is not a fanciful prophesy; it is a necessary logical conclusion that Huber
draws from an extensive body of scientific knowledge."

Andrew H. Van de Ven

University of Minnesota, Past President of the Academy of Management, and coauthor of Organizational Change and Innovation Processes

"Huber's The
Necessary Nature of Future Firms is a remarkable tour de force of
state-of-the-art knowledge about organizational structures, processes and
performance. The book integrates what we know about fundamental phenomenon in
organizations such as decision making, learning, and innovation. What is
exceptional about the book is Huber's ability to integrate research findings to
develop thoughtful guidelines for managers about how to design their firms to
be effective, both now and in the future."

Linda Argote

Carnegie Mellon University, Editor in Chief of Organization Science, and author of Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining and Transferring Knowledge

"The book is written in an easy style and has no management jargon. It also provides flow charts and appendices wherever necessary to facilitate understanding. The notes at the end of each chapter and selected references at the end of the book provide an inquisitive reader a rich source to dig deeper. The book also provides interim and final summaries of each chapter, which greatly enhances recapitulation. the book is mainly meant for managers and graduate management students."

Amit Dhiman

Indian Institute of Management