The coming of the new organization

Abstract

The typical large business 20 years henee will have fewer than hall the levéis of management of its counterpart today and no more than a third the managers. ln its structure, and in its management problems and concerns, it will bear little resemblance to the typical manufacturing company, circa 1950, which our textbooks still consider the norm. Instead it is far more likely to resemble organizations that neither the practicing manager ñor the management scholar pays much attention to today: the hospital, the uni- versity, the symphony orchestra. For like them, the typical business will be knowledge-based, an orga­nization composed largely of specialists who direct and discipline their own performance through organized feedback from colleagues, customers, and headquarters. For this reason, it will be what I call an information-based organization.