Rita McGrath

Organizations Unfettered: Organizational Form in an Information-Intensive Economy

Abstract:
The transition from an economy based on materials to an economy based on flows of information have created considerable challenges for organization design by unfettering many organizational aspects from physical constraints. We view the resulting new organizational forms as coping with four core issues: interdependence; disembodiment; velocity; and power. The nine papers in this special issue provide evidence for how forms have changed; as well as which aspects of traditional theorizing are likely to continue to be robust. Core themes reflected are an acceptance of contradiction and paradox, a shift in the goal of organizing from buffering against uncertainty to responding to it, a strategic focus on structure and process design, a re-emphasis on the social and interpersonal and a re-emergence of issues of legitimacy.

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