Managing in a Time of Great Change

CHAPTER SIX

Managing in the Network Society

FOR WELL OVER A HUNDRED years all developed countries were moving steadily toward an employee society of organizations. Now this trend is reversing itself. The developed countries, with the United States in the lead, are moving fast toward a network society—in respect to the relationship between organizations and individuals who work for them, and in respect to the relationships between different organizations. Managing in this new Network Society will require different behavior, different skills, different attitudes.

There were, of course, plenty of employed people before 1860 and 1870 when Big Business and Big Civil Service emerged as the first modern organizations. There were domestic servants and ...