The Leadership Capital Index

CHAPTER 12Work Processes

Investors Want Organizations That Govern Work to Cope with Increasing Change

The concept of work—the accomplishment of necessary tasks—has evolved over centuries. People have worked as isolated individuals and in small bands, in guild-sponsored associations, in factories, and in service and knowledge firms.¹ To get things done in large groups, people have evolved hierarchies based on principles of bureaucracy, which call for a clear structure for decision making and coordination of work, division of labor for specialized functional expertise and managerial control, and power and status based on position.²

In increasingly complex environments, organizations have been effective when they coordinate work through roles, control ...