The Open Organization

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Catalyzing Direction

The purpose of the new management model called the open organization is to build an organization capable of thriving in the new economy—an organization that can respond quickly to external changes without relying on running things up the chain of command. An open organization encourages and fosters initiative and creativity among its members rather than, as Andrew McAfee of the MIT Center for Digital Business puts it, running operations based on “HiPPO—the highest-paid person’s opinion.”¹ The new model that is evolving also appeals to a new generation of employees whose expectations are vastly different from those of people who preceded them in the workplace.

A core function of management systems that I’ve yet to discuss ...