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Twenty-First-Century
Organizations
Hitt, M.
(1998). Twenty first century organizations: Business firms, business
schools, and the academy.
Academy of Management Review, 23,218-224
Will organizations last into the future
- the globally and technologically driven new economic age and
industrial revolution that will greatly change the organization.
This article focuses on the new
economic age and industrial revolution we have come into that is
globally and technologically driven and how and what effects it will
have on changes in organizations. The author focuses on three
attributes of the revolution that will be crucial for organizations
to consider if they want to last into the future.
The first is the "increasing importance of innovation and the
diffusion of this innovation into the marketplace. Mass
customization and speed are key aspects to consider in creating and
marketing a product.
The second attribute is the "emphasis on
information". The number of computers and devices for
wireless communication is expected to increase in vast amounts,
along with the use of the Internet and the power of such machines to
facilitate this stress on information.
The third attribute is "the importance of
knowledge". Firms are realizing that they can gain a
competitive advantage in their field with certain types and
increased amounts of knowledge and are therefore emphasizing
organizational learning to gain this.
Globalization of business is another
phenomenon that is occurring in this new age. Economic
necessity and opportunity has encouraged many companies to move into
international markets. This, in turn, has led to many firms
incorporating globalization into their strategy for the future and a
global restructuring in many industries. Businesses are
finding themselves on new territory surrounded by change and
uncertainty and if they take too long to look around they will miss
their chance to make it into the future.
The life span of business
organizations is expected to drop in the next century.
However, in order to survive, they must "achieve business
flexibility" if they expect to compete as a contender.
One of the tactics increasingly being used to accomplish this is the
use of contingency employees who work part time, on contract on just
temporarily. Even more important for survival could be the
need to build human capital which creates dynamic flexibility.
Firms are investing increasing amounts into the development of their
employees by providing training in order to acquire necessary skills
and knowledge to compete in the future. It is necessary that
businesses continue to build and adapt their core competencies for
this continually changing era as well. Cooperative strategies,
which allow companies to share both risk and capital, is a tool of
the new century that many firms are investing in, although many are
finding out that not just any partner will do. Finally,
effective leadership is a must to become and maintain a successful
business in the upcoming years. This includes a great amount
of vision, foresight, and courage among leaders and diverse
management teams with strong management skills.
As businesses will be adapting for
the future, so must the institutions that teach this trade, as far
as content and even the process of teaching. It is expected
that there will be many technological developments that will impact
the learning environment such as more user friendly and accessible
machine interfaces that that are driven by human sound, highly
friendly software geared toward locating information and
accomplishing tasks for us, and machines that are able to learn,
diagnose adapt, etc. Virtual cases will be used in the
classroom as training and doing begin to emerge as one in the same.
And such cases and enhanced machines may lead to less time in the
classroom. Research will evolve as multidisciplinary thinking
is stressed and it is conducted increasingly through global
collaboration. Business schools themselves may take on varied
characteristics. They may decrease in North America but grow
globally in size, amount and quality and thus be more competitive
overall. They also must maintain superior leadership and
become entrepreneurial to stay alive in the future.
The Academy of Management is the
last major institution this article covers in discussing the
necessary actions it must take to make it into the future.
Four general actions are suggested.
The first involves the Academy becoming "part of the
world", or giving up their "U.S.-phobic approach to
management education and research and to operation of the
Academy". The second involves the Academy maintain
leadership in promoting "top-quality, cutting edge research on
management". Thirdly, the article states that
the need for the Academy to "continuously evaluate the mix of
services offered to members with particular emphasis on fulfilling
members' needs". And finally, the Academy must
"think and act strategically and continually evaluate their
current and potential competition".
Overall, this article seemed to give
a realistic glimpse into the future as far as what the business
world should expect and ideas about how to prepare to become or
continue to be a world leader in the 21st century.
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