LOs in Higher Ed LO19962

tom abeles (tabeles@tmn.com)
Sat, 21 Nov 1998 20:01:55 -0600

Replying to LO19954 --

Steve Eskow writes, in part:

> Students of organization like Drucker see it (the university) as the
> kind of decentering
> and decentralizing of the large organization, and the movement of power
> from central administration to the knowledge workiers who have actual,
> rather than nominal, power, as a corporate model of the future.
>

Yet universities are, by nature, very conservative organizations and
resistant to change as Steve points out in another post.

In fact, decentralization or modularization has been pointed out lead to
stability as in diverse ecosystems.

Interestingly, many of the changes in major corporations have been
catalyzed by an individual or a small team. General Electric is one
example with Jack Welsh and Johnsoville meats with Stayer and a host of
others of whom management books abound.

Are we not talking situational management here. the organization, the
environment and the personalities all aligned with the right phase of the
moon. Is this not why these are difficult to duplicate And is this not why
a good management consultant might be the equivalent of a corporate
psycho-therapist giving the patient the catalyst to change?

It puzzles me

thoughts?

tom abeles

-- 

tom abeles <tabeles@tmn.com>

Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>