Book Summary Preview : Organizational Survival in the New World

The Big Idea

Successful organizations are those that are capable of achieving their goals and objectives over time; not to mention being respected and admired by employees, stockholders, and the community.  Along with vision and purpose, the external environment, particularly its predictability and compatibility, also plays a crucial factor in the success of any organization.  The emerging business environment, however, has demonstrated to managers the inadequacy of traditional models, methods, and perspectives of doing business in ensuring long-term success for their organizations.  Moreover, globalization and the materialization of a “knowledge economy” make it imperative for organizations to adopt more effective models of the firm and better organizational principles and practices.

It is in this context that Organizational Survival in the New World presents the intelligent complex adaptive system (ICAS), a new systems model for the successful organization of the future.  This book offers a description of the next-generation organization designed to effectively deal with the turbulent business environment of today. It also provides a clear and comprehensive road map towards developing better organizational structures and management systems using the latest research in knowledge management and complexity theory. 

Furthermore, this book provides a new model of the firm that will be helpful to those who wish to conduct business successfully and differently in the coming years.  This is a valuable resource for senior executives in the corporate and government sectors, professionals in knowledge management, organizational behavior and development, systems theory, human resources, organizational development, and managers who aspire to succeed in the emerging global knowledge economy.

I.  The Emerging Business Environment
Over the past decade, the general business environment can be best described as increasingly dynamic, uncertain, and complex.  In addition, a shift towards a knowledge-centric society, from being an industrial society and from being an information-based society, is also becoming prevalent.  

This situation is a result of various factors, one of which is the increasing economic affluence and increased educational level of workers, especially from the more developed countries.  This prompted many of these workers to demand more recognition, respect, and greater participation and determination in their work.  On top of that, progress in science and technology, particularly the advances in their application in business, plays a dominant role in creating the present global business landscape and in determining the path by which these organizations must adapt, compete, and excel in.
 
Accordingly, many top organizations have made significant changes to become world-class organizations.  They have adopted methods, tools, structures, and principles that enable them to overcome barriers and achieve organizational efficiency, effectiveness, sustained competitive advantage, as well as satisfy the needs of stakeholders, customers, employees, the environment, and the community.  Nonetheless, many managers and top executives are still unsure of what exact principles and practices to adopt and implement that will ensure enduring success for their organizations.

For instance, many modern organizations are still in the dark on how best to capitalize on the benefits of information technology and create the appropriate culture that will enable them to achieve their corporate objectives and generate high productivity.  Moreover, most “solutions” to change are at best guidelines since each organization exists in a unique environment, with its own organizational structure, culture, leadership, and health parameters.

II.  Why the Need for a New Theory of the Firm?
Man has always aspired for a stable and predictable environment for in this type of environment is man most able to thrive and advance.  In addition, organizations, by virtue of their vast resources and size, have often acted as protective walls against uncertainties, changes, and instabilities.  This perception and feeling of stability help allay people’s fears, concerns, and anxieties.   

Equally important, however, is the fact that every organization exists at the pleasure of its economic, sociological, political, and technological environment.  Moreover, it is technology that largely determines how this environment evolves.  Consequently, the world that technology helps create carries its own rules, limitations, and constraints.  As such, a re-orientation, re-structuring, and re-design of organizations from the bottom-up are required for them to act intelligently and to triumph over threats to their existence.

For this reason, organizations need to become stable to be successful. They also need to develop the capacity to adapt and co-evolve, in an ecological sense, with their external environment.  Furthermore, their internal organizational environment must not only encourage and support these changes, but also have the requisite structure and culture to influence behavior towards organizational survival. 

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