Page 162 - Managing Change in Organizations

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The innovative organization
In essence the emphasis is on getting things done, allowing autonomy as far as
is possible to middle-level managers. Linked to this is a concern for individual
accountability.
In much the same way it has been argued that ‘excellent’ or ‘high-performing’
companies emphasize the following nine characteristics:

1 Concern for the future.
2 A concern to develop human resources.
3 A focus on the product/service being provided.
4 An orientation to the technologies in use.
5 A concern for quality, excellence, service and competence.
6 An orientation to ‘outsiders’, clients, customers, the community and shareholders.
7 Constant adaptation of reward systems and corporate values.
8 A focus on the basis of ‘making and selling’.
9 Open to new ideas.

Here the same concern is shown for the basics of the organization’s business,
whatever this may be, and the same concern to balance internal and external
issues is in evidence. For many organizations the concern expressed for the
external environment, combined with quality, involves a new emphasis on serv-
ice and on marketing as a means of achieving competitive advantage or more
effective utilization of resources and public support (notably, but not exclusively,
for public sector organizations).
It is interesting to contrast these ideas with the following view of what makes
for an effective organization which emerges from the organizational develop-
ment (OD) literature (see Strauss (1976) for an excellent and critical review):
■ Lack of status differentials.
■ Innovation.
■ Sharing of responsibility.
■ Expression of feelings and needs.
■ Collaboration.
■ Open, constructive conflict.
■ Feedback.
■ Flexible leadership.
■ Involvement.
■ Trust.
This makes important additions to the first two sets of ideas. Open and constructive
conflict is important, as is the recognition of individual needs. Interestingly enough
the concerns are essentially, if not necessarily, internal concerns. The OD literature
appears to give primacy to the staff and rarely mentions clients or customers.
Nevertheless, organizations which can create an ‘organizational climate’ which
encourages those latter characteristics and achieves the balance of internal and
external concerns referred to above seem likely to establish effectiveness.

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