Emerging organizational forms: Work and organization in the 21st century

Abstract

This article begins with the premise that there is continuous and accelerating change in the Western World in the nature of work and how it is organized. An important contributory force is information technology — itself changing rapidly. When the dynamics of the external environment of organizations are added to changes in IT, we will see new forms of organizations evolving in the business world, such as the ‘starburst’ and ‘internal market’ structures. Michael Scott Morton supplies a diagram to illustrate the framework of research which the ‘1990s’ program at MIT is following — how to balance the dynamic tension between external forces and the internal dimensions of organizations to reward shareholders adequately. He refers to one of Peter Senge's ideas in The Fifth Dimension which is central in creating an organization which learns how to innovate constantly: System Thinking — the search for systemic patterns. It reinforces Scott Morton's argument, and seems a particularly appropriate discipline in a continuously turbulent business environment.