Managing the Organization as a Community of Contributors

Abstract

Today's service and knowledge organizations, which employ around 80percentof the Australian workforce, are no longer managed most effectively as hierarchies of full-time employees. Today's (and tomorrow's) organizations arediverse communities comprising a mix of highly committed, core workers; flexibly employed casual and part-time workers; consultants, contractors, andbusiness partners. Clients, themselves, now do some of the work in service organizations and must be 'managed' as contributors to corporate success. Thesedifferent groups can have very different types of legal, economic and psychological relationships to the organization and, therefore, to its goals and values. This article proposes a classification of the different types of contributorin today's organizational community based on the intended purpose andexpected duration of the relationship between a contributor and the organization. It is argued that the classification can be used as a practical guideby managers at all levels in aligning their management and human resourcepractices with the characteristsics of the different contributor relationships forwhich they are responsible. This should result in more realistic mutual expectations on the part of managers and contributors; greater contributor productivity; more flexible and appropriate career paths ; reduced levels of workplacestress and alienation—and organizations that are more successful in attracting and keeping the best talent.