The Executive in the Year 2000

Abstract

It is the assertion of this article that the role of the executive needs to change in response to the environment. The basic function of the executive-melding of individual diversities into a unified effort toward meaningful organizational ends-should remain constant. However, the role of executives-the part they play in the melding process-should move toward establishing and maintaining a decision-making process that ensures fairness and procedural justice as the open debate continues over the meaningful organizational ends and the effectual means to achieve them. The article argues that this new executive role is the natural outgrowth of greater accessibility to information, flattened structures, outsourced functions, and the inevitable expansion of empowerment that flows from these organizational and environmental changes. The article concludes by boldly predicting that emerging environmental changes may soon drive the role of the executive from the realm of organization theory to that of political theory.