The Intelligent Organization

The Intelligent Organisation proposes a radically different way of designing organisations to capitalise on the potential offered by contemporary information capability. Intelligent Organisations, designed backwards from their customers, recognise information as their key source of competitive advantage. An Intelligent Organisation uses information to drive learning and adaptation at the level of individuals, tasks, processes and the whole organisation, to deliver transformational changes in business performance. This fully updated 2nd edition explores how to enable this change through systemic reinvention. Drawing on proven organisational applications exploiting data, information and management science, and grounded in tested theory, this book is not about incremental improvement, but about fundamentally rethinking the whole. Building on the first edition, two chapters have been added to apply the ideas of the Intelligent Organisation to the individual as well as to the nation. Further discussion on the current issues around technology and ethics have been incorporated, as well as review questions and improved pedagogy. The text contains updated case studies throughout, and is accompanied by a dedicated website, www.intelligentorganisation.com, with support materials for lecturers. Uniquely bridging the gap between information systems and organisational behaviour, The Intelligent Organisation will be of particular significance to Masters and Undergraduate students of Information Systems, Knowledge Management and Organisational Theory.

This is not a book about how to run a company. It is about how to look at the world differently. Ultimately, this will help the reader to deal with complexity more effectively. The market today is flooded with books which claim to show paths to higher organizational effectiveness. Most of these recommendations are given as “recipes for success” and on pragmatic grounds. This book, however, is targeted at all those who want access to the powerful models of systemic manageme nt in order to improve their skills in coping with complexity. The contents are of interest to people who deal with organizations – as leaders and mana gers or specialists, or as advanced students. The purpose is to give them conceptual and methodological guidelines by means of which they can. • Increase the “intelligence” of exis ting organizations by introducing or substituting a better design; • Shape new organizations so that they are “intelligent” from the very start. What are the distinctive features of this book? The book is the result of a long term research effort in to the deep seated, invariant features of organizations, ba sed on the Systems Approach, namely, Organizational Cybernetics and System Dynamics. These sciences have specialized in uncovering such basi c properties. They convey a fresh, sophisticated and unorthodox perspective. It is therefore worthwhile acq uiring the capability of looking at the social world in this different way.

When everyone in an organization is focused on results it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. This book uses the experience of Nokia to develop a frame-work for the organization of the future - one which is efficient, learning and healthy.

Though bureaucracy appears on almost every "biggest problems with business" list, most management books simply suggest ways to make it work better. This book shows how to replace bureaucracy with fundamentally different principles for organizing and coordinating work. Gifford and Elizabeth Pinchot confront head-on the key organizational issues that are threatening the very existence of today's corporations. They assert that "bureaucracy is no more appropriate to the information age than serfdom was to the industrial era. Only freedom and community will work." The Pinchots describe "intelligent organizations" that make full use of the intelligence of all employees. By developing and engaging the intelligence, business judgment, and wide-system responsibility of all its members, an organization can respond far more effectively to customers, partners, and competitors. The Pinchots provide a far-reaching guide to: o establishing internal free markets o liberated teams o community in the workplace o equality and diversity o democratic self-rule o multiple sources of authority o limited corporate government The Pinchots support the sweeping changes they propose with numerous examples of how these changes are already being implemented in such diverse organizations as AT&T, the Canadian National Railroad, DuPont, Russian entrepreneurial firms, Hewlett-Packard, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Information is the organisation's strategic resource, yet much of the information that an organisation recieves, is nuance and innuendo; more of a potential that a prescription for action. This book will help you gain an understanding of how an organisation may manage its information processes more effectively in order to increase its capacity to learn and adapt.

This is not a book about how to run a company. It is about how to look at the world differently. Ultimately, this will help the reader to deal with complexity more effectively. The market today is flooded with books which claim to show paths to higher organizational effectiveness. Most of these recommendations are given as ”recipes for success“ and on pragmatic grounds. This book, however, is targeted at all those who want access to the p- erful models of systemic management in order to improve their skills in coping with complexity. The contents are of interest to people who deal with organizations – as leaders and managers or specialists, or as advanced students. The purpose is to give them conceptual and methodological guidelines by means of which they can Increase the "intelligence" of existing organizations by introducing or substituting a better design; Shape new organizations so that they are "intelligent" from the very start.