Organizational Survival in the New World

by Alex Bennet, David Bennet

Overview

In this book David and Alex Bennet propose a new model for organizations that enables them to react more quickly and fluidly to today's fast-changing, dynamic business environment: the Intelligent Complex Adaptive System (ICAS). ICAS is a new organic model of the firm based on recent research in complexity and neuroscience, and incorporating networking theory and knowledge management, and turns the living system metaphor into a reality for organizations. This book synthesizes new thinking about organizational structure from the fields listed above into ICAS, a new systems model for the successful organization of the future designed to help leaders and managers of knowledge organizations succeed in a non-linear, complex, fast-changing and turbulent environment. Technology enables connectivity, and the ICAS model takes advantage of that connectivity by fostering the development of dynamic, effective and trusting relationships in a new organizational structure. This book outlines the model in chapter four, and then breaks down the model into its components in the next two chapters. This is a benefit to readers since different components of the model can be implemented at different times, so the book can guide implementation of one or all of the components as a manager sees fit. There are eight characteristics of the ICAS: organizational intelligence, unity and shared purpose, optimum complexity, selectivity, knowledge centricity, flow, permeable boundaries, and multi-dimensionality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781136375040
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/18/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	391
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Alex Bennet, David Bennpson

Table of Contents

Part 1 ? Many of these concepts were originally published as “Rise of the Knowledge Organization” in Barquin, R. C., A. Bennet. and S. G. Remez (eds), Knowledge Management: the Catalyst for Electronic Government, Vienna, VA: Management Concepts, Inc., 2001, and reprinted with that title in Holsapple, C. W. (ed), Handbook on Knowledge Management I: Knowledge Matters, New York Springer-Verlag, 2003; Chapter 1 Moving Beyond The Bureaucratic Model; Chapter 2 The Present and Future Danger, or Why we Need to Change; Part 2 ? The initial concept of the ICAS was first distributed across the Federal government in toolkits published by the De; Part ment of the Navy. External to government, it first appeared in print as “Characterizing the Next Generation Knowledge Organization” and “Exploring Key Relationships in the Next Generation Knowledge Organization” published in Volume 1, Issues 1 and 2, respectively, of Knowledge and Innovation: Journal of the KMCI. A brief overview version of the ICAS titled “Designing the Knowledge Organization of the Future: The Intelligent Complex Adaptive System” was contributed to Holsapple, C. W. (ed), Handbook an Knowledge Management I: Knowledge Matters, New York Springer-Verlag, 2003.; Chapter 3 The Intelligent Complex Adaptive System; Chapter 4 Exploring the Emergent Properties of the ICAS; Chapter 5 Relationships Among Emergent Properties; Part 3 ? The four major processes of organizations were initially addressed in the ZPT Learning Campus: Gaining Acquisition Results Through Integrated Product Teams produced by the Bellwether Learning Center for the De; Part ment of the Navy in 1997. A focused version of the change agent strategy, which was de facto implemented in the De; Part ment of the Navy (DON), was published as “Managing Change” in Porter, D., A. Bennet, R. Turner, and D. Wennergren (eds), The Power of Team: The Making of a CIO, 2002. With permission from DON, this strategy appeared as “The Force of Knowledge: A Case Study of KM Implementation in the De; Part ment of Navy” in Holsapple, C. W. (ed.), Handbook on Knowledge Management 2: Knowledge Directions, Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag, 2003.; Chapter 6 The Learning Structure of the New Organization; Chapter 7 The Action Culture For Success; Chapter 8 The Four Major Organizational Processes; Chapter 9 The art of Collaborative Leadership; Chapter 10 Creating Emergence; Chapter 11 The Change Agent’s Strategy; Chapter 12 Strategy, Balance, and the Correlation of Forces; Chapter 13 A Tale of two Firms; Part 4 ? Sections on integrative competencies are built on material developed for the De; Part ment of the Navy. Several concepts presented in were published as “Learning and the Knowledge Worker” in Koenig, M. and K. Srikantaiah (eds.), Knowledge Management Lessons Learned: What Works arid What Doesn’t, Oxford, NJ: Plexus Books, 2003. Several concepts also appeared in “The; Part nership between Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management” contributed to Holsapple, C. (ed.), Handbook on Knowledge Management 1: Knowledge Matters, New York Springer-Verlag, 2003.; Chapter 14 The New Knowledge Worker; Chapter 15 Knowledge Management; Chapter 16 The Learning Organization; Chapter 17 Learning, Knowledge Management, and Knowledge Workers; Chapter 18 Rethinking Thinking; Chapter 19 Rethinking Thinking; Chapter 20 Knowing; Chapter 21 Networking for the Bottom Line; Part 5 The Probable Future; Chapter 22 Exploring the Unknown; Chapter 23 Summary: and then there Summary: was the ICAS;

Editorial Reviews

"A fascinating report from the front-lines of the new thinking about how organizations thrive (or fail to)."

--Larry Prusak, Consultant and Author

From the Publisher