Organizations: New Concepts for New Forms

Following a decade of declining productivity and failed organizations, many U.S. companies in the eighties have been forced to rethink their competitive approaches. This search is producing a new organizational form—a unique combination of strategy, structure, and management processes that the authors refer to as the network. This new form is forcing the development of new concepts and language and provides new insights into the workings of existing strategies and structures. In the future, many organizations will be designed using concepts such as vertical disaggregation, internal and external brokering, full-disclosure information systems, and market substitutes for administrative mechanisms. This article describes where and how rapidly the dynamic network form will emerge and discusses its implications for strategists, organization designers, and policymakers.