The Human Organization

The Human Organization is a response to the network morphology. As networks supersede hierarchy as the predominant form of organization, fluid processes and flexible teams need to replace fixed reporting lines and familiar functions. The barriers to achieving this are more often cultural and emotional than they are commercial and technological. This paper proposes that effective knowledge‐based businesses will be built on human network connections. This requires much greater investment in social processes of integration and in our individual ability to connect with each other. Without this human agenda, the openness and learning on which the generative knowledge‐based environment depends will remain beyond our reach, together with our ability to work and transfer knowledge across complex and shifting organizational boundaries.