The Nature of Systems

100 Pages·2012·4.7 MB·English

Re-Creating the Corporation
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Re-Creating
the Corporation
A Design of Organizations
for the 21st Century
Russell L. Ackoff
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press
1999
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 1999 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ackoff, Russell Lincoln, 1919-
Re-creating the corporation : a design of organizations for the 21st century
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-512387-5
1. Management. 2. Industrial organization.
3. System theory. 4. Organizational change. 5. Business planning. I. Title.
HD31.A284 1999 658—dc21 99-13605
135798642
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To "THE GUYS"
who keep my mind from falling asleep
Herb Addison
BillAltier
Dick Clelland
Jamshid Gharajedaghi
Norm Gross
Aron Katsenelinboigen
Bijan Khorram
Jay Minas
Louis Padulo
Shel Rovin
Iraj Zandi
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No century in recorded history has experienced so
many social transformations and such radical ones as
the twentieth century. They, I submit, may turn out to
be the most significant events of this, our century, and
its lasting legacy. In the developed free-market
countries—which contain less than a fifth of the earth's
population but are a model for the rest—work and work
force, society and polity, are all, in the last decade of this
century, qualitatively and quantitatively different not
only from what they were in the first years of this
century but also from what has existed at any time in
history: in their configurations, in their processes, in
their problems, and in their structures.
Peter F. Drucker
"The Age of Social Transformation,"
Atlantic Monthly
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Contents
Prefai xxd
Part I Background
1. The Nature of Systems 3
2. Types of Systems and Models 21
3. Types of Management 45
Part II Process: Planning, Design,
Implementation, and Learning
4. Formulating the Mess: Sensing and
Making Sense of the Situation 63
5. Ends Planning: Where to Go 81
6. Means Planning: How to Get There 107
7. Resource Planning: What's Needed
to Get There 131
8. Implementation and Control: Doing It
and Learning 157
Part III Designs: Democracy, Economy,
and Flexibility
9. A Democratic Hierarchy:
The Circular Organization 179
10. The Internal Market Economy 207
11. The Permanently Structured
Multidimensional Organization 225