Management Imperatives for the Year 2000
Traditional management styles and organizational structures must change radically if business is to face successfully the competitive challenges of the next century. Ways must be found to unlock the creative potential which is manifest at the middle and lower levels of our present bureaucratic organizations. Progressive companies, often in joint cooperation with unions, are already pointing the way to the future by encouraging broader involvement in decisions once throught to be vested only among those at the higher levels. Technology can be a driving force for change. The requirement that large numbers of employees be clustered in offices and factories will no longer be appropriate when one projects the implications of the microprocessor revolution. Much of what we know of as "work" can be performed in the home or in remote locations, thus resulting in decentralized organizational structures and a change in the nature of work in community life and in society as a whole.
Corporate performance management system in a devolved UK governmental organisation
This paper is a case study exploring the design of a new corporate performance management (CPM) system for a UK government agency. The UK Environment Agency employs 11,000 staff in more than 40 discrete management units (comprising hierarchical, geographic and functional divisions). It is pursuing a strongly devolved approach to the development of strategic and operational plans. This paper describes work done by the agency to introduce a novel corporate management system based on best practice third‐generation balanced scorecard processes. The case describes how this system was deployed at the corporate level and then within directorate, regional and area level units. The work in total involved the design and implementation of 44 balanced scorecards across the organisation. Within this framework, the new CPM system was positioned as the key mechanism of control for the entire organisation. The CPM is, however, taking different forms across the organisation, reflecting the differences in balance between management and strategic control priorities faced by different management groups. This paper explores the reasons the agency undertook the redesign of the CPM system, and looks at the design approach used to develop a system of control compatible with the needs of the organisation's devolved business units. The paper reports that the experience to date has been positive, and concludes with recommendations on future areas of research and ways to approach the issue of measure selection and use within complex devolved organisations.
Cutting costs without layoffs through union-management collaboration
A multinational equipment firm enhanced its competitiveness without labor cutbacks through an unusual union-management project.