Managing Large Systems examines a range of human, organizational, and managerial challenges associated with large systems. Special attention is given to the behavioral relationships among scientists and engineers, business and technical managers, sponsor organizations and their contractors, business and government officials, and line and functional managers. The descriptions of problems of technical organization and performance motivation are based primarily on an extended field study of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Managing Large Systems includes a description of the unique management system developed by NASA under the leadership of James Webb that many believe was responsible for their extraordinary technological achievements that culminated in the first moon landing. Parallels are drawn to other large-scale technology programs in aerospace and atomic energy. The authors find traditional managerial principles regarding controls, incentive systems, and planning to be inadequate in the context of large systems. They look to organizational clusters to manage future projects in advanced technological areas and in public sectors such as urban development, massive medical programs, and ecological improvements.
The new wave of organizational innovations involves new types of arrangements between individuals and corporations. It is likely to continue to produce new organizational forms, spanning the entire range of combinations of markets and hierarchies and involving complex, sometimes protracted negotiation processes between individuals and corporate entities. Such negotiation processes, we believe, will be an increasingly pervasive aspect of corporate life and an important mechanism for facilitating the new integration of individualism and big business through corporate entrepreneurship.
Managing Large Systems examines a range of human, organizational, and managerial challenges associated with large systems. Special attention is given to the behavioral relationships among scientists and engineers, business and technical managers, sponsor organizations and their contractors, business and government officials, and line and functional managers.The descriptions of problems of technical organization and performance motivation are based primarily on an extended field study of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Managing Large Systems includes a description of the unique management system developed by NASA under the leadership of James Webb that many believe was responsible for their extraordinary technological achievements that culminated in the first moon landing. Parallels are drawn to other large-scale technology programs in aerospace and atomic energy.The authors find traditional managerial principles regarding controls, incentive systems, and planning to be inadequate in the context of large systems. They look to organizational clusters to manage future projects in advanced technological areas and in public sectors such as urban development, massive medical programs, and ecological improvements.
Managing in a multicultural setting can be very challenging. Culture strongly influences how people behave and how they understand the behavior of others, and cultures vary in the behaviors they find proper and acceptable. This report--which integrates work done by experts in the fields of anthropology, cross-cultural psychology, and international business management with CCL's perspective on how executives learn from experience--describes the cultural values, often unconsciously held, that underlie work in the U.S. and provides managers in the U.S. with a structured way of learning about the value preferences of people from other cultures. Examples drawn from workplaces around the world aid in applying the framework.
The goal: To be a leader who has an agenda, knows the system inside out, is comfortable with fluidity, and recognizes that the parts do not always fit into an integrated whole. Schooled to oversee fixed, almost unvarying routines, managers today are unprepared to manage the conflicts in modern work flow relationships. Sayles shows with vivid case studies how middle managers with an in-depth understanding of the organization can resolve the inherent contradictions and ambiguities among design, sales, and manufacturing.
This report is a personal account of insights yielded by a conference hosted in 1994 by the Center for Creative Leadership, "New Demands for Leadership: Responding to Turbulence." It explores ideas expressed by participants--behavioral science researchers, leadership trainers, corporate executives, and consultants--who attempted to clarify the critical new challenges executives are facing, identify skills and perspectives they need to meet these challenges successfully, and determine the implications for the selection and development of these new skills and perspectives. The framework for the report is the eight themes used to organize conference activities: teamwork and organizational stewardship among senior managers; leading beyond the organization's boundaries; rethinking the boss-subordinate, employer-employee relationship; senior executives as exemplars of values; operating excellence--making technology contribute; maintaining strategic focus to grow the business; senior managers who continue to learn; and the impact of U.S. culture on management. For each theme, personal impressions on the topic are given, based on preconference interviews and conference discussions. These are augmented with examples drawn from personal experience and reading. The book concludes with a selection of comments by executives in interviews and during the conference that illustrate the evolution in management thinking that has taken place since the demise of the "comfort years." Contains 35 references. (YLB)
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