| The "Virtual
Management" Paradigm |
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A virtually managed company is one where the focus of management is on
processes as opposed to people. Management's role is to create the processes
of the organization, to set the mission, strategy, and goals of the organization,
to acquire the appropriate resources (both capital and human resources)
for the manifestation of the planned processes. |
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The organization will no longer be thought of in terms of the bricks and
mortar and employees of the organization, but rather will be thought of
as a network of interlocking processes that are together creating and consuming
things of value. |
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A modern organization as described by Bill Davidow in his book, The
Virtual Corporation, consists of a complex network of interlocking
components. In addition to the core organization there are suppliers, customers,
and the various joint venture partners that are all working together to
create economic benefits. |
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Consumption and production are both critical components of the economic
creation process. Customers, both internal and external, are given high
visibility and priority. |
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The processes that have been created and put in place by management are
then managed by the participants of the processes including the process
leaders. In a sense everyone is involved in management because everyone
is involved in processes and thus in management of those processes. In
another sense very few people are involved in management because the processes
can be thought of as self-managing. |
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The concept of span of control, for example, no longer applies. A manager
does not think of him or herself as managing people, but rather as managing
some process. High level management's job is not to manage specific processes,
but rather to create processes and to cause processes to be improved. |
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There is no longer a corporate pyramid. The number of levels of management
from the CEO to the shop floor may only be three or four levels deep. Indeed,
the pyramid is an inappropriate model of management. |
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Management is now distributed throughout the entire organization and encompasses
not only the core company, but also the larger "virtual" company including
suppliers, customers, and joint venture partners. |
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This is clearly a new paradigm. The rules of the game in this type of management
system are very, very different than the traditional management system.
This paper will describe a model for achieving a "Virtual Management" System. |
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