Abstract
With dramatic changes in the way we do business, source information and communicate, it is hardly surprising that a management author would write about a new way of organising. However, when we read this book, we discover that many of the ideas are not new, many have been around since the 1970s and they are simply being repackaged to present a ‘new’ model of organisation. From my perspective as an academic, I dislike books that are prescriptive, lacking in critical analysis and thin on empirical support. If you are of such a mind, this book probably isn’t for you. The book’s subtitle also I feel misleads; there is little on organisation development, though leadership is more prominent. Again, the style is that of advocacy rather than rigorous evaluation, and this is signified by the absence of peer-reviewed articles in support of the author’s position. However, if you enjoy reading books that are thin on theory big on ideas, then perhaps this book is for you. The style of writing is easiful, repetitious to a degree and organised into a coherent set of chapters. It is illustrated principally by one case study, and here again lies the problem. The author attempts to get around this US, Western-focused, philosophy by latterly discussing the importance of culture, but it rather lacks conviction. I will now turn to the content of the book, which is structured in three parts.
Part 1 comprises three chapters which attempt to lay the foundations for the book. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the history of leadership and organisational structures. It is perhaps a little superficial, lacking in detail or examples. It may be that summarising over 100 years of leadership theory and research is impossible, but those looking for their favourite theory might wonder what criteria were used in the selection of some theories and the omission of others.
Chapter 2 comprises an introduction to leadership in an open organisation system. There is an absence of diagrams or figures; this might have helped with elucidation. The author also references his own unpublished work. Other references include books and online sources rather than refereed journal articles. Another problem concerns; how well tested is this theory? Many statements are prescriptive. An open system (e.g. Wikipedia) is compared with a closed system; the latter apparently stifles creativity and intellect (p. 21). What would be interesting is to examine how this open system would work with scientific invention and innovation, but unfortunately, there is no exposition of such a case either in this chapter or elsewhere in the book.
Chapter 3 presents a case study of ‘GitHub’, an example of an open organisation. There is no discussion of how the author gleaned his information about this company, although there is reference to Wikipedia – not the usual academic source. There is also reference made to a number of online articles, and so it would appear that only secondary sources were used. However, in later chapters, the word ‘observed’ is used which suggests some presence in the company. If this was the case, who in the company was interviewed? The rosy picture that is painted of GitHub reads like company propaganda rather than a dispassionate, critical appraisal and appears to be an account from one perspective only, which happens to chime with the author’s. On pages 34–35, the author claims that ‘what we have found is that Open Organisations flourish when people are permitted to work on certain things, not because they are told to but because they want to’. Clearly more detail is required here in respect of the choices made and the features of the management style which work; we’re told in such general terms that the prescription is a banality that can mean different things to different people. In fairness, in Chapter 8, we are given more detail, but would readers want to wait until then or would they have already put the book aside? The text continues in this loose uninformed and uninforming way under the next heading of ‘communication’: For example, on page 35, the author states, ‘In observing the process of conversations at GitHub, it becomes clear that the participants are more interested in the conversation than the actual result of the conversation’. Most managers might wonder at this; is it really being promoted as a ‘good thing’? Furthermore, ‘eventually you’ve got four developers hacking on something at 11.30 pm because they want to see it happen so badly’ (p. 36). (‘Hacking’ is the term used for ‘working on something that interests the participants’.) But is this a good thing, managerially? Does it promote equality of opportunity or serve the interests of young singletons with no family responsibilities? And can they keep it up? Moreover, what happens if the really important problems that the company needs to solve are being overlooked? Unless there is a critical appraisal of these techniques over a sustained period, we cannot be confident that they work.
Part II commences with Chapter 4, ‘The Open Ecosystem’, in which we are told that the ecosystem of an open organisation is a framework of agility and empowerment, which promotes a culture of adaptability, happiness and innovation. The open system being advocated has both structure and complexity; it is sufficiently flexible to respond to environmental challenges and that this flexibility allows it to compete in complex evolving environments (pp. 41–42). However, it seems that this system works in organisations dealing in knowledge and the workforce are described as knowledge workers, where ‘human capital is highly skilled and educated and they seek opportunities to put their knowledge to work in creative and interesting ways’ (p. 42). This open organisation of knowledge workers operates differently to the traditional bureaucratic organisation. It is not layered with competing fiefdoms apparently, which causes staff to lose sight of what is important. Rather, it is a decentralised system in which there is no clear leader. Centralised systems ‘have been the norm simply because of our tribe mentality that emotionally connects them through a common leader and/or idea’ (p. 44). But if that is the case, how do we recondition people to dispense with their genetically programmed tribal mentality? It would be good to know, with hard evidence to support the contention.
The author advocates collaboration as the way forward, believing in employees – that they will always want to do their best, and empowering them to do so. Structural changes should include ‘affinity networks’ (relationship-oriented groups), permeability to prevent the silo-mentality, flat organisation structure (3 layers at most) and a grid-like matrix structure to facilitate sideways movement of workers to come together to perform tasks and get the work done. Of course, none of these ideas are new, so why haven’t we had more of this type of open organisation? Again some hard-nosed evaluation would be useful.
The remainder of this chapter elaborates but essentially repeats what has gone before. Some of these notions are difficult to argue with because they are so ‘motherhood and apple-pie’, for example, the importance of language in creating better understanding, and generating greater happiness to fully engage employees at several levels. Of course, we can all say thumbs up to that but we need to understand the practice of creating conditions that promote such idyllic states not simply a theoretical prescription. In fairness (p. 54) there is an attempt to suggest a set of management practices that would enable consensus and effective collaborative working. This helps, but what could go wrong? We learn better when things don’t work as expected. On page 56, we learn something about conflict resolution, when an individual ‘abuses their freedom, underperforms, or is constantly at odds with their colleagues’!
For a new organisation, a start up perhaps, the entrepreneur would have a clean slate on which to develop the first principles, philosophy and structure of the new organisation. Hence, many of the ideas in this book, while seemingly untested, could be drawn upon and instigated. Chapter 5 offers plenty of examples of ‘first principles’, which are universal, able to be articulated in a couple of sentences; self-evident, and which can be concisely labelled. Again this section is prescriptive and low on critical evaluation. The author’s position appears to be that if it works for a successful company like Apple, then it will work for your company. All this occurs within a system of governance constituting a code of conduct that facilitates the aims of open organisation, for example, appropriate levels of independence in decision-making, allow pluralism of traditions and interests, include a system of representation of all organisation members, provide rules by which decision-making can be effectively decentralised and define the level of autonomous participation available to members. In ‘a governance model’ (pp. 72–74), there are practical steps offered to help the nascent entrepreneur. But what if your organisation is established? Will this work? Again it is the lack of identification of the tricky issues where this book falls down.
The book continues in this vein with two further short chapters – on ‘communication’ and ‘knowledge commons’. Clearly to work, good and effective communication is fundamental to any organisation and is particularly so in this model of open organisation. It includes a feature known as ‘peer review’ which purportedly increases connectedness and accountability in horizontal teams. ‘Knowledge commons’ is defined as knowledge shared and is accessible by the group. This book is primarily aimed at knowledge organisations and knowledge workers, so it is perhaps unsurprising that ‘knowledge commons’ includes a ‘knowledge system’ which ‘fosters an environment where people take responsibility for cross-boundary communication and cooperation’ (p. 91) – although open organisations do not have boundaries! The language is that of the virtual organisation and virtual team, using cloud technologies in order to share information. There are some risks identified: security, network congestion and productivity. We would like to hear more in these respects.
As expressed in Chapter 8, leadership is the nub of what may become an effective open organisation – the key features being the ability of the leader to empower employees and set the direction of the organisation (p. 98). Leaders need to manage two types of employee: the rainmaker (ideas person) and the implementer who makes things happen. Getting the balance is clearly important. But argues Foster, the leader must also trust employees and not micromanage them as would be the case in a traditional hierarchical organisation. This has implications for the type of people employed: who should be problem-solvers and decision-makers. To increase effectiveness, the leadership should ‘throw out the organisation chart’ and focus on the drivers of success not structure (p. 100). Other characteristics of these leaders are that they are inspirational and catalysts of change (again not new ideas). They should have personal confidence, intellectual humility and open-mindedness, and they should have the ability to engage people.
Also fundamental to an open organisation is transparency which allows ‘everyone to embrace the reality of each circumstance before them’. Thus, transparency and explicit communication help members get behind the push to solve problems. This system places responsibility on the shoulders of all and creates conditions of accountability where each knows that he or she is being judged by others. Hence, the importance of peer pressure. And Foster suggests it is possible to use metrics to measure success and to reward success.
The next section looks forward with three chapters considering what might be. Chapter 9 discusses the importance of cultural literacy for open, global organisations. Then, Chapters 10 and 11 become rather speculative – ‘embracing Open in the New Millennia’ and seeking to address the question ‘should you go open?’ They are the kinds of chapters where someone at least half convinced by the aforegoing arguments of the book would want to read on. However, the more discerning reader might demand more: a more critical evaluation with hard data rigorously conceived and collected in support of the various dimensions of the model of open organisation that the author seeks to promote. Would I buy this book? Personally no, but I can see that it might appeal to MBA students and practitioners seeking ideas for how to shape their newly launched business venture.