A Pathbreaking Model for Building a New-and Far Better-World of Work. For more than a decade, business thinkers have theorized about how technology will change the shape of organizations. In this landmark book, renowned organizational theorist Thomas Malone, codirector of MIT's "Inventing the Organizations of the 21st Century" initiative, provides the first credible model for actually designing the company of the future.

Based on twenty years of groundbreaking research, The Future of Work foresees a workplace revolution that will dramatically change organizational structures and the roles employees play in them. Malone argues that current notions about decentralization merely scratch the surface of what will be possible as technological and economic forces make "command and control" management increasingly less useful.

In its place will be a more flexible "coordinate and cultivate" approach that will spawn new types of decentralized organizations-from internal markets to democracies to loose hierarchies. These future structures will reap the scale and knowledge efficiencies of large organizations while enabling the freedom, flexibility, and human values that drive smaller firms.

Exploring the skills managers will need in a workplace in which the power to decide belongs to everyone, this optimistic book shows how we can help create a world that is not just richer, but better.



Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

PART ONE: THE COMING REVOLUTION

Chapter 1. A Time to Choose

Chapter 2 An Amazing Pattern

Chapter 3 The Amazing Pattern in Business

PART TWO: HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN FIT AT THE CENTER OF AN ORGANIZATION?

Chapter 4 Loosening the Hierarchy

Chapter 5 Harnessing Democracy

Chapter 6 Unleashing Markets

Chapter 7 Bringing Markets Inside

Chapter 8 When Should You Decentralize?

PART THREE: FROM "COMMAND AND CONTROL" TO "COORDINATE AND CULTIVATE"

Chapter 9. Coordinating Activities

Chapter 10. Cultivating People

Chapter 11. Putting Human Values at the Center of Business

Conclusion

Appendix How Do Communication Costs Affect Centralization? A Simple Model



About the Author

Thomas W. Malone is the Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Founder and Director of the MIT Center for Coordination Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts.