Changing Organizations

Abstract

In every age there is a strain toward organizational forms which will encompass and exploit the technology of the time and express its spirit. It may be that the times in human history which we retrospectively identify as happy and renascent are those in which this tendency has been fulfilled and the organizational form appropriate to the genius of an era has been invented-or rediscovered. This paper identifies five "core tasks" which any human organization has to cope with and then goes on to describe some possibilities and adventures which may have to become realities if our organizations of the future are to catch up with the turbulent and uncertain demands of our technological society.