Impact of Molecularization on organizational behavior

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Impact of Molecularization on organizational
behavior

• Bangkok University
• Organizational Behavior
• Second Semester, 2002
• Molecularization on OB
• imichelet_at_prasena.com

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January 26, 2002

• Structure of todays lecture
• Are you sure your profiles/assignments are
  complete?
• What was last week all about?
• Are you comfortable with your case study? Some
  tips
• What is Molecularization?
• How does it impact your life?
• How does it impact an employees life?
• How does it impact a managers work?
• What should you look at in your case study?

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What is Molecularization?
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Definition

• This characteristic of the Cybernetic Revolution
  qualifies the tendency of any entity/activity/tech
  nology to adopt a molecular structure. Small,
  flexible, adaptable, expert units can function
  independently or gather temporarily depending on
  expected benefits.

Molecule (chemistry) smallest particle into
which a substance can be divided without chemical
change
Molecule (physics) particle constituted by a
group of atoms and forming a structure that
remains intact though changes of physical state
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Impact on Individuals
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Social Configurations Over Time
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Components of Todays Society

• Silent Generation (born 1930-1945)
• Born with the military technologies that were to
  lead to analog, digital and virtual technologies
• Baby-Boom Generation (born 1945-1960)
• Born with the analog and astronautic technologies
  
• Generation X (born 1960-1975)
• Born among analog technologies (telephone, TV),
  witnessed and participated in the development of
  digital technologies
• Generation Y (born 1975-1990)
• Born with the first generation of digital
  technologies, witnessed and participated in the
  development of networked technologies
• and soon, Generation e (born 1990-2005)
• Born in the midst of new technologies

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Generation
X

• Generation X (born 1960-1975)
• Term coined by Douglas Coupland (1990) inspired
  by a sociological book by Paul Fussel, to
  describe a category of people who wanted to hop
  off the merry-go-round of status, money, and
  social climbing that so often frames modern
  existence. Such people are described as
  underemployed, overeducated, intensely private
  and unpredictable.
• People born among analog technologies (telephone,
  TV). Witnessed and participated in development of
  digital technologies.
• Successors of Baby-Boomers, children of the
  Silent Generation. Grew up in recession times,
  inherited debt and aging population problems
• Characterized by individualism, resourcefulness,
  cynicism, selfishness, result-orientation, taste
  for experimentation, tendency to question
  authority, relatively high education, deep-seated
  economic insecurity, lack of social trust and
  confidence in government, weak allegiance to
  country and political parties, tendency to marry
  and have children late. Go-getters who are just
  doing it but their way (Time Magazine)

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Generation
Y

• Generation Y (born 1975-1990)
• People born among first generation of digital
  technologies. Witnessed and participated in
  development of networked technologies
• Successors of Generation X, children of
  Baby-Boomers. Grew up in economic expansion, end
  of cold war, blooming freedoms
• Characterized by high self-esteem and confidence,
  multi-tasking ability, capacity to process
  information very fast, urge to develop a career
  fast, tendency to expect to be given high
  responsibilities immediately, arrogance, upbeat
  character, individualism, impatience, boldness,
  tendency to overestimate themselves, tendency to
  expect employer to adapt to them, optimism

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Generation
e

• Millennial Generation, or Generation e (born
  gt1990)
• People born among new technologies
• Successors of Generation Y, children of
  Generation X. Grow up in crisis environment,
  uncertainty in the face of change
• Characterized by awareness of the world,
  environment-consciousness, high
  technology-literacy, urge to grow up fast,
  disrespect for elders and authority, lack of
  proper role models and references, self-confidence

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Don Tapscott says

• There is a tsunami approaching which few have
  noticed. This tidal wave results from the
  intersection of the technology revolution and a
  demographic revolution which I call the Net
  Generation.
• (Blueprint to the Digital Economy)

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Read in The Economist

• Why focus on these late teens and
  twenty-somethings? Because they are the first
  young who are both in a position to change the
  world, and are actually doing so. ... For the
  first time in history, children are more
  comfortable, knowledgeable and literate than
  their parents about an innovation central to
  society. ... The Internet has triggered the first
  industrial revolution in history to be led by the
  young.
• (December 2000)

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Are you Ready?

• What do you think of this comment from Robyn
  Davidson The most difficult thing is the
  decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. You
  can do anything you decide to do. You can act to
  change and control your life and the procedure,
  the process is its own reward?
• a. I believe in teamwork and consensual decisions
• b. I am a leader
• c. Let me ask my parents what they think about it
• d. I am not a born-leader, but I can decide for
  myself

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John Naisbitt says

• The bigger the world economy, the more powerful
  its smallest players."

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Lloyd Darlington says

• We are in a world where each customer rightly
  expects to be treated as a market segment of
  one.
• (Blueprint to the Digital Economy)

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Impact on Employees
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Impact of Molecularization on Organizations

• The industrial, command-and-control hierarchy and
  economy are giving way to molecular organizations
  and economic structures
• The new enterprise has a molecular structure
  based on the individual and adapts its offices
  accordingly
• The knowledge worker (human molecule) functions
  as a business unit of one
• Motivated, self-learning, entrepreneurial workers
• The customer (molecule as well) interacts with
  the organization and demands fulfillment of
  unique needs
• The new organization requires more free dynamic
  relationships among molecules, enabled by
  molecular technologies

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Organizations are Molecularized when

• The top management respects and delegates
  non-strategic decisions to its employees, its
  partners, its clients, and when the
  organization's ergostructure is molecular.
• Added value has the priority over economies of
  scale.
• The infostructure is a network of light expert
  systems, autonomous but integrated, flexible and
  open.
• The position is recognized as a business unit,
  the position-holder an empowered employee who can
  function autonomously within objectives and
  policy guidelines, and the supervisor an
  inspiring leader rather than a link in an
  authority-based chain of command.
• The products/services integrate both the
  advantages of mass production and those of
  customization.

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Examples of Questions to Ask
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Raymond J. Lane says

• At last count, there are already more than 100
  different devices that don't meet the traditional
  definition of a computer, but have the capability
  to access the Net. Today, these include
  Internet-enabled cellular phones,
  Internet-enabled television set-top boxes, games
  machines with built-in modems personal digital
  assistants and even LCD projectors with built-in
  connectivity. (Blueprint to the Digital Economy)

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John MacDonald says

• Businesses must pay attention to the changing
  buyer-seller relationship, as customers become
  increasingly empowered through enablers like
  software agents and persona management.
  (Blueprint to the Digital Economy)

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Dennis H. Jones says

• With integrated logistics, direct marketers can
  source products directly from manufacturers and
  route them directly to customers -perhaps via a
  distribution point that allows for custom
  assembly of products for individual customers.
  This is the basis for mass customization.
• (Blueprint to the Digital Economy)

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Smart Cars Molecularized Production

• Want a custom-made car? Click onto Smart Cars
  Home page on the Web Try out different
  configurations and colors, enter your data and
  your credit card number and within a couple of
  weeks the car is ready that you can pick it up at
  the closest Smart center.

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Employees as business units

• Who was the (business) superstar in Tom Peters
  best seller Thriving on Chaos?

NO!
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• It was Mr. Paolo Azuela, a housekeeper at the
  Ritz Carlton Hotel in San Francisco.

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• Mr. Azuela .. And the bellboy who picks up your
  bags.. And the doorman who hails you a cab are
  authorized, on the spot no signature from above
  to spend up to 2000 to fix any customer
  problem.

• There are many people with exalted titles who
  cannot spend 2000 without six signatures!

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Thomas Malone says

• The fundamental unit of the new economy is not
  the corporation but the individual. Tasks aren't
  assigned and controlled through a stable chain of
  management but rather are carried out
  autonomously by independent contractors. These
  electronically connected freelancers
  --e-lancers-- join together in fluid and
  temporary networks to produce and sell goods and
  services. When the job is done, the network
  dissolves and its members become independent
  agents again, circulating through the economy,
  seeking the next assignment.
• The Dawn of the E-lance Economy, Harvard
  Business Review

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Read in IHRIM Journal

• Human resource management (HRM) systems will
  begin to look more like customer relationship
  management (CRM) systemswhere we must know as
  much about our people (existing and future) as we
  do about our customers.
• (December 2000)

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Read in The Cluetrain Manifesto

• "Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy!"

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Steven R. Coley says

• An empowered organization is one in which
  individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire,
  and opportunity to personally succeed in a way
  that leads to collective organizational success.
  (Principle-centered Leadership)

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Joe J. Jones 1942 2001 HE WOULDA DONE
SOME REALLY COOL STUFF BUT HIS BOSS
WOULDNT LET HIM!
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Carol Twigg says

• According to forecasters, the average worker of
  the future will have six or seven different
  careers, each requiring new skills, attitudes,
  and values. (Blueprint to the Digital Economy)

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Impact on Managers
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Main Challenge for the Organization

• The organization as we know it is breaking up.
  Sources of power and authority are shifting along
  with the new social configurations

ltJessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps, Virtual
Teamsgt
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Paul Woolner says

• It is almost impossible for any one individual
  to be adept in all of the areas required for
  effective leadership. As a result, what becomes
  critical to successful leadership is a
  meta-characteristic to be a reflective
  practitioner. The reflective practitioner is a
  role model who demonstrates a number of
  characteristics, including continuous acquisition
  and renewal of knowledge flexibility of
  approaches the ability to incorporate complex
  and incomplete sets of information into decision
  making and a willingness to learn, to change,
  and to do things differently.
• (Blueprint to the Digital Economy)

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Risks of Conflicts -1

• Computers handle tasks, while human think,
  create, decide
• Time-sheets become irrelevant
• Presence in the office may be irrelevant
• Working hours monitoring may be irrelevant
• Many conflicts at work are due to managerial
  attempts to impose obsolete discipline on young
  knowledge workers

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Risks of Conflict -2

• Computers handle procedures and transactions,
  while human must interact, find and analyze
  information
• Long chats with somebody at the other end of the
  world (in chat-rooms or by telephone) are OK
• Huge amounts of e-mails require time to go
  through and respond
• Surfing Internet is work
• Many frustrations at work are due to managerial
  attempts to control and restrain interactions
  (e-mail watch-dogs, limits on Internet and
  telephone use, etc.)

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Risks of Conflict -3

• Computers as well as humans must learn, about
  everything
• The use of internal resources contributes to the
  development of the intellectual capital Experts
  dont do their juniors work, they train
• The use of external resources is essential But
  they are often best identified by the employees
  themselves
• E-Learning saves time
• Many problems at work are due to the managements
  lack of recognition of the importance of learning

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Risks of Conflicts -4

• What counts is RESULTS
• Individual / organization
• Quantitative / Qualitative
• Economic / social
• Many conflicts are work are due to the
  managements recognition of presence rather than
  results

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Impact on HR Management
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Tip!
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Wendy Priesnitz says

• "If our earth is to survive, we need to take
  responsibility for what we do. Taking control of
  our own education is the first step."
• (Quoting her daughter Heidi in Challenging
  Assumptions in Education)

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Case Study
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Study1

• Decision-making process
• a- Top management handles strategic, operational,
  tactical and routine decisions
• b- Routine decisions are delegated to middle
  management
• c- Routine decisions are delegated to empowered
  employees
• d- Tactical decisions are delegated to middle
  management
• e- Tactical and routine decisions are delegated
  to empowered employees
• f- Operational decisions are delegated to middle
  management
• g- Operational, tactical and routine decisions
  are delegated to empowered employees
• Infostructure configuration
• a-Traditional type (Mostly stand-alone set-up -
  Often less than 1 computer per employee)
• b-Network type (wherever they physically are,
  computers are part of the infostructure when
  connected)
• c-Individual type (computers, assigned to
  individuals, can be part of the infostructure
  when plugged in the office, or not)
• d-Landscape type (most computers are permanent
  parts of the infostructure, wired to fixed
  workstations)
• Autonomy of infostructure components
• a-Very little or not at all, it is a
  mainframe-based, monolithic, one-string type of
  structure
• b-Some components are autonomous, but the main
  part is a traditional one-string structure
• c-Most components are autonomous and independent,
  integration in networks is/would be difficult
• d-Very highly, all components are configurated to
  be usable autonomously or in different types of
  networks with highest flexibility

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Study2

• Customization of infostructure components
• a-Very little or not at all, you use mostly
  standard versions
• b-Some components are customized, others are
  standard
• c-Very highly, most components have been
  adapted/developed especially for your
  organization
• d-Very highly, most components (or at least their
  user's interface) are customized to the
  individual user's needs
• Compatibility of infostructure components
• a-Very little or not at all, most components are
  customized for a stand-alone use
• b-Some components are compatible, others are not
• c-Most components are compatible within the
  internal infostructure, but not externally
• d-Very highly, most components are compatible
  with each other and with external
  hardware/software/systems
• Re-usability of infostructure components
• a-Yes, it is a priority - all developments are
  programmed in reusable modules, data are
  separated from programming
• b-Sometimes, it depends on the type of
  programming you do
• c-Not really, most programming is done with one
  particular goal in mind, reusability is not a
  priority
• d-Your organization does not do (nor does it
  commission) any significant programming

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Study3

• Products customization
• a- None Customers cannot choose anything
• b- Minimal Customers choose within existing
  range (choice of size, color, etc.)
• c- Moderate Customers can select prepared
  options for a relatively unique end-result
• d- Optimal Customers help design a unique
  product for their unique needs
• Products Delivery
• a- Customers must go to distribution points
  (usually quite far)
• b- Customers must go to distribution points
  (usually close-by)
• c- Customers can get delivery at a place chosen
  by them
• d- Customers must go to suppliers place
• Office Structure
• a- Office is adapted to molecular work
• b- Office is not adapted to molecular work

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Study 4

• Select an answer for each of above questions, and
  justify this answer with examples and concrete
  observations
• Review the above presentation, try to apply to
  the case study and explain findings
• Review the textbook, find the topics that are
  affected by molecularization, and explain using
  the case study as concrete example
• Provide conclusions and recommendations what
  should your case study do to improve its
  molecularization level?