As the size and complexity of a company change in the course of its evolution it experiences predictable stages of growth. During these stages, a company discovers that what worked in the past no longer works. At such times, managers have to juggle the three variables of organizational evolution--the firm's purpose, its business and management processes, and its human resource issues--and keep them in balance as they reinvent new ways of structuring the firm. Typically, tension develops as one variable is stressed at the expense of the others. Managers need to know how to delegate decision making without abdicating overall control of the organization. The model developed here derives from the authors' understanding of how successful firms have managed these tensions.Fletcher and Taplin deal with teamwork, leadership, and the nature of dynamic change while successfully avoiding the cliches to which many experts in those areas are prone. They discuss teamwork in the context of wider performance and process issues. They address leadership not by talking about personality traits but by examining the tensions within authority structures as senior managers attempt to reconcile organizational logics (history and past practices that have sustained the firm) and their own definition of the challenges that face the firm. The authors argue that such contradictions follow a predictable pattern. Managers can either ignore the underlying instability or confront it in ways that will ease the transition and sustain the organization's dynamic growth.

Examines the most commonly encountered stages of organizational evolution, identifies typical crisis points faced by growing companies, and suggests ways of managing these crisis points as the size and complexity of companies change.

PrefaceEvolution of the OrganizationThe Early PhasesThe Corridor of CrisisThe Transition to Teams and AlliancesMaturing Societies and NationsAn Issue of ControlHistorical Perspectives & TrendsThe Changing Perception of WorkA History of Teamwork - Driving EnvironmentFrom Compliance to Commitment: A Case StudyWhen Span of Control Becomes Span of CommunicationThe Functioning of Performance Management TodayEstablishing a Performance Management SystemThe Art of DelegationThe Art of Leadership -- The Human Side of EnterpriseMaking It HappenWhy Change Programs FailStrategies and Structures for the 21st CenturyAppendicesIndex