An article by Beverley Head titled 'Go with the Flow' and published on pages 34-36 of the November 2007 AFR Boss magazine discusses how knowledge within organisations is far more easily shared, so leading to a wider spread of power across and through these organisations.
The article quotes Jon Husband's definition of wirearchy: "a dynamic two-way flow of power and authority based on knowedge, trust and credibility, which is enabled by interconnected people and technology". An organisation's staff, suppliers and clients, now "easily connected by the internet", can "freely share information and opinions using a variety of tools from simple email to blogs or wikis."
Maybe there's nothing really new about this, given that organisations have long had both an official framework, usually an heirarchy, and an unofficial network of the "hubs, gatekeepers and enablers" who actually get things done. New tools just make it quicker and enable more people to have a say.
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... not to mention much more visible all around, where is "what's different" comes in.
Much of why existed before was highly controlled by the hierarchy, policies and procedures and the flow of information along the official lines of the org chart's reporting relationships (notwithstanding the existence of the informal network, as you note).
But the problems and constraints of silos and the lack of communications across org chart "barriers" and so on are legend, and it is this that is beginning to change, and may change a lot more over the next decade or two.
Most organizational hierarchies are built on the principle that "knowledge is power" and that knowledge is arranged (and put to use) vertically .. this too I think is changing a lot, and will change quite a bit more.
Jon Husband
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