| The age of change in organizational thinking - | | | | doesn't take hold and yield quick results, they move on |
| sometimes called New Age management theory - is | | | | to another idea. Some leaders are specifically chosen |
| occurring in part because of the influence of the baby | | | | because they appear to have an ichy finger poised |
| boomer generation. The previous generations | | | | atop the change button. |
| flourished in the mass-production economy that grew | | | | Education: Business schools taught only one approach |
| steadily from the 1920s through the 1960s. It is no | | | | to business in the first half of the century; today there |
| Oedipal coincidence that the next generation has done | | | | is zero "conventional wisdom," even in the most |
| everything it could to trash the success of the | | | | hidebound academy. Years ago there was no |
| generation preceding it. | | | | "management theory" section in bookstores; today |
| Organizations in the 1990s and 2000s are picking up | | | | there is an avalanche of offerings. I even recently |
| and trying on new initiatives like a teenager in front of | | | | noticed a "new age management" section of the local |
| a mirror, uncertain of much, only sure that it does not | | | | bookstore. |
| want to be like its mom and dad. The New Age must | | | | Experience: People today travel more, read more, |
| be better; it is, after all, new. But you cannot discuss | | | | pursue continuing education, change jobs more |
| change in our time without addressing the enormous | | | | frequently, encounter greater diversity, work across |
| demographic and psychographic blip of our time, and | | | | functional lines, and interact with people from other |
| why they (we) can't help trying out every new thing | | | | countries, cultures, and industries. |
| that comes along - and are unable to make many of | | | | Diversity, cross-functionality, and "dress-down Fridays" |
| them stick. | | | | (currently under reconsideration in many companies) all |
| Some of the factors behind the fads: | | | | have their roots in the rebellious mod of the '60s that |
| Globalization: Where the older generation made and | | | | railed against conformity, squares, button-down collars, |
| sold to a single American market, baby boomers | | | | and gray flannel suits. "The leader as servant" idea |
| make and sell to (and compete against) the whole | | | | owes more to the I Ching and Che Guevara than to |
| world. | | | | Iwo Jima and Dale Carnegie. |
| Technology: Baby boomers possess much more | | | | Truth be told, though, conventional wisdom of the |
| intimate information processing technologies, and are | | | | industrial age is no less wise in the age of change. |
| thus prone to greater decentralization and | | | | Organizations are remarkably like machines, no matter |
| individualization. Can you say Blackberry? Can't be | | | | how we "humanize" them. Bureaucracies remain |
| caught dead without your new iPhone? | | | | efficient ways to organize complex systems. |
| Speed: Baby boomers are impatient because | | | | In-the-box is still the place where most of us dwell, and |
| technology has given them that luxury. Previous | | | | think, and are happiest. A wise generation would take |
| planned changes, like the moon landing, took years; this | | | | pains, in tossing out the bathwater from the previous |
| generation does not feel it can wait that long. If an idea | | | | generation, to conduct routine baby checks. |