The future of the business organization has been analyzed by a number of theorists in recent years as they look to the beginning of a new century and a new millennium. Many find that the organization of the future will involve less bureaucracy and more small-scale community based structures, and they find evidence of this in companies that today are developing smaller-scale structures and work units with a higher degree of autonomy than would be expected in a hierarchical organization. Developing this new structure will involve shifts not only in structure but in ways of thinking about problems, opportunities, and strategies. An examination of some of the issues will lead to a consideration of what must be done to create this organization of the future.
In the past, the American business system has been hierarchical, conflictual, reactive, and has come more and more to rely on short-term planning and thinking. However, there are many who believe that the American system is shifting in response to changes in the business environment, changes leading to a more information-based approach that will of necessity be a more cooperative approach as well. Peter Drucker (1988) is one analyst who has been looking to the future of the business organization in American society, the form it will take, and the ways in which it will differ from the organization of today. Drucker sees a vision of the large business of the future as resulting from a down-sizing from the current system in terms of management size. Drucker states that the model for the business of the future in the non-profit organization of today, such as the hospital, the university, or the symphony: "For like them, the typical business will be knowledge-based, an organization composed largely of specialists who direct and discipline their own performance through organized feedback from colleagues, customers, and headquarters" (Drucker, 1988, 45). The organization of the fu...