Interorganizational Network Lens

Networks are the structure of tomorrow. Schools, businesses, and non-profits need to be thinking about ways to make their organization “network-reflective”. How work gets done, how decisions are made, how we recruit, how we compete…these are all more effective in a network model that traditional top-down command/control. Robert Cross expresses this view: “In an era of globalization, proliferating technology, and the specialization of knowledge-based work, accomplishments of any substance require more than streamlined processes; they require people to work together in ways that aren’t fully captured on formal organizational charts or standardized processes and procedures. Important outcomes - revenues, patent approvals, cycle time reduction, client retention - are associated with certain network characteristics.”