Moon shots for management (reinventing management to make it more relevant to a volatile business environment)

Citation

Hamel, G. (2009), "Moon shots for management (reinventing management to make it more relevant to a volatile business environment)", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 23 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo.2009.08123dad.003

Moon shots for management (reinventing management to make it more relevant to a volatile business environment)

Article Type: Abstracts From: Development and Learning in Organizations, Volume 23, Issue 4

Hamel G. Harvard Business Review, February 2009, Vol. 87 No. 2, Start page: 91, No. of pages: 8

Purpose – To set out a practical guide for the further development of management techniques. Design/methodology/approach – The relatively mature state of the science of management is discussed in terms of the need for future development through the addressing of new goals designed to motivate a search for new ways of mobilizing and organizing human capabilities. Sets out the basic elements for any search for progressive management techniques that include: ensuring that the work of management serves a higher purpose; fully embedding the ideas of community and citizenship in management systems; reconstructing management’s philosophical foundations; eliminating the pathologies of formal hierarchies; reducing fear and increasing trust; reinventing the means of control; redefining the work of leadership; and expanding and exploiting diversity. Findings – These elements also include: reinventing strategy making as an emergent process; de-structuring and disaggregating the organization; dramatically reducing the “pull of the past”; sharing the work of setting direction; developing holistic performance measures; stretching executive time frames and perspectives; creating a democracy of information; empowering the renegades and disarming the reactionaries; expanding the scope of employee autonomy; creating internal markets for ideas, talent, and resources; depoliticizing decision making; optimizing trade-offs more effectively; further unleashing human imagination; enabling “communities of passion”; retooling management for an open world; humanizing the language and practice of business; and retraining managerial minds. Concludes that, unless management innovators tackle these issues, companies will not be able to cope with the future volatile world. Originality/value – Argues that so-called “modern” management techniques actually date back many years and there is a pressing need for management to rediscover itself .ISSN: 0017-8012 Reference: 38AF265

Keywords: Business development, Business environment, Management philosophy, Management techniques, Organizations