Collaborative Organization
29 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
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A collaborative organization is one that has the following characteristics:
- The values and objectives of employees and management are aligned.
- A climate of mutual trust and respect exists.
- The knowledge of all the staff, customers and suppliers is shared and pooled to optimize the organization’s operations and opportunities.
- Decision making is more decentralized than it is in most current organizations and more stakeholders in the organization play a role in defining the direction in which the organization moves, and
- Hierarchical structures are kept to a minimum. The company is managed democratically by consensus rather than by command and control. (By consensus does not mean that every member of the organization is in agreement with every decision, but it does mean that all members of the community are heard and their views are taken into account by those responsible in the organization for making decisions.)
Collaboration has far-reaching implications for the enterprise-wide culture of an organization. Collaboration, as contrasted to the more circumscribed concept of teamwork, cuts across organizations, divisions, departments and working groups. It also involves more than just cooperation; it requires the ability and willingness to creatively share ideas and knowledge and to create new knowledge with others. And this is the crux of the problem, because it is hard for individuals to do this when they still believe that “knowledge is power” and they hoard their knowledge.
My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.
