Which organizational structure has the highest chance of survival in a pandemic?
In a recent Harvard Business Review forethought (here - requires subscription or can be purchased separately), Prof. Nitin Nohria from the Harvard Business School asks which of the following organizational structures would have a higher likelihood of surviving a pandemic or other disaster:
organization 1:
- hierarchical
- centralized leadership
- tightly coupled
- concentrated workforce
- specialists
- policy and procedure driven
organization 2::
- networked
- distributed leadership
- loosely coupled
- dispersed workforce
- cross-trained generalists
- guided by simple yet flexible rules
Which company would you bet your money on?
It does not require an advanced degree to realize that there are some fundamental lessons to be learned from mother nature…
[Tags: crisis management self organization pandemic]
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