ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out the essential argument for a radical new systemic model of organisation based on the synthesis of skills and behaviours with processes through the use of information. Beginning with an exploration of how a long-term focus on technological innovation in isolation from structural change has left organisations stuck in machine-age thinking, unable to exploit the power of the information and technology available, the chapter goes on to demonstrate the inability to realise value from technology investment stating that value can only be realised from information itself. The chapter concludes by providing an overview of the core ideas of managerial cybernetics underpinning the notion of intelligent organisation; a self-regulating, adaptive, learning system with highly distributed control, balancing the creation of its future with the management of its present and resolving the tension between the two through shared purpose and identity. On completion the reader will understand why a new model of organisation is required and its underpinning principles.
