ABSTRACT
The information-processing capability of contemporary technology has the potential to massively centralise control, or it can guarantee the freedom. Having established the value-generating and value-enabling structure of the Intelligent Organisation it will be evident that within that structure to run the risk of either overconstraining the organisation or having it run riot. Power and control have a tendency to centralise in organisations of all types and ultimately that will have a deleterious effect on performance. Managing autonomy, in terms of the purpose for which the particular level exists, is constrained by belonging to the next higher level and constrains the one below it: Procedures are constrained by the required outputs of tasks, tasks constrain procedures and are constrained by the outputs and outcomes of processes, processes constrain tasks and are constrained by the required outputs of management, management constrains process and is constrained by its required contribution to senior management. Alignment of individual and organisational values will also require investment.
