HENLEY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION – MALTA
NEWSLETTER – 29 May 2010
Issue No: 224
A fortnightly newsletter to keep Henley Alumni Association – Malta (HAAM)
members informed with latest management practices and with news and activities of
HAAM.
The contents of this edition are:
Introduction
Management Concepts
Shamrock Organization
Leading Management Thinkers
Herbert Simon
Members Section
News from Henley Business School
News from HAAM
Sunday Walk in Gozo - 16th May
Next Acitivity AGM – 7th July
Introduction
This e-Newsletter is designed as a Web page so as to facilitate navigating through
its pages. Using Word for Microsoft 97 or later versions, you should be able to
browse through this document by clicking on the underlined links. These will take
you to the relevant sections of this newsletter and also to Internet resources. To
achieve the latter you would have to be connected to the Internet.
Your feedback and contribution (for example sending relevant research papers,
Internet sites of interest to Alumni) would be appreciated. E-mail your feedback or
request for further information to the following address:
[email protected]
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Management Concepts
This section contains an article on some essential business idea/s. Remind yourself
and get to grips with key management concepts in a language that's easy to
understand.
Shamrock Organization
The organizational structure most appropriate for the future has been widely
discussed in recent years. Irish academic and management guru Charles Handy has
been one of the most considered participants in this debate. He anticipated that
certain models of organization would become dominant. These were the types of
organization most readily associated with service industries.
First, and most famously, was Handy’s shamrock organization. The concept
describes a type of organizational structure with three parts, or leaves: “A form of
organization based around a core of essential executives and workers supported by
outside contractors and part-time help.” The consequence of such an organizational
form was that companies in the future were likely to resemble consultancy firms,
advertising agencies, and professional partnerships in their structure.
This model, or variations of it, is often used to explain the move to outsourcing noncore functions. In Handy’s analogy, the first leaf of the shamrock represents the core
staff of the organization. These people are likely to be highly trained professionals
who make up the senior management. The second leaf consists of the contractual
fringe—either individuals or other organizations—and may include people who once
worked for the organization but now provide it with services. These individuals
operate within the broad framework set down by the core but have a high level of
discretionary decision-making power to complete projects or deliver contacts. The
third leaf includes the flexible labor force. More than simply hired hands, in Handy’s
model, these workers have to be sufficiently close to the organization to feel a sense
of commitment that ensures that their work—although part-time or intermittent—is
carried out to a high standard.
The second emergent structure identified by Handy was the “federal organization,”
which is not, he emphasized, a synonym for decentralization. He provided a blueprint
for federal organizations in which the organizational center coordinates, influences,
advises, and suggests. It does not dictate terms or make short-term decisions. The
center is, however, concerned with long-term strategy. It is “at the middle of things
and is not a polite word for the top or even for head office.”
The third type of organization Handy anticipated is what he called “the triple I”—
information, intelligence, and ideas. In such organizations, the demands on
personnel management are large. Handy explained, “The wise organization already
knows that its smart people are not to be easily defined as workers or as managers
but as individuals, as specialists, as professional or executives, or as leaders (the
older terms of manager and worker are dropping out of use), and that they and it
need also to be obsessed with the pursuit of learning if they are going to keep up
with the pace of change.”
More recently, Handy has suggested that successful organizations of the future will
be what he calls “membership communities.” His logic is that in order to hold people
to organizations that can no longer promise them jobs for life, companies have to
offer some other form of continuity and sense of belonging. To do this, he suggests,
companies have to imbue members with certain rights.
Under Handy’s membership community model, the center is kept small and its
primary purpose is to be “in charge of the future.” Only if the organization is severely
threatened does decision-making power revert to the center. This allows a company
to react quickly in a crisis. The rest of the time, decision-making is highly
decentralized.
Key Reading
Charles Handy. The Age of Unreason. Business Books, 1989
Charles Handy. The Hungry Spirit. Random House, 1997
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Leading Management Thinkers
This page gives a short profile and backgrounder on the leading management
thinkers, past and present
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Herbert Simon
Herbert Simon (1916-2001) was a cognitive scientist and economist who won the
Nobel prize for economics in 1978. In a management context, he is known
particularly for his work on problem solving and decision making. ‘The secret of
problem solving is that there is no secret. It is accomplished through complex
structures of familiar simple elements,’ he says. ‘Intuition is not a process that
operates independently of analysis. It is a fallacy to contrast “analytic” and “intuitive”
styles of management. Intuition and judgment – at least good judgment – are simply
analyses frozen into habit and into the capacity for rapid response through
recognition.’ While it is difficult to see intuition and judgment as ‘analysis frozen into
habit’ Simon’s point that problem-solving methods co-exist is accurate. His books
include Administrative Behavior (fourth edition, 1997), Human Problem Solving (with
A Newell, 1972) and The New Science of Management Decision (1977). Simon
taught for many years at Carnegie-Mellon University where he was Professor of
Computer Science and Psychology.
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MEMBERS SECTION
This page is dedicated to the contribution of our members. Members are invited to contribute to this
page by submitting e.g. their own profiles, research studies, job opportunities, product/service
advertisements, etc. All contributions must be in Word 97 format and not greater than 200K Bytes so
as to facilitate distribution through this Newsletter.
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News from Henley Business School
The latest Henley newsletter – AlumniNews, has just been published and is being
distributed by post to all our alumni without an email address. An electronic version
of this publication can be found on http://www.henley.com/alumni/publications/. If you
would prefer a printed copy, I would be more than happy to post one to you - please
just email me a valid postal address.
This alumni publication brings you the latest news from Henley Business School and
updates on forthcoming events.
Bookings for our annual Members’ Day event on Sunday 4th July are now being
taken. Please visit our website for more details and to book.
www.henley.com/alumni/membersday2010
I hope you enjoy reading our alumni publication and I look forward to hopefully
seeing you on Members’ Day. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any
further help.
Irina Woodford
Alumni Services Co-ordinator
[email protected]
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NEWS FROM HAAM
Latest news, appointments, events can be found in this page.
---------------------------------Sunday Walk
Gozo 16th May 2010
Below is a sample of photos taken during the last networking event organised by
HAAM in Gozo. This was attended by 15 members and their partners who enjoyed
the Walk and lunch whilst catching up with each others happenings in their lives.
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Next event will be the Annual General Meeting of HAAM.
This is being planned for 7th July 2010 at The Palace, Sliema. AGM notices will be
issued in the near future. If interested to form part of the new committee to be
elected, please contact the undersigned.
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Your comments are appreciated – e-mail them to: [email protected]
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