{"id":3214,"date":"2011-03-29T13:24:31","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T21:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=3214"},"modified":"2011-03-29T13:24:31","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T21:24:31","slug":"art-kleiner-on-the-organization-as-living-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/art-kleiner-on-the-organization-as-living-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Kleiner on the organization as living body"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new issue of Fieldnotes<\/a> is out from ALIA and within it, Art Kleiner muses about the metaphor of the body’s systems as a way of understanding information flow in organizations:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

– \u00a0 \u00a0 The hierarchy is a circulatory system for messages of authority; specifically, for anything that can be expressed as a number. It is the means by which the organization seeks scale. It flows from and to the top: the CEO and then the shareholders or owners. It might be analogous to muscle coordination.<\/p>\n

– \u00a0 \u00a0 The network conveys knowledge \u2013 in the form of gossip, guidance, information about opportunities, and anything else that people talk about easily. It is the means by which the organization develops its capabilities. It flows from and to a broad base of people throughout (and outside) the company. It might be analogous to neural networks.<\/p>\n

– \u00a0 \u00a0 The market is the exchange of goods, services, and money within an organization and its value chain. It is the means by which the organization manages its workflow. It transmits anything that can be bought, sold, or traded, flowing ultimately to the customer. It might be analogous to the cardiovascular system.<\/p>\n

– \u00a0 \u00a0 The clan is the family or community-like circulatory system, operating below the surface of every organization (and often subconsciously). It is the means by which a company’s culture is maintained, with a \u201ccore group\u201d\u009d of its most important people at the center. The organization establishes its view of legitimacy through the clan. It might be analogous to the endocrine system.<\/p>\n

via The Organization is Alive | ALIA Institute<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Art will be among the faculty at the ALIA Summer Institute this year<\/a>, where I’m also teaching again. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new issue of Fieldnotes is out from ALIA and within it, Art Kleiner muses about the metaphor of the body’s systems as a way of understanding information flow in organizations:   – \u00a0 \u00a0 The hierarchy is a circulatory system for messages of authority; specifically, for anything that can be expressed as a number. It is the means by which the organization seeks scale. It flows from and to the top: the CEO and then the shareholders or owners. It might be analogous to muscle coordination. – \u00a0 \u00a0 The network conveys knowledge \u2013 in the form of gossip, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[49,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bc","category-organization"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piBp1-PQ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3215,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214\/revisions\/3215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}