The new culture shock: the manager in the evolving information society

Summary form only given. It is contended that managers, fully immersed in their immediate tasks and deadlines, may only belatedly recognize the profound changes triggered by the world around them. The corporation will have a smaller core, more flexible arrangements with associate contractors and venture activities around the globe, and adaptability to rapid change. Mosaic structures are relapsing multilevel hierarchies. Customization of products (demassification) will coexist with TV-induced global conformity. Information overload and illusory simplification will constitute growing dilemmas. Artificial intelligence and neural networks will be of help, but will also foster an unreal world that can entrap the manager. It is pointed out that one is seeing evidence of the new management thinking: the development of high-reliability or crisis-prepared organizations and the purposeful questioning of dangerously obsolete assumptions embedded in the old corporate culture. More is more can no longer be taken for granted, and traditional probability concepts can no longer be used for the engineering of systems whose failure can have catastrophic consequences