Adhocracy

by Robert H. Waterman Jr.

"It is, make no mistake, the best management answer for our chaotic times." ―Tom Peters Adhocracy : Any form of organization that cuts across normal bureaucratic lines to capture opportunities, solve problems, and get results.

In an era of accelerating change, organizations, and national economies, most likely to succeed are those with the ability to adjust and adapt. Robert H. Waterman Jr., coauthor of the best-selling In Search of Excellence , shows how and what this sort of innovation must become a way of life for business organizations across the board. What is needed is an environment that fosters the use of an ad-hoc problem-solving technique, in effect an "adhocracy" that functions outside the often initiative-stifling bureaucracy.

Drawing on twenty-five years' experience in management consulting, Waterman offers clear instructions on how to establish adhocracy and make it work: creating task forces and independent business units, even two people meeting in a hallway to solve a common problem. A lively and insightful work, this should become an essential handbook for managers at all levels who recognize the need to redefine the rules for success.

Genres: Management, Business

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

A non-fiction author and expert on business management practices. He is best known as the co-author, with Tom Peters, of In Search of Excellence

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ NOV 2012

Too many organizations "view the outcome of [their] work as recommendations, not results" (p. 79). Waterman suggests a results orientation is the solution for "first-rate people. excellent analysis. solid recommendations. [and] token implementation" (p. 81). While it may be tempting to view adhocracy as the antithesis to bureaucracy, Waterman encourages that these remain in healthy tension within organizations.

Best quote, "a manager who can launch a task force, keep it on track, and get results without uprooting sound bureaucratic infrastructure--that is a manager with a bright future" (p. 16).

[Rick · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's a reason this is out of print. But hey, it takes an hour to read, and read as a historical document it isn't terrible. If you ever wondered where task forces and kickoff meetings and phased consulting deliverables and discovery phases and whatnot came from, here you go. A culmination of a bunch of 80's management zeitgeist mixed with a smidge of Max Weber and Alvin Toffler (but not near enough). Long on examples from companies, some of whom are no longer existent. It's hard to imagine what this was received like at the time, but basically everyone these days knows all of this.